Barbara Bernstein

After the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in 1979, it looked like the nuclear industry was over. The Chernobyl and Fukishima disasters drove home even more starkly just how dangerous nuclear power is. But in recent years there has been a growing drumbeat p... Read more

As pressure increases for us to drastically reduce carbon emissions, one attention-grabbing option being promoted is renewable hydrogen. But is hydrogen really the answer to our energy needs or is its promotion largely based on false promises? On this episode of Locus Focus... Read more

  This program aired originally on March 21, 2022 The regenerative farming movement has mostly centered around restoring soil and ecosystem health and leaving our land, waters, and climate in better shape for future generations. But regenerative farming also requires reck... Read more

  This program originally aired on February 7, 2022 At a critical bend in the Columbia River estuary, a company called NEXT Renewable Fuels, Inc., wants to build a renewable diesel refinery. The proposed refinery at Port Westward would be one of the largest producers of r... Read more

  This program initially aired on January 31, 2022 The Portland metro area is a land of water at the confluence of two of the major rivers in the Pacific Northwest. The Chinookan People, who lived along the Columbia and Willamette Rivers before European contact, were maste... Read more

This past Martin Luther King Day, Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kefoury sent out an email with the subject line "Pressing on toward Dr. King’s Beloved Community in the face of ongoing challenges." She concluded the email with this statement: "The last several years have st... Read more

For decades we have been sold the story-line that natural gas is the best and cleanest fuel for cooking and heating. More recently the gas industry has been promoting gas as a bridge fuel to a renewable future and even arguing that so-called renewable natural gas is a green... Read more

With a Russian military convoy advancing on her city of Kyiv, Ukraine’s leading climate scientist made this emotional plea at the most recent meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Human-induced climate change and the war on Ukraine have the same roots, ... Read more

This spring communities across the country will be celebrating the 200th birthday of Federick Law Olmsted, co-creator of New York City's Central Park and numerous subsequent parks. Writer, literary publisher, philosopher, abolitionist and committed social reformer, Olmsted ... Read more

The latest climate projections are increasingly dire as the world climate clock now has only 7 years to reverse course. Increasingly large and intense wildfires are one of the major changes we are seeing as climate change accelerates. Megadroughts are also increasing which ... Read more