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Addicted to Plastic: The Rise and Demise of a Modern Miracle

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The Northern California city of San Jose just passed a ban on plastic bags. It’s one of the country’s strictest bans, and reflects a growing awareness across the nation, as one city after another adopts similar bans. Proponents of such bans explain that plastic bags generate mountains of trash, clog waterways, and threaten marine and other life. Additionally the production of these bags also contributes greenhouse gases. A new documentary, Addicted to Plastic: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Miracle, examines plastic in its entirety, from how ubiquitous it has become in modern American life, to how pitiful recycling efforts really are, as well as the dangers of toxins released by plastics. It’s Canadian film maker Ian Connacher, traveled to the middle of the Pacific Ocean to see for himself how our oceans have turned into a deadly plastic soup, to India where the vast majority of electronic waste is recycled, to Holland and Japan where scientists are trying to understand the deadly effects of toxins in plastics, and to Australia, where bio-degradable alternatives to plastic are being invented.

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Addicted to Plastic – DVD – $100

Budget Cuts, Tuition Hikes, Spark Statewide Walkouts of UC Campuses

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Hundreds, perhaps thousands of faculty and students from the University of California system are due to walk out of the first day of Fall semester classes today to protest the huge budget cuts to higher education, and the UC system’s handling of the crisis. The cuts have resulted in a 32% tuition hike for students, layoffs for lower paid employees, a steep increase in health insurance premiums, and furlough days for faculty. Meanwhile, the UC system’s board approved $9 million in executive compensation this year alone, and hired several new executive administrators at much higher salaries than their predecessors. Fee hikes for students have risen 277% over the past 8 years. Today’s walkout has been endorsed by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the University of California Student Association (USCA), together representing hundreds of thousands of faculty and students. There are rallies, smaller-scale walkouts, and protests taking place all over the 10 UC campuses across the state.

GUEST: Mike Davis, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, author of many acclaimed books including City of Quartz, Late Victorian Holocausts, and Planet of Slums