Democracy Now! January 9, 2003

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Program Title:
Democracy Now! January 9, 2003
Series Title:
PRA Archive #: 
PZ0517.073
Description: 

The S.U.V., the World's Most Dangerous Vehicle and How They Got That Way: A conversation with reporter Keith Bradsher and the co-founder of a controversial new anti-S.U.V. ad campaign; Why is the US preparing to attack Iraq and not North Korea: A discussion on Iraq s oil and the potential to break OPEC; 125 tons of oil still leak everyday from the oil tanker Prestige two months after sinking off the Spanish coast: We look at the environmental impact and examine alternatives to oil

9:00-9:01 Billboard 9:01-9:06 Headlines 9:06-9:07 One Minute Music Break 9:07-9:20: WABC in New York has refused to air it. So has KABC and KCBS in Los Angeles. And in the Motor City, WDIV has also said no. They have all rejected a pair of 30 seconds ads by one of Hollywood s biggest producers, Lawrence Bender, who is best known his work in producing Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting . The new ad campaign links driving gas-guzzling SUVs to supporting terrorism in oil-producing countries. The ad campaign is the latest indication of rising criticism of one Amerca s most favorite vehicles. Late last year an evangelical environmentalist group made headlines when they unveiled a bumpersticker reading: What Would Jesus Drive? . Their answer was not an SUV. And then there is the new book by New York Times reporter Keith Bradsher. It is titled: High and Mighty: SUVs: the World s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way. Bradsher estimates that the replacement of cars with SUVs is killing about 3,000 people a year, roughly the same amount of people who died in the World Trade Center attack. And the growing popularity of the massive vehicles is causing what Bradsher describes as a highway arms race and drivers turn in their cars and even smaller SUVs for larger and larger SUVs. Guest: Keith Bradsher, New York Times reporter and author of the new book, "High and Mighty: S.U.V.'s the World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way. He won the George Polk Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A Times reporter since 1989, he is currently the paper's Hong Kong bureau chief. Guest: Laurie David, co-founder of the Detroit Project. She is a trustee at the Natural Resource Defense Committee. Links: Detroit Prokect: http://www.detroitproject.com 9:20-9:21 One Minute Music Break 9:21-9:35 SUV Cont d 9:35 9:50:The Bush administration this week backed down from its three-month-old stance that the North Koreans will have to dismantle its nuclear weapons program before Washington will even talk to them. In a joint statement with Japan and South Korea, Washington dropped all pre-conditions, saying it is willing to open talks. Robert Fisk writes in the London Independent : I think I'm getting the picture. North Korea breaks all its nuclear agreements with the United States, throws out UN inspectors and sets off to make a bomb a year, and President Bush says it's "a diplomatic issue". Iraq hands over a 12,000-page account of its weapons production and allows UN inspectors to roam all over the country, and after they've found not a jam-jar of dangerous chemicals in 230 raids President Bush announces that Iraq is a threat to America, has not disarmed and may have to be invaded. Well today we re going to talk about one of the reasons why. Not only does Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world, but there is the possibility that a new US-backed regime in Iraq could eventually break the back of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC, with Saudi Arabia firmly in control, sets the price of oil on the world markets much higher than they would be if market forces prevail. Guest: James Paul, Executive Director of the Global Policy Forum. He has also worked as a writer and consultant with projects for Human Rights Watch, Oxford University Press, Physicians for Human Rights, and many others. He was awarded the World Hunger Media Award in 1987 and he received a Peacemaker award from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in 1996. He is an editor of the Oxford Companion to Politics of the World and his most recent book is Humanity Comes of Age. 9:40-9:41 One Minute Music Break 9:41-9:50 OIL Cont d 9:50-9:58: 7000 tons of oil has polluted nearly 200 beaches in the Galicia region of Spain and killed more than two thirds of the shellfish in the area. Thousands of fisherman have been forced to stay on land as fisheries have been closed. France is stepping up its fight against oil slicks a day after oysters were banned from the major shellfish-producing area, the Arcachon basin. European countries have dispatched an armada of vessels to try to minimize the damage. Three thousand seabirds have shown up oil-covered or dead on the European coast. The Spanish Ornithological Society says one endangered species, the Iberian guillemot, has probably been wiped out. It is a month and a half since the oil-tanker Prestige sank off the coast of Spain with more than 60,000 tons of oil. Some 20,000 tons have leaked so far. The BBC reports that when the Prestige began sinking off the Spanish coast, the French, Spanish and Portuguese governments all refused to allow the tanker to dock in their ports. Instead it was towed out to sea. The Spanish government initially claimed the water pressure would prevent oil from leaking out of the tanker. But oil has continued to leak at a rate of 125 tons per day. Guest: Jim MacKenzie, physicist and senior associate in the climate Energy and Pollution Program at the World Resources Institute. He is the author of numerous books and studies on transportation including the use of electric cars, climatic impacts of transportation as well as its impact on US culture. Guest: Dr. David Santillo, scientist with Greenpeace Research Labs in the UK. 9:58-9:59 Outro and Credits Democracy Now! is produced by Kris Abrams, Mike Burke, Angie Karran, Ana Nogiera and Alex Wolfe. Mike Di Filippo is our engineer and webmaster.

Date Recorded on: 
January 9, 2003
Date Broadcast on: 
January 9, 2003
Item duration: 
59 min.
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Distributor: 
WBAI; Amy Goodman, host., January 9, 2003
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