A Fine New Green Podcast

An exemplary new podcast is adding depth and breadth to the online discussion of important green issues.

Sustainability In Your Ear was launched in May by Earth 911, the Tacoma-based green-community website that specializes in promoting conscious consumption and recycling (they curate the largest recycling database in the United States). With an average of two new editions per week, the podcast has already covered a vital and diverse range of subjects and spoken with several green leaders. All remain accessible at earth911.com.

It's been an impressive bouquet of programming. Episodes include:

* an overview of green uses of water, including looks at new packaging materials that break down before they harm ocean life; ways to green one's water consumption, and a project to "vacuum clean" waterways;

* an interview with Adam Sacks, Executive Director of Biodiversity for A Livable Climate, about restoring desertified land in Mexico, Eastern Europe and elsewhere and converting it into richly functional local ecosystems;

* a detailed piece about scrap recycling; and

* a talk with Peter Fiekowsky of The Healthy Climate Alliance about ways to "mine the air" to remove carbon dioxide.

"We're focusing on people, organizations and companies that are making big contributions to sustainability innovation," said Mitch Ratcliffe, the show's producer and one of its hosts. "We field questions from our website's visitors and try to provide answers to the issues they're facing every day."

Podcasts range in length from under fifteen minutes to over one hour. "We like that flexibility," Ratciffe said. "We take the time to cover topics to the degree to which they need to be covered."

Though operating on a modest budget, Sustainability In Your Ear is delivering informed, up-to-the moment ideas, insights and developents. Particularly impressive is the podcasts' homing in on smaller, local subjects and using them to illuminate larger sustainability concerns.

"We're interested in dialogue," Ratcliffe said. "Part of our purpose is to get people to understand the questions they should be asking."

Ratcliffe hopes that shared questions will generate shared answers. "Earth 911 is a community of people who are taking action to support the environment," he said. "We're here to help that community recognize itself and grow bigger, and to respond better to our most pressing sustainability issues."

--By Jim Pierce