Benji Hyer replies to a listener from New Orleans in support of the removal of confederate statues...
The protests in Charlottesville were at their heart in relation to the proposed removal of a statue of Robert E Lee, an American general known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War.
[youtube video='92PLcoWtn0Q']
The recent debate – often violent – regarding the removal of Confederate monuments has taken the United States by storm.
Decisions by local governments to remove those memorials serving as an offensive reminder of America’s history of slavery and racial oppression has triggered a backlash from a vocal group of Americans who see this as an attempt to subvert their history and culture.
President Donald Trump waded into the debate on Thursday, tweeting that the controversial monuments are “beautiful” and bemoaning that their beauty would be “greatly missed” from cities. Maine Governor Paul LePage added on Thursday that removing them would serve simply to whitewash history.
Jonathan Waxman is a UK wind farm developer who was recently part of the effort to get solar electricity supplied to homes across Africa
*This interview has been taken from the W!ZARD Studios documentary: The Mission – Fighting Everyday, To Ensure Another One*
Companies and governments are finally changing their mindset on fossil fuel industries.
The same can be said for the growth of renewable energy, a sector now thriving across the world. Solar energy is seen as the future; over in Trump’s America, despite his protestations, more people now work in solar than coal, oil and gas combined. It employs 43% of people working in energy jobs, compared to 23% fossil fuels. Solar installers put up solar panels in the USA every 2.5 minutes.
One man to thank for the solar industry boom is Jonathan Waxman, a UK wind farm developer who was recently part of the effort to get solar electricity supplied to homes across Africa. He featured in the documentary, praising the transition to renewable energy.
[audio…
Alan Simpson is a recovering Labour Party politician and a current adviser to the shadow chancellor on sustainability
*This interview has been taken from the W!ZARD Studios documentary: The Mission – Fighting Everyday, To Ensure Another One*
On the political scene, significant progress has been made with the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015.
For the first time, almost all the nations on Earth agreed to lower emissions and stabilise global temperature. However, back home in the UK, some senior figures believe there are still not enough climate change policies being proposed by the government, and the subject is not sufficiently high on the political agenda.
Alan Simpson is a recovering Labour Party politician and a current adviser to the shadow chancellor on sustainability. He outlined the progress, or lack thereof, of his colleagues in the British House of Commons when it comes to the issue of climate change. Simpson urges politicians to do more and act now in the face of this crisis.
[audio…
Benji Hyer sits down with the former US Vice President about climate change and Donald Trump
In the race to fixing our planet, there are many key players. However, nobody is more central to this issue than former US Vice President, Al Gore.
After being the Vice President under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001, and losing his fight to become the President of the United States in 2000 (in a very tight, and controversial fight), he became a full time climate change activist – winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
However, perhaps his most notable work is the 2006 documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, the Academy Award-winning documentary educating the public about climate change – and giving some very worrying scientific predictions about the direction of the planet.
Now, over a decade later and after having brought almost every country together to achieve the Paris Agreement, Al Gore returns with the follow-up: An Inconvenient Sequel – Truth To Power.…