Episode 36

Will Chappell is the President of Air and Water Quality, Inc., a Maine-based business that helps homeowners resolve water quality concerns.  Since Maine has a higher percentage of residents drinking from residential wells than any other state, it is a matter of public health to get regular testing for well water.

Toxic heavy metals (arsenic, manganese, uranium) and man-made chemicals (PFAS) can often be present in our residential well water.  Because you cannot see, smell or taste these toxics, it is important to test your residential wells every 3-5 years.  

One can get started by contacting a lab or reaching out to a water treatment business.  In Maine, there are also funds available to help low-income households with testing and remediation expenses. 

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Episode 35

For Earth Day, Nik Charov, (President and Chairman of Laudholm Trust at Wells Reserve) thinks of Mother Earth as an "accountant, as much as a nurturer."  The spreadsheet is all about living in the balance, not over-spending our resources for corporate profit or convenience.

Nik thinks about the art of science communication and "climate pollution," as it relates to plastics and local climate change.  Located next to a Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Nik  illustrates how policy changes led to a raptor comeback-- a toxics success story.  He calls on us all to use our power as citizens to pressure government for environmental changes for a healthy future.Maine,

​The Wells Reserve is a national  estuarine science research center in Wells, Maine where you can connect with nature through miles of trails, festivals, speakers and so much more.  ​FMI: www.wellsreserve.org. 

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Episode 30

Mike Garfield is the Director of the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor, MI.  Established in 1970, the Ecology Center works on ending lead poisoning, air quality, climate action and energy equity.  It is also the home of the Healthy Stuff Lab.  

Mike discusses "greenwashing" and how it relates to the plastics industry.  Presently, the oil and petro-chemical industries are promoting the idea of "chemical recycling" (aka catalytic pyrolysis of plastic waste or "depolymerization") which means melting plastic and making it into solid, liquid and gaseous fuel products. Twenty states have already changed laws to relax regulations against pyrolysis and gasification, even though such incinerators create huge amounts of toxic pollution and a substantial carbon footprint.  

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Episode 26

Frederica Perera, PhD founded Columbia's Center for Children's Environmental Health and is a professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health.  Recently, her book Children's Health and the Perils of Climate Change was published by Oxford University Press, (2022).  

Dr. Perera wrote this book as a wake up call, a call to action.  From her research, she knows that children are particularly at risk from air pollution, mostly caused by fossil fuels.  This book is timely because the cures for children's health are the same as the ones we can employ for climate health, which is considered to be in Code Red Alert, by the UN.  

This book is a resource and a reference for both children's ill health (eg: SIDS, Asthma, ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, anxiety/depression, loss of IQ, mental health) and the more hopeful solution-focused examples that have been demonstrated effective, around the globe. 

Governments have a large role to play in the fix, but Dr. Perera recognizes that individual choices influence others and make a real difference.  Organizations that she recommends:
Fridays for Future
Sunrise Movement
International Youth Climate Movement,
Zero Hour
Earth Uprising
Extinction Rebellion
Moms Clean Air Force
The Society of Fearless Grandmothers
The Elders

Dr. Perera says, "Now's the time" to act.  Our actions can alleviate suffering, costly medical treatments, and death.  Positive changes will benefit us by slowing climate change, making green jobs, recovering human potential  and a creating healthier population/planet, for all species. 

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