This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook

This week: environmental journalist and author, Alanna Mitchell and her new book, 'Sea Sick: The Global Ocean Crisis'; filmmaker, journalist, script writer, Mark Leiren-Young on his film 'The Green Chain,' his book, "Never Shoot a Stampede Queen,' and more; Street Newz newspaper publisher, broadcaster, journalist, and activist, Janine Bandcroft on Victoria's streetz.

 

Listen. Hear.

 

It's the biggest feature on the globe, and answer to every child's question: "Mommy, why is the sky blue?" The great ocean, nurturer of first life, is the sustainer still of all earthlings. More obvious here on Vancouver Island, but truth be told, we all live on islands surrounded by the waters necessary for 99% of life on the big blue marble that is Planet Earth. Looking to the horizon from our small island's western reaches, it's unfathomable to think the vast expanse of the Pacific could suffer the relatively puny machinations of human industry, but just so is the case. Alanna Mitchell is a journalist specializing in environmental issues, and the author of the books, 'Dancing at the Dead Sea,' and 'Sea Sick: The Global Ocean Crisis.' From Australia's Great Barrier Reef to the beaches of Zanzibar, to the coral spawning waters of Panama, Mitchell's Sea Sick takes us on a beguiling, and ultimately terrifying voyage, from the surface to the bottom of the world's troubled seas. Alanna Mitchell in the first segment.

And; from the seas to the trees; the film, 'The Green Chain' goes into the woods of British Columbia to reveal the complex and comic aspects of the logging industry and its opponents. Reminding, "nothing is ever clear cut" The Green Chain reveals community life in Canada's fabled timber country through monologues inspired by true tales of the tall and small personalities making up a world far distant from the average home's toilet roll.

 

Mark Leiren-Young is the hyphenated creator of The Green Chain and author of the recently released book 'Never Shoot a Stampede Queen,' his remembrances of covering B.C.'s wild interior towns as a cub reporter. Mark Leiren-Young's other projects include theatre, television and film drama, comedy, and documentary scripting. He's the recipient of numerous awards across mediums, including the Writer’s Guild of Canada Top Ten Award nominations for his two most recent CBC radio dramas, and  a National Magazine Award as a humour columnist, and also wrote, co-produced and co-starred in the TV comedy special, Greenpieces for VTV/Green Channel/PBS - which received an EarthVision Award for excellence in environmental programming. And he authored the award-winning stage play, Shylock. [...] Mark Leiren-Young in the second half.