IMMIGRANTS AND EARTH DAY. A news commentator maintains that undocumented immigrants are least responsible for carbon emissions yet are the most harmed by smog and climate change and end up migrating to survive and even out the playing field. Nations from the North have a climate debt with immigrants, and mass legalization is a small way to pay back, according to our guest analyst on this program to mark Earth Day. Guests also suggest that there is a growing momentum in the Latino community to build a movement around climate change, clean energy and conservation. We also cover a protest where mothers who have been impacted by pollution in California ask the Environmental Protection Agency to protect their communities from major polluters.

"GREEN NOBELISTS". Two of the grassroots environmental heroes who won this year's Goldman Environmental Prize are Latina women. The prize, sometimes known as the Green Nobel, is given to men and women from disenfranchised communities who often take on corporate giants to clean up the environment. Nohra Padilla is a Colombian recycler who, despite difficult battles against trash companies, local governments, and paramilitary groups, organized thousands of waste pickers in Bogotá, Colombia, in an association to make better wages and benefits. Kimberly Wasserman Nieto is a community organizer from Chicago's Little Village neighborhood who has fought a giant coal-fired power plant that has polluted her community.

DETOXING DENIM. The environmental organization Greenpeace found a large number of hazardous chemicals polluting rivers near two of Mexico’s biggest denim factories, Lavamex in Aguascalientes, and Kaltex in Querétaro. Both companies have relationships with jeans giants such as Levi’s, Gap, Calvin Klein, and Guess. Some companies have signed agreements with the environmentalists to clean up their act.

Guests: Pierre Terras, Coordinator, Toxics Campaign, Greenpeace Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico, www.greenpeace.org/mexico/es/Footer/Descargas/reports/Toxicos/Hilos-Toxi... ; Anonymous memember of Un Salto de Vida, Mexico, http://limpiemoselsalto.blogspot.com , unsaltodevida@yahoo.com.mx

TUNNELING UNDER THE DELTA. California Governor Jerry Brown is proposing to move massive amounts of water to farms in the San Joaquin Valley and cities in Southern California, by digging two enormous tunnels underneath the Sacramento Delta. The bill? About 23 billion dollars. An advocate and an opponent of the plan join this edition to discuss this next proposal in a long-standing fight over water use.

Guests: Jessica Parra-Fitch , Community Organizer, Food & Water Watch, Los Angeles, CA, www.foodandwaterwatch.org ; Maggie Macías, Public Information Officer, California State Department of Water Resources, Sacramento, CA, www.water.ca.gov

RANSOM ON ENVIRONMENT? Ecuador has promised not to drill the oil reserves underneath the richly biodiverse Yasuni National Park, in the Amazon rainforest, if the international community pays at least 50% of the value, about 3 and a half billion dollars, over 13 years. Is this ransom money for protecting the environment? Or is it a reasonable exchange?

Guest: Ivonne A-Baki, Secretary of State of Ecuador, Los Angeles, CA, http://mptf.undp.org/yasuni

SEEDING JUSTICE. People working all over the world to build sustainable farms and grow food to feed their communities without using genetically modified organisms come together in California to share their practices. Leaders from the United States and Mexico who will be speaking at the Justice Begins with Seeds conference have been invited to this edition.

Guest: Lilián Amarilis Guamuch, Leader, Women’s Association for the Development of Sacatepéquez (AFEDES), Guatemala, Interviewed in San Francisco, CA, www.afedes.blogspot.com , www.oaklandinstitute.org/justice-begins-seeds

ALSO, SOLAR BILL OF RIGHTS. Environmental activists are pushing the governor of California to make it easier for people to put solar panels on their rooftops and at the same time make money off the energy they generate for the public grid. A leader from the Sierra Club joins this edition to speak about the Solar Bill of Rights.

FIGHTING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. An Argentine mother of three who fought to ban pesticide use near residential areas is one of the winners of this year’s Goldman Prize, the world’s largest prize given to grassroots environmentalists from around the globe. Sofía Gática is from a small town in Argentina surrounded by soy farms. She and other women formed the group Mothers of Ituzaingo after seeing a rise in cancer and birth defects in their community. Gática’s own daughter was born with a malformed kidney and died soon after. The group took their case to court and successfully won a lawsuit that ruled to prohibit the use of agrochemicals within 1000 meters of residential areas in the region of Córdoba.

Guest: Sofía Gática, Goldman Prize Winner, Washington, D.C., www.goldmanprize.org , http://www.madresdeituzaingo.blogspot.com

BULLET TRAIN TROUBLES. The high speed train planned to race through California’s Central Valley and along its coast could help reduce traffic on highways and air pollution in communities. But estimated costs keep going up, and a recent report says the train could be an immense financial risk. What do Latinos who live along the train’s projected rails have to say about the project?

Guests: Steve López, Representative, Operating Engineers Local Union 3, Stockton, CA, http://www.oe3.org ; José Martínez, Los Angeles to San Diego Regional Program Manager, California High-Speed Rail Authority, Santa Ana, CA, www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov ; Nadia Naik, Co-founder, Californians Advocating Responsible Rail Design, Palo Alto, CA, http://www.calhsr.com

NEW RULES CUT MERCURY POLLUTION. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced new rules that would cut over 90% of mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. The landmark protections are hailed by environmental groups as a huge victory, especially because mercury is known to harm the nervous systems of children. The toxic metal has been found at higher levels in Latino children. A mother and activist that has long fought power plant pollution in her Chicago neighborhood joins this edition to discuss the news.

Guest: Kim Wasserman-Nieto, Director, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Chicago, IL, http://lvejo.org/

TRAGEDY ON THE JOB. Brothers Armando and Eladio Ramírez died after being overwhelmed by toxic fumes at a recycling plant in Central California. The brothers, 16 and 22 years old, were cleaning an underground drainage tunnel when they were reportedly exposed to hydrogen sulfide. Community members are calling for the plant to be shut down, citing former reports of unsafe working conditions. Were the workers wearing personal protective equipment? Were they supposed to be assigned to the tunnel in the first place? Had the plant been visited by state inspectors? This program examines these and other issues.

Guests: Lupe Martínez, Organizer, Center for Race, Poverty, and the Environment, Delano, CA, www.crpe-ej.org ; Icasio Ramírez, Uncle of Armando and Eladio Ramírez, Arvin, CA; Faustina Ramírez, Mother of Armando and Eladio Ramírez, Arvin, CA.