Alex on weird weather & polar rain at Christmas - the beginning of the end of winter. David R. Montgomery on "Dirt The Erosion of Civilizations", with co-author Anne Bikle, new book "The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health".
Various brief news clips.
Reading from robertscribbler.com
Interview by Alex Smith for Radio Ecoshock.
Occasional music by Alex Smith.
In the Affiliates version there is a break for station ID or announcements and re-intro at 27:14
Storms that killed dozens in America, continued into wild weather in Iceland and the UK - a transcontinental storm not expected so soon.
On Dec 29th, the unimaginable happened: it rained at the North Pole, in the normally frigid darkness. It's another major climate crossing, with ominous meaning. Alex investigates.
David R. Montgomery's book "Dirt" won awards, and the MacArthur Genius award. He explains how countries like Syria and Libya used up their soil centuries ago. The Fathers of the American Constitution also saw this happening in the colonies, which is what drove the whites West. Now there are no new continents, and we are using up soil capital fast.
His partner Anne Bikle showed David how soil could be rebuilt without petrochemicals, using friendly microbes. Then she met unfriendly microbes that gave her serious cancer. That drove the pair to explore and write about the microbial roots of our health (and illness). The outside comes in.