Non-toxic Daniel Waite Penny

This week we have a special Earth Day bonus episode. The intrepid producer of our show, Andrew Lewis, is reporting from the Society for Environmental Journalists. Andrew gives us an update on Money Island, the community at the center of his first book, who refused to sell their land to a New Jersey flood program.

He also shares so very interesting polling data for the 2024 election that came out during SEJ. Apparently there are hundreds of thousands of self-declared evironmentalists who have never voted, and perhaps as many young conservatives who say climate change is one of their main priorities. Will climate voters decide the future of democracy in 2024? Probably not, but when the margin is a only a few thousand votes, every one counts.

As always, Non-toxic is supported with the help of our listeners. And we need your support now more than ever. Sign up to become a supporter today. We're already planning season three, so keep you ear to the ground for more news from Non-toxic!

For this bonus episode of Non-toxic, we're catching up with our producer, Andrew, and taking calls from our loyal listeners while dispensing poorly thought out advice. From how to get your brother-in-law to stop watching Formula 1 to the climate impact of AI, we are covering a lot of ground this week, and hopefully, helping you live a little less toxically.

To thank these callers, we're asking listeners to head over to our Patreon to vote on your favorite question. Whoever wins this poll will receive a free Non-toxic T-shirt. Vote for your favorite here.

And if you'd like to support Non-toxic, you can go to our Patreon and smash that subscribe button.



Links:

F1's path to sustainability is ⁠"a journey"

10 ways to reduce plastic in laboratories, according to University College London

Despite Google exec claims, ⁠AI likely to increase energy use⁠ and accelerate climate misinformation

A Tory journalist went on a $4000 mushroom retreat in the Netherlands, and all she got was an awareness of life's beauty and fragility

In the Season 2 finale of Non-toxic we're talking with barrister Paul Powlesland about the universal right to enjoy natural places, despite what landowners may tell you. He's the legal counsel for the activist group Right to Roam, who are pushing for greater access to England and Wale's wild places and the end of restrictions on hikers and walkers (within reason). The more time people spend in nature, Paul argues, the more they care about it. Which is critical when it comes to building the political will to fight climate change.

And because fixing the damage we've already done to the planet is the job of a lifetime, Paul has got some interesting ideas about how to tap into a more positive vision of masculinity that also repairs the planet. Why brag to your date about a fancy car when you can tell them how lush you've made the bird habitat in your garden. (Something to listen to in the morning?) And when you're with your buddies, you could be challenging them with a friendly "Do you even plant, bro?"



⁠⁠Support Non-toxic today.

Sign up to join Right to Roam

And pick up a copy of Wild Service



Bio:

Paul Powlesland is a barrister at Garden Court Chambers. He specialises in upholding the rights of environmental activists to protest and protect the natural world, and uses environmental law and regulations to defend trees, rivers and wildlife. Paul is the legal counsel for Right to Roam and co-founder of Lawyers for Nature, and regularly gives talks and workshops on the rights of nature, the relationship between the law and the natural world and what barristers and other lawyers should do in a time of climate and ecological emergency. As a boat-dweller for many years, he is also determined to protect the rights of boaters and other Traveller groups.

Where does your crazy climate-denying uncle come up with those outlandish talking points that he trots out at Thanksgiving or Christmas? Things like: “Wind turbines cause autism!”

Whatever he's saying probably isn't something he made up on his own. In all likelihood, he's been watching too much YouTube, the source of an alarming amount of climate disinformation. But it’s not just the volume of climate disinformation that’s changing on Youtube, it’s also the specific talking points that people use to undermine public understanding.

As Callum Hood from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate explorers in a new paper, there are really two eras of climate denial: Old denial, which is the head in the sand, "climate change isn't happening” or “climate change isn't caused by humans” versus something a lot more pernicious and harder to combat. New denial. In this conversation, we get into how it is that climate deniers changed their tactics, what external conditions they are are responding to, why manosphere influencers are becoming climate deniers, as well as the financial incentives for spreading this stuff. And of course, there’s the role that tech platforms have in profiting from or combating climate disinformation.

⁠⁠Support Non-toxic today.



For our earlier conversation with Callum on incels and alphas, listen to Season 1: Episode 1.



Links:

Listen to our previous episode with Callum on the myth of the "alpha" and incels

Read the CCDH’s report on online climate denial.

The Heartland Institute’s own leaked internal memos admit they’re climate deniers.

How Jordan Peterson generates millions of Youtube hits for climate deniers

This week, we'll be talking with Mato Wayuhi, a musician, rapper, and composer from South Dakota, whose forthcoming major label debut is called Stankface Standing Soldier. You may have also heard his music in the film War Pony, and the hit television series on Hulu, Reservation Dogs.

In this conversation, we talk about the tension between being a traditional versus contemporary Native artist, stereotypes about masculinity in Native culture, and rap as reporting. Though Mato’s been around the world, lately, he has been thinking a lot about his relationship to place and his connection to his family's ancestral land back in Pine Ridge. From vegan fry bread to “Land Back,” it’s all here, on Non-toxic.

⁠Support Non-toxic today.



Listen to Mato's music on his bandcamp, or however you stream music. The songs in this episode are "Part-time Indian" and "STANKFACE," as well as "Switch Lanes," which is off of the Reservation Dogs season three soundtrack.

This week we talk to photographer, filmmaker and artist Richard Mosse, who spent two years documenting the desctruction of one of the most ecologically sensitive areas of the world, the Amazon Rainforest. Using infrared film, GIS mapping technologies, and ultraviolet cameras, Mosse explores every scale of the rainforest, from miscroscopic organisms to hectares of cleared land. On the human level, the film follows both the indigenous people who are trying to hold on to their way of life and the loggers, ranchers, and miners who are trying to carve out a living at the edge of the world. The result is an immersive, unflinching multichannel film called Broken Spectre.

Joining Non-toxic from his studio in New York, Richard discusses the best ways to get powerful men to let you film their crimes, why women bare the brunt of the Amazon's destruction, and whether there's anything an artist can do to try to avert catastrophe.

Support Non-toxic today.

For more on the climate impacts of beef, listen to our conversation with journalist Joe Fassler from Season 1.



Guest Bio: Richard Mosse is an Irish artist currently based in New York. Documenting some of the most significant humanitarian and environmental crises of our time, his work has been the subject of solo shows at museums including The San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art, The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and The Barbican Art Gallery in London, among others. For his groundbreaking work, Mosse has received the Prix Pictet 2017 Prize, the 2014 Deutcshe Börse Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He holds an MFA from Yale.



Links:

How American's love of beef is helping destroy the Amazon

What Jair Bolsonaro did to the Amazon

Brazilian president Lula pledges ‘new Amazon dream’ at rainforest summit

Brazilian police identify gang leader mastermind who orchestrated murders of environmentalists in the Amazon