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The Future of the Planet

From: Lydon McGrath Productions
Length: 00:58:30

This is hour 5 of The Whole Wide World: a 7-part series on globalization Read the full description.

Eow_small No threat is more clearly global than the fouling of the whole planet's environment - the evidence of climate change, water shortages, a crash of species or collapse of the habitat. But these are threats and warnings - like the risk of nuclear annihilation - that we've learned to live with, threats we have a strong impulse to deny, or pretend to ignore. So this hour we're testing the force of these dangers by imagining them in your face, down your gullet, on your plate, in the food that the world eats. What if we narrowed the environmental mission to feeding the human race now and for centuries to come? Has modern food production managed our way past a crisis of survival? Just what can you tell from your daily diet about how the old globe, and the new globalism, are doing? Guests: Jared Diamond, Kevin Cleaver, Vandana Shiva, E.O. Wilson, Michael Pollan, Bill McKibben, and Sandra Postel

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Piece Description

No threat is more clearly global than the fouling of the whole planet's environment - the evidence of climate change, water shortages, a crash of species or collapse of the habitat. But these are threats and warnings - like the risk of nuclear annihilation - that we've learned to live with, threats we have a strong impulse to deny, or pretend to ignore. So this hour we're testing the force of these dangers by imagining them in your face, down your gullet, on your plate, in the food that the world eats. What if we narrowed the environmental mission to feeding the human race now and for centuries to come? Has modern food production managed our way past a crisis of survival? Just what can you tell from your daily diet about how the old globe, and the new globalism, are doing? Guests: Jared Diamond, Kevin Cleaver, Vandana Shiva, E.O. Wilson, Michael Pollan, Bill McKibben, and Sandra Postel

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Review of The Future of the Planet

Excellent production, solid research, sharp writing, clear structure, interesting guests, great ideas and unexpected connections. A hearty serving of critical thinking about modern agricultural practices. Great to hear a program which looks beyond narrow national or regional interests to understand the wider implications of conspicuous consumption.
Highly recommended.

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Review of The Future of the Planet

There's a lot to think about in this hour, maybe too much. But its all so important to our future. Perhaps most disturbing is how this program has become more timely two years after it was originally produced. I thought starting with McDonald's was a bit obvious - until the expert gets into the "monoculture of potatoes" and how it caused the Irish Potato famine. Are we not supposed to learn from history? The myths of progress and the Greed (oops, meant to type Green) Revolution supported by organizations like the World Bank are put in clearer perspective from India's struggle with "monocultures of the mind." One World-One Taste? What are we thinking? And then there's water shortages and global warming... disasters waitng to happen. And I just saw a new Austrian documentary which detailed the issues of food production in the "new Europe" and thought I'd never eat again. So the frustration I feel getting bombarded with all this information is what's an insignificant little person like myself to do? Give up Big Macs & supermarkets, winter cut-flowers & daily showers? I can't even quit smoking!

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Review of The Future of the Planet

Whole Wide World: news-compatible hour While radio tends to look at big questions through little windows, Christopher Lydon has always thrived on issues every bit as big as the whole wide world. In The Future of the Planet, he explores the questions of how we can continue to feed the planet while still trying to keep the air and water at least somewhat clean.

As his various guests -- historians and biologists, food writers, ethicists, and more -- tell us, we are just scraping by, and any one of 100,000 different things can wreak havoc in the world of Rube Goldberg globalism.

This is Lydon at his provocative best. Terrific selection of guests -- articulate and engaged -- terrific writing and wonderful elements linking the different segments of the program together.

For long-time listeners of Lydon’s old call-in show, there are moments that feel like he’s about to solicit calls and turn to the phones.

One other point: Lydon still writes a killer 60-second billboard for a news-compatible show.

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http://www.thewholewideworld.net