Host Allison Miliones speaks with Donna Matrazzo, a science, environmental and history writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, on PBS and the Discovery Channel, and in national park visitor centers and museums around the country. She has lived on Sauvie Island for 20 years. Her book, "Wild Things: Adventures of a Grassroots Environmentalist," was a finalist for a Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction.

Hosts Celeste Carey and Cecil Prescod look at the fate of China, the United States, the Global South, and planet with guest Michael T. Klare, whose recent article on TomDispatch is "The Second Decade, The World in 2020" http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175186/

Michael Klare, the Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies (a joint appointment at Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst), and Director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies (PAWSS), a position he has held since 1985 is the author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy,

Klare contends that while the first decade of the twenty-first century still looked at least somewhat like the world of 1999, by 2020, this planet will have a genuinely different look to it. Momentous shifts in global power relations and a changing of the imperial guard, just now becoming apparent, will be far more pronounced by that year as new actors, new trends, new concerns, and new institutions dominate the global space.

MORE ON MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL MINING

Many Portlander's think that we get most of our electricity from the Bonneville hydro system, but in fact 40% comes from burning coal, much of it mined by blasting the top off a mountain in Kirk, West Virginia. This week on Locus Focus, guest Judy Bonds, co-director for Coal River Mountain Watch, talks about the impact of this devastating practice on the lives, economy and culture of her community. We'll also hear an update on what's happening at the federal and local level to end mountain top removal mining and put a stop to the wholesale burying of streams under mountains of mine tailings.

On January 26, Oregonians will be asked to decide how the latest chapter in the state's long-running tax wars will turn out. Opponents of two tax increases approved by the legislature in 2009 succeeded in collecting enough signatures for a referendum on what are now Measures 66 and 67. The former would raise the state income tax rate on those earning more than $125,000 per year while the latter would increase the minimum corporate tax. Supporters of the measures say vital public services are at stake.

A look back at the best and the worst of the year and decade.

A 12-year-old girl shot by police with a beanbag, failed attempt to recall the mayor, new community journalism, solving Portland's gang problem, race and recession...these are just some of the issues Voices from the Edge covered during 2009. This week well be taking a look back the lows and highs in the Rose City the last 12 months as well as memorable moments earlier in the decade: remember Police Chief Mark Kroeker, Mayor Katz's River Renaissance, or Columbia Villa?