living-on-earth
51 min
An Earth Day Checkup, Exploring The Parks: Aniakchak, Exxon Climate Risk Lawsuit, and more
Exxon Sued Over Climate Risks of Storage / Beyond The Headlines / Earth Day Checkup / BirdNote®: What's Your State Bird? / Prepping for the City Nature Challenge / Exploring the Parks: Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve
Since the first Earth Day in 1970, much has been done to clean up our air and water, here in the U.S. and elsewhere. But the world now faces the imminent threats of climate change and biodiversity loss, with a long way to go on curbing carbon emissions.
Also, our newest installment in Living on Earth's series exploring America's public lands takes us to the grizzlies and volcanism of Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, deep in the remote Alaskan wilderness.
And as sea level rise and intensifying storms put coastal ecosystems, communities, and industrial facilities at risk, ExxonMobil faces a lawsuit over the alleged vulnerability of the company's Boston Harbor storage facility to climate disruption.
All that and more, in this episode of Living on Earth from PRI.
51 min
'Mayor Pete' and the Climate, Pesticide Risks Ignored at Trump Interior Dept., Greater Peril for Greater Sage Grouse, and more
'Mayor Pete' and the Climate / Beyond the Headlines / Fearsome Bull Elephant Musth / Science Note: Can Plants Hear? / Pesticide Risks Ignored at Trump Interior Dept. / BirdNote®: Sage Grouse Lek and Grasslands / The Sage Hen and the Sage Brush / Greater Peril for the Greater Sage Grouse
Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is making climate change a focal point of his forward-looking campaign. That message resonates with those voters young and old who see "Mayor Pete" as uniquely qualified to talk about the future.
Also, over 84,000 pages of documents have surfaced alleging new Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt's interference with a U.S. Fish and Wildlife report on the risks the pesticides chlorpyrifos, malathion and diazinon may pose to endangered species.
And don't miss the marvelous sounds of the Greater Sage Grouse as it performs its traditional mating dance. Unfortunately, the Western sage brush ecosystem indicator species is now more vulnerable to grazing and oil and gas development, now that the Trump Administration has lifted Obama-era restrictions that were meant to protect the iconic bird.
All that and more, in this episode of Living on Earth from PRI.
51 min
Cyclone Idai Update, Climate Action Now Bill, A First Steamy Date for 'Romeo and Juliet', and more
Idai Disaster Update / Beyond the Headlines / The Power of the Purse and 'Climate Action Now' / Youth Testify for Climate Action / 'Romeo and Juliet' Frogs' First Steamy Date / Everglades National Park, a "River of Grass" / Drilling in the Everglades / BirdNote®: Rivers of Birds
In this episode, Cyclone Idai brought destruction for residents of Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. With the UN calling Idai one of the worst natural disasters to ever hit the Southern hemisphere, East Africans have a long road to recovery ahead.
Also, the newly introduced Climate Action Now bill, HR 9, aims to use Congress' "power of the purse" to keep the U.S. in the Paris Climate Agreement. The bill also calls for President Trump to make a plan to meet the U.S. commitments under the agreement.
And the sehuencas water frogs known as "Romeo" and "Juliet" have had their first steamy date in hopes of saving their dwindling species. Matchmaking to save a species and more, in this episode on Living on Earth from PRI.
51 min
Losing Ground: Midwest Floods Rip Away Topsoil, Brazil Grabs Indigenous Lands, Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country, and more
Brazil To Grab Indigenous Lands / Beyond the Headlines / Losing Ground: Midwest Floods Rip Away Topsoil / BirdNote®: The Rainwater Basin of Nebraska / The Place Where You Live: Chadron, Nebraska / Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country
In this episode: Record flooding in the Midwest has swept away the precious topsoil of the "bread basket of the United States." Farmers already dealing with the Trump Administration's trade war with China now face spoiled grain, dead livestock and an interrupted planting season.
The more moderate spring rains are welcome as they bring out the green and help water crops, and in south-central Nebraska, they provide watering grounds for migrating birds, including the famous Sandhill Cranes.
Also, a constitutional crisis looms in Brazil as its controversial new president, Jair Bolsonaro, seeks to open the Amazon's indigenous territories to mining, against tribes' wishes.
And we hear from writer Pam Houston about her new memoir, "Deep Creek," and how life on a ranch high in the Colorado Rockies helped her find sanctuary after a childhood of abuse and neglect.
All that and more, in this episode of Living on Earth from PRI.
51 min
Minorities' Pollution Burden, Oil Drilling on 500,000 Acres Blocked for Climate, Sen. Murkowski (R-AK) on the Public Lands Bill, and more
Oil Drilling Blocked for Climate / Climate Disasters and Softening Property Values / The Racial Gap of Pollution Responsibility / Beyond the Headlines / GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski on the 2019 Public Lands Act / Baboon, "The Observer"
In this week's episode, a federal judge temporarily blocked drilling after he found the Bureau of Land Management failed to adequately consider climate impacts when it held lease sales for oil and gas extraction on hundreds of thousands of acres in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah.
And Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has worked for years with Republican and Democratic colleagues to bring together the most sweeping land conservation bill in a decade, and joins us to discuss public lands and climate change.
Also, climate change is stoking losses from the recent floods in Southern Africa to the flooding in the US Midwest, and in coastal communities, rising seas are eating away at local tax bases, compounding the devastation.
All that and more, in this episode of Living on Earth from PRI.
51 min
Youth Strike for Climate, Carbon Pricing and the Green New Deal, Michael Mann Fights For Science, and more
Youth Strike for Climate / Carbon Pricing and the Green New Deal / Beyond The Headlines / BirdNote®: How a Bird Came to Look Like a Caterpillar / "Hockey Stick" Climatologist Wins Tyler Prize
In this episode: A million or more students around the world join the Youth Climate Strike March 15th, inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and her school strike in front of the Swedish Parliament beginning in August of 2018.
Also, the Green New Deal resolution recently introduced in Congress is criticized for ignoring carbon pricing.
And climatologist Michael Mann became known for developing the "hockey stick" graph showing global temperature rise, which won him the respect of the scientific community as well as the ire of the fossil fuel industry. He's sharing the 2019 Tyler Environmental Prize.
All that and more, in this episode of Living on Earth from PRI.
51 min
Tornado Clusters and Climate Disruption, Cloning the Giant Sequoia, In Search of the Canary Tree, and more
Tornado Clusters and Climate Disruption / Beyond the Headlines / Oceans Losing Oxygen / Note on Emerging Science: Matchmaking for a Frog Named "Romeo" / Cloning Giant Sequoias / In Search of the Canary Tree
In this episode, climate disruption -- and resiliency.
Outbreaks of tornado clusters are being stoked by climate change, with 40 on the day that the strongest one devastated Lee County, Alabama.
Meanwhile, warmer water holds less oxygen than cooler water does, so as climate change warms the oceans, they're losing oxygen. Pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorus, also contribute to oxygen-starved "dead zones."
The warming planet is affecting forests, too, but they can be amazingly resilient. A nonprofit is working to give Coast Redwoods and Giant Sequoias a leg up on resiliency by cloning the hardiest trees.
And the author of the new book, "In Search of the Canary Tree," shares how forests, and communities in Southeast Alaska, are transforming in the wake of mass die-offs of giant cypresses known as yellow cedars.
All that and more, in this episode of Living on Earth from PRI.
51 min
Voters Grant Lake Erie Legal Rights, Volkswagen's All-Electric Future, A Tribute to Dick Wheeler and the Extinct Great Auk, and more
Lake Erie Wins Legal Rights / Beyond the Headlines / Volkswagen Goes All-Electric / Science Note: Using Mushrooms to Save The Bees / A Great Egret's Mating Dance / Remembering Dick Wheeler and the Great Auk
In this episode, the citizens of Toledo, Ohio have taken a major step to protect Lake Erie, the main source of their drinking water. They voted by a wide margin to grant the Lake Erie Watershed legal rights, so that people can bring lawsuits on behalf of the lake itself.
Also, as Volkswagen continues to work on repairing its image in the wake of its diesel emissions scandal, the German car manufacturer is turning over a new leaf with its announcement of a major all-electric car factory, to come online in 2022.
And Living on Earth pays a tribute to the late Dick Wheeler with a reprise of the story of his journey kayaking 1,500 miles along the migration route of the now-extinct Great Auk. We enlisted the help of master storyteller Jay O'Callahan and Dick Wheeler himself to tell this story, pulled from our 1999 archives.
Those stories and more, this week on Living on Earth from PRI.