Living on Earth

Latest Episodes:

'Mayor Pete' and the Climate, Pesticide Risks Ignored at Trump Interior Dept., Greater Peril for Greater Sage Grouse, and more Apr 12, 2019

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'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.

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Cyclone Idai Update, Climate Action Now Bill, A First Steamy Date for 'Romeo and Juliet', and more Apr 05, 2019

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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.

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Losing Ground: Midwest Floods Rip Away Topsoil, Brazil Grabs Indigenous Lands, Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country, and more Mar 29, 2019

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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.

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Minorities' Pollution Burden, Oil Drilling on 500,000 Acres Blocked for Climate, Sen. Murkowski (R-AK) on the Public Lands Bill, and more Mar 22, 2019

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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.

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Youth Strike for Climate, Carbon Pricing and the Green New Deal, Michael Mann Fights For Science, and more Mar 15, 2019

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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.

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Tornado Clusters and Climate Disruption, Cloning the Giant Sequoia, In Search of the Canary Tree, and more Mar 08, 2019

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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.

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Voters Grant Lake Erie Legal Rights, Volkswagen's All-Electric Future, A Tribute to Dick Wheeler and the Extinct Great Auk, and more Mar 01, 2019

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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.

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Wall Street and the Green New Deal, Listening to Forests to Aid Conservation, Saltwater Beavers Promote Estuary Health, and more Feb 22, 2019

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Wall Street and the Green New Deal / Beyond the Headlines / Listening to Forests Can Aid Conservation / California Tree Deaths Could Hurt Forests on the East Coast / Confronting Climate Change Through Sound / Saltwater Beavers Bring Life Back to Estuaries / BirdNote®: Anna's Hummingbirds Winter in the North This week on Living on Earth, critics of the Green New Deal are quick to point out its significant costs. But the federal government may not need to finance it alone: investors might be enticed to claim a slice of the Green New Deal pie. Also, it turns out that beavers, a keystone species in some freshwater ecosystems, could hold the key to help restore degraded coastal habitats, too. Their intertidal dams could provide crucial habitat for salmon, waterfowl, and many other species. And listening to forests might help protect them. Scientists are gathering acoustic data from animals that make sounds, like birds, primates and insects, to illuminate the health of a forest and even catch illegal loggers and poachers in the act. Those stories and more, in this episode of Living on Earth from PRI.

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The Border Wall's Wildlife Impacts, Bipartisan Public Lands Bill, Monarch Butterflies Rebound, and more Feb 15, 2019

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Senate Passes Bipartisan Public Lands Bill / Understanding the Green New Deal / Beyond The Headlines / Monarch Butterflies Rebound / The Border Wall's Wildlife Impacts / Refugees Cultivate Healing Through Gardening In this episode, biologists warn that President Trump's plan to build a wall along the U.S.--Mexico border could have disastrous consequences for rare borderland species like jaguars and pygmy owls. In other news for cross-border species, biologists are celebrating a boost to eastern monarch butterflies, which overwinter in Mexico; their population grew 144 percent from last year. But it's a different story for the western monarch population, which is on the edge of extinction. Still, there's something else to celebrate this week: conservation remains a bipartisan priority, as the Senate just passed the most sweeping land conservation bill in a decade. It designates 1.3 million new acres of wilderness and five new national monuments, and permanently authorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Those stories and more, in this episode of Living on Earth from PRI.

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Toxicants in Diapers and Sanitary Pads, Climate Displacement in Bangladesh, California's Neighborhood Burn Squads, and more Feb 08, 2019

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Toxicants in Diapers and Sanitary Pads / A Green New Deal For All / Bangladesh's Climate Migration Crisis / Beyond The Headlines / Neighborhood Burn Squads Fight Fire With Fire A new study finds that single-use diapers and sanitary pads contain phthalates and volatile organic compounds, chemicals that are known to cause a variety of health complications including birth defects and endocrine disruption. Also, climate impacts like sea level rise, extreme storms, and droughts are creating a migration crisis. Ground zero for climate migration is Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to leave coastal homes. And some California communities at high risk for catastrophic wildfire are taking steps to prepare for disaster and reduce their risk by conducting controlled burns on their own. Neighborhood burn squads and more, in this episode of Living on Earth from PRI.

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