G&R Episode 89: The Movement to Save the Rainforest w/ Randy Hayes, founder of Rainforest Action Network

The 1980s saw a new consciousness of environmental awareness, particularly around the Earth’s rainforests. Scientists had discovered that, aside from their enormous biodiversity, rainforests also helped to keep carbon from being released into the atmosphere.    

Corporations in the U.S. and Europe saw tropical rainforests as a means  for profit. For a long time, Indigenous communities had stood against  industrial development and deforestation. And by the 1980s, environmental groups in Europe and Australia had been actively fighting  deforestation on a grassroots level. But in the U.S. environmental  movements had failed to evoke widespread activism on the subject.    

This episode is about the emergence of rainforest movements in the U.S. during the 1980s with one of the founders of Rainforest Action Network  (RAN)-- Randy Hayes.    

We interview Randy about the history of the movement to save tropical rainforests, the founding of RAN, corporate campaigning in the early days of RAN and being in solidarity with Indigenous communities around the globe. Randy also talks about biodiversity loss and the ever smaller window of opportunity we have to halt and reverse the very worst of the damage.    

Described by the Wall Street Journal as “an environmental pit bull,”  Randy Hayes is the co-founder of Rainforest Action Network, and is an author, filmmaker and environmentalist. Hayes is a veteran of many  high-visibility corporate accountability campaigns and has advocated for the rights of Indigenous peoples throughout the world. He is currently the executive director of Foundation Earth and a consultant to the World  Future Council, based in Washington, DC.  

Read more// 

• Rainforest Action Network on anti-corporate campaigns (https://bit.ly/2TeaXU3) 
• U.S. activists stop Burger King from importing rainforest beef, 1984-1987(**https://bit.ly/3bLrZ2k) 
• Rainforest Action Network: www.ran.org   
• The New Green Deal: A Seven-Point Plan For A Deep Planetary Emergency (https://bit.ly/3fmW62l)
• Randy's talk on Earth Day 2021. Randy’s introduction starts about 2:36:15 into the video. (https://bit.ly/3yLF85p)

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This is a Green and Red Podcast   production. Produced by Bob  (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969).   “Green and Red Blues" by  Moody. Editing by Scott.