Mel Zelaya Archive

Featured Stories

• Permaculture Lessons From Fire: Restoring Paradise
  Posted on September 17, 2020 | 1 Comment

  Hear Permaculture Designer/Educator & consultant Matthew Trumm of Treetop Permaculture discuss lessons learned during the Camp Fire which burned through the town of Paradise, California, in November 2018. At the time, it was the most devastating wildfire in California history, burning 240 square miles in its wake.

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• Samoan “Chief Tuiavii” on the Desperation of ‘The Papalagi’
  Posted on September 10, 2020 | No Comments

  In 1920, Erich Scheurmann translated into German the speeches of Samoan Chief' Tuiavii from the village of Tiavea, a work called The Papalagi (The White People) that describes his impressions of European culture formed during a tour as part of a traveling show. Tuiavii's depictions of the greed and hypocrisy of the civilized Europeans has become a post-hippie inspiration for a counterculture movement to break out of the rigid confines of corporate capitalism.

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• Candidate Forum for Environmental Justice in South LA with Fatima Iqbal-Zubair
  Posted on September 3, 2020 | No Comments

  EcoJustice Radio speaks about how to confront the issues of institutional racism, environmental justice, and massive economic inequality with Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, Candidate for California State Assembly in South Los Angeles. The incumbent Assembly Member and candidate Mike Gipson was asked to be on the show, but did return requests. 

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• Flood Control to Free Rivers: The Tale of Water on Tongvalands
  Posted on August 27, 2020 | No Comments

  EcoJustice Radio discusses the history of water upon Tongvalands aka Los Angeles: from free-flowing rivers to concrete-engineered flood control and back again Tim Brick of the Arroyo Seco Foundation and and Parker Davis of the Hahamongna Native Plant Nursery.

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• Ocean Desalination vs Conservation and Human Rights
  Posted on August 13, 2020 | No Comments

  EcoJustice Radio guests Andrea Leon Grossman from AZUL and Conner Everts from Southern California Watershed Alliance discuss the proposal by Poseidon Water Company to build a $1 billion desalination plant in Huntington Beach, California. When the price tag is more than 2x the cost of our current water system, is desal necessary? Can existing and future conservation opportunities provide the solutions necessary to ensure local water resilience in California and elsewhere?

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• Missions of Culture: Reclaiming Indigenous Wisdom with Caroline Ward Holland
  Posted on August 6, 2020 | No Comments

  Tune in as EcoJustice Radio welcomes Caroline Ward Holland, a Tribal citizen of the Fernandeño Band of Mission Indians or Tataviam Nation, as she speaks on the ongoing movement to topple controversial Mission monuments and mythologies. She recounts with host Carry Kim her Walk for the Ancestors in 2015, a pilgrimage she embarked upon with her son, Kagen Holland, to honor the Ancestors at all 21 missions in California.

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• Building Unity for Social Change with Kwazi Nkrumah
  Posted on July 30, 2020 | 1 Comment

  Guest Kwazi Nkrumah from the MLK Coalition for Greater Los Angeles discusses with EcoJustice Radio host Jessica Aldridge how unity and mass mobilization across all movements is necessary for social change and an equitable future. He speaks to how we effectively do this in an inclusive manner across interests and issues that considers priorities, roadblocks, and better relationship building. We address concerns of derailment and demobilization, and look to how we can shield and grow from those movements.

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• Italian Folktale: How the Devil Married Three Sisters
  Posted on July 29, 2020 | 1 Comment

  The following story from 19th Century Venice, Italy, is similar to the "Bluebeard" folktales from France, regarding the dangers of female curiosity about forbidden chambers and how questioning patriarchal rules can open the door of truth. This mythic jaunt takes another route about when the Devil married three sisters and how the third sister managed to rescue the other two from the fires of Hell. Italo Calvino also published another variant of this story in 1956, called Silver Nose.

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• No Drilling Where We’re Living with Martha Arguello
  Posted on July 16, 2020 | 1 Comment

  Martha Arguello of Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles discusses with host Jessica Aldridge neighborhood oil drilling, the call for a 2,500 ft. health and safety buffer, and how community mobilization is addressing the climate emergency and ensuring public health and environmental protection. Martha leads the coalition Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling in Los Angeles. They work in a statewide coalition dedicated to buffers as well called Voices in Solidarity Against Oil in Neighborhoods.

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• Kia’i Up: The Rise of Empowered Youth with Mikilani Young
  Posted on July 9, 2020 | No Comments

  Hear Kumu Mikilani Young from United Pillars of Aloha & her student, Kayla Session, discuss the momentum and ultimate purpose behind the current generation of youth rising up to protect Sacred Places, mountains, waters and indigenous lifeways.

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