Between The Lines - Laura Bozzi: "Climate Impacts Day" connecting dots between global climate change and extreme weather events (Week Ending May 25, 2012)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

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Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

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"Climate Impacts Day" Connects Dots Between Global Climate Change and Extreme Weather

RealAudio MP3

Posted May 16, 2012

Interview with Laura Bozzi, an organizer with Connecticut 350.org, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

On May 5, all around the world, environmental activists held what they called “Connect the Dots” events to draw a link between recent extreme weather events and climate change. The “Climate Impacts Day” action was a project of 350.org, the climate organization that is pushing to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million – from the current 392 parts per million. Climate scientists assert that 350 is the upper limit above which life on earth will fundamentally change.

Among the many Connect the Dots actions on May 5, was an event held in New Haven, Conn., the city among many Connecticut municipalities which suffered through Tropical Storm Irene last August and, two months later, a freak fall snowstorm that devastated trees and brought down power lines, leaving hundreds of thousands of residents in the dark, many for more than a week.

Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Laura Bozzi, an organizer with the Connecticut chapter of 350.org who helped put the New Haven event together. She describes her group's goals and some of the activities that were offered to Connect the Dots event participants.

BETWEEN THE LINES: This is a very visual event. You're across from the biggest farmers' market in New Haven, which is over on Wooster Square, and you're here in the park. And you've got a lot of really very powerful photos that are strung along string and sending people to various stations. So how did you come to organize this particular action?

LAURA BOZZI: So this is part of an international day of action with 350.org, which is meant to connect the dots between extreme weather and climate change – that it's climate change that's driving the spike in extreme weather we're seeing, from droughts to hurricanes to increased storms. So we wanted to connect the dots for people in a way that was visual and that also brought it close to home. So we decided to have photos that are from here in New Haven, like a photo of this park where we're at, Wooster Square, right after Hurricane Irene with all the trees down. We have a photo of that. We have a photo of other events that have happened here in Connecticut ... fires, and then also ones that link out to the rest of the country and around the world that show human and environmental impacts of extreme weather. So we wanted people to see those and also to learn about the science and some of the statistics, but also to drive people to action. So as they're walking through the station, then we wanted them to see these things and to feel like they want to do something, but rather than just put in a different light bulb, we wanted them to get involved in local campaigns, and we also wanted to help them learn how to do that. So one of our stations is on state legislation on energy efficiency. So we actually have some help for them to call their state legislator, so they can, at that booth, call the legislator and practice. Maybe they've never called a state legislator before and it seems scary, but you can do it at the station and realize, "Oh, that's a way I can get involved in local politics at home." So we have a variety of different ones like that.

We also tried to get creative. There's a photo petition that's going to be put up online. So different ways for people to get involved, and we wanted to highlight the different state campaigns 350CT is working on. And then a big part of 350.org is doing a group photo. So we took a group photo and then that's going to go up on the website with photos from all around the world from events like this, so we're part of something bigger.

BETWEEN THE LINES: So, I know one of the stations is about the Bridgeport power plant, which is a coal-fired plant. Tell me about that.

LAURA BOZZI: It's the last coal-fired power plant in Connecticut, so if we shut it down, we're a coal-free state, and there are very few states that can say that. And there are very few states that can say they've had coal and that they've shut down all those power plants, so it would be a really big deal for us to close it down. And it was also ranked as the Number 8 environmental justice offender in the country – this Bridgeport Harbor Station – because of the pollution it creates right within communities in Bridgeport.

BETWEEN THE LINES: So you have this Jeopardy game called Energy Jeopardy, and it's about all the different subsidies that dirty energy and clean energy and renewables get – and the big winners, of course, are the dirty energy ones. But who came up with all those questions? Is that local, or did it come from national and you just made the physical game board here?

LAURA BOZZI: No, that was the amazing creativity of one of our members, Vrinda. So we wanted to do something interactive about subsidies, and that was completely her idea. The facts are from reliable sources, but she invented the project. And we have a subsidies table. It's not a current campaign, but it's something that 350.org is starting to bring attention to, and they're actually bringing a bill to Congress on. It's going to be introduced by Bernie Sanders on May 10, I think, to eliminate all fossil fuel subsidies. So it's something there's going to be increased attention to and so we wanted to start getting people to think about it.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Now that it's over – you've had your three hours out here – how would you sum it up? Was it a success?

LAURA BOZZI: Yeah, it's been a great success. It's a lot of fun to get to meet new people and have conversations with them about ways that climate change has affected them and what they can do about it. And it's fun to do something that's creative, and that gets us thinking outside of just facts and figures and also telling our stories and telling about how it's affected us locally and making personal connections. So it's been a really great day.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Is one of these places a place where people can actually sign up to be part of 350CT?

LAURA BOZZI: Yeah, we're hoping this brings in a bunch of new members. We're an all-volunteer organization so we're as strong as our membership base is, so that's really important for us.

Learn more about “Climate Impacts Day” and the work of 350.org by visiting 350.org.