(Cortes Island, BC) – At noon on Tuesday, July 8, the ECOreport goes live on Cortes Community Radio, 89.5 FM, CKTZ, which is also broadcast over the web. This is the start of a series of half hour programs that are scheduled from 12-12:30 on Tuesdays and from 10:00 – 10:30 on Wednesdays. The ECOreport (www.theecoreport.com) is a sustainable news site, focusing on how our lifestyle choices and technologies affect the West Coast of North America, but also carrying items of a broader interest. The initial radio broadcasts are:
Tuesday, July 8, from 12:00 – 12:30 pm: “Desecration of Grace Islet” Grace Islet is a recognized centuries old First Nations burial ground on Salt Spring Island BC, that is zoned residential. In an attempt to satisfy both concerns, British Columbia’s Archaeology Branch decided to allow an Alberta businessman to build his waterfront vacation home on Grace Islet providing he put it on stilts that go over the grave sites.
Wednesday, July 9, from 10:00 – 10:30 am:“Delores Broten & the Watershed Sentinel” Delores Broten, editor of the Watershed Sentinel, talks about the origins of Western Canada’s only printed sustainable news magazine and the media’s future in the digital age. Some of the topics covered are: her passion for writing/researching; the confrontation with McMillan Bloedel in 1990; her magazine’s relationship to Cortes island; the Friends of Cortes Island; the negative impact that digital technology has had on the news media.
Tuesday, July 15, starting 12:00 pm: “Alexandra Morton, on salmon farms” Alexandra Morton came to British Columbia to study Orcas in the 1980‘s and initially thought salmon farms were a good idea. As problems began to surface, she discovered the regulatory authorities largely ignored her complaints. She talks about events like: her Walk to Victoria; the Cohen report; the Salmon Confidential documentary; her present lawsuit; Why are Alaska’s salmon fisheries flourishing and BC’s problematic?
Wednesday, July 16, from 10:00 – 10:30 am: “Sun Above the Horizon, an interview with Peter Varadi about the origins, present and future of solar technology” Peter Varadi is one of the few people who can be said to personify the solar industry. He was there from the very beginning, co-founding the first terrestrial solar company in 1973 and, up until three years ago, consulting with organizations like the World Bank and National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
He talks about: how solar technology originated as a space program; Solarex; Big Oil’s contribution to the development of solar technology; why Germany was able to lead the world in developing a technology invented in the US; the solar vs utilities conflict; What Germany is showing us about the development of solar-plus-battery
(Image at top of page: Taken at Smelt Bay on Cortes Island by Amy Forest)