Episode 747: Refugees in Africa

Rajagopal and Jill Carr-Harris are activists who run Ekta Parishad and Jai Jagat, two organizations that promote Gandhian approaches to peace and development. At the World Social Forum this summer in Benin, they will teaching Gandhian methods to 50 African youths from situations of conflict.

This conversation was about displacement. Marilyn Krieger told us about a young mountain lion she had met in her canyon who was found in San Francisco and relocated to the Santa Cruz mountains. Charles Tauber told us about the trafficked Nigerian women and Russian deserters who are unable to make a home anywhere.

Dennis Garrity's and Robert Tulip's professional careers addressed development problems, including the prospect of global famine, which the Green Revolution postponed. Now the planet's heat threatens to reduce food production, so they promote quicker solutions – especially atratospheric aerosol injection.

Daryl Kimball, Tariq Rauf, and Paul Meyers are diplomats with expertise on Arms Control. They lament the refusal of Trump to renew the New START treaty, which limited the nuclear arsenals of US and Russia. Both countries now may proceed to a new arms race.

Dr. Neil Arya hosts a conversation with two young African men who will participate in the up-coming Pegasus conference. Unfortunately, the wars that send people to these camps often follow them there.

Patrick Bond reminds John Feffer of an alliance that began when Obama "barge into" a meeting of "semi-peripheral" states and convinced them to continue promoting the use of fossil fuels.

A tip from three experienced therapists: Don't over-inflate the importance of trauma. Recognize your clients' resilience and encourage them to find support in their own communities.

Peter Fiekowsky, along with Brian von Herzen and Robert Tulip, favors research into spreading iron into the ocean, thereby getting phytoplankton to increase and remove CO2, cooling the planet.