Whole forests around the world are dying from insects, fungus, drought, heat. Drivers are climate change & ozone pollution. New Jersey activist Gail Zawacki on ozone damage to trees, crops & our lungs. University of Illinois scientist Lisa Ainsworth on FACE CO2 impacts study.
All interviews by Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock
Song clips: "If A Tree Falls" by Bruce Cockburn
Audio clip: ABC Australia (public broadcaster) show "Catalyst" April 26, 2012
Also available as 2 29 minute segments posted below.
A startling documentary from the public broadcaster ABC Australia explores dying forests. It is happening around the world, in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and all down the West Coast of North America. Call it bugs, call it fungus, call it drought and record heat. Call it climate change and plain old pollution.
Whether it's satellite photos, or walking through the dying woods, it's heart-breaking. Why are forests dying around the world?
I'm Alex Smith. I've covered climate change in so many Radio Ecoshock programs. Later in this program we'll talk to a key scientist, Lisa Ainsworth, about misplaced expectations that rising carbon dioxide levels will green the planet and feed billions more people.
But first we are going to ground with a citizen activist from New Jersey. Her trees, and all our trees, are weakened and dying from a much simpler cause: plain old pollution. The air looks cleaner, but all that industrial exhaust is still deadly to plants - and our lungs.
The trees are talking to us, but we just aren't listening.
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