February 16 - Methane Leakage Explodes the Myth of Clean Natural Gas; Selling Global Warming to Rural Red State America; Jeremy Scahill on His Academy Award-Nominated Film "Dirty Wars"

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the just-released study by scientists at Stanford, MIT and the Department of Energy published in the journal Science, that finds methane leaks negate the benefits of natural gas as a fuel for vehicles. The lead author of this study Adam Brandt, a Professor the Department of Energy Resources at Stanford University, joins us to discuss the downside of the current binge in the “fracking”, drilling, production and distribution of natural gas which is promoted as a clean energy alternative, but the study finds that the leakage of methane, which is a 30 times more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, offsets the benefits of burning natural gas instead of diesel.

Part 2

Then we speak with Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel, a Climate Scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists about President Obama’s announcement on Friday in drought-stricken Fresno, California, of a $1 billion “climate resiliency” program to help farmers deal with the effects of global warming. We will discuss the challenge of selling climate science to rural red state America, given the attitude of the Republican Congressman who represents Fresno, whose response to the president’s initiative is that “global warming is nonsense”.

Part 3

Then finally Jeremy Scahill joins us in the studio to discuss his Academy Award-nominated feature documentary “Dirty Wars” and his new media venture First Look Media with Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, and the digital magazine they publish The Intercept where he has an article with Glenn Greenwald, “The NSA’s Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program”. We examine the shadow world of JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command, and the role of U.S. secret warriors who now operate in between 70 and 120 countries at any one time.