Audio: Legendary musician Bruce Cockburn on music, activism, and hope

Music has a unique ability to inspire awareness and action about important issues — and we’re excited to welcome a living legend onto the program to discuss that very topic.

Bruce Cockburn, well known for his outspoken support of environmental and humanitarian causes, appears on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast. Cockburn’s multi-decade career has yielded 33 records, including his latest, Bone On Bone. This week, he will be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside another outspoken icon, Neil Young.

We spoke with Cockburn about how he came to his ecological worldview and why he wrote iconic songs like “If a Tree Falls” and “If I Had A Rocket Launcher,” as well as similar songs on his new record. We also discuss whether or not Cockburn agrees with what Paul Simon told us when he appeared on the Mongabay Newscast about hope being more inspiring than fear.

Our second guest is Amanda Lollar, founder and president of Bat World Sanctuary, a wildlife rehabilitation center in Texas. Lollar discusses the efforts of a number of dedicated wildlife rehabbers, including staff at Bat World Sanctuary, who took action in the wake of Hurricane Harvey to rescue wild animals in Houston and other impacted areas.

Here’s this episode’s top news:

• Fishing mortality of mako sharks ten times higher than fisheries’ estimates
• India and Nepal team up to rescue flooded rhinos
• Indigenous communities resist Chinese mining in Amazonian Ecuador
• Uncontacted Amazon indigenous groups reportedly attacked by outsiders
• Central Africa’s ivory trade shifts underground, according to new report
• Trees provide ecosystem services worth $500 million to the world’s megacities

You can read more about all of these top news items at Mongabay.com. And if you’d like to request email alerts when we publish new stories on specific topics that you care about most, from forests and oceans to indigenous people’s rights and more, visit alerts.mongabay.com and sign up!

You can subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on Android, Google Play, iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, or RSS.

Follow Mike Gaworecki on Twitter: @mikeg2001

Article published by Mike Gaworecki

Activism, Animals, Bats, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Ivory, Ivory Trade, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Marine Animals, Poaching, Podcast, Rainforest People, Rainforests, Rhinos, Sharks, Trees, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation, Wildlife Rehabilitation

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