Making Big Oil Companies Pay for Climate Disruption
A growing list of US cities and counties are suing fossil fuel companies for damages linked to climate disruption. Among the biggest defendants are Shell and Exxon Mobil, and emerging evidence suggests that they understood the warming effects of greenhouse gas emissions decades ago.
Leave No Poop Behind
Research shows that most dog owners pick up after their pets in the street and at the local park, but often don’t take along a plastic bag when out hiking in the backcountry, assuming it’s no big deal. But all that dog poop does add up – and it’s introducing foreign bacteria and nutrients to forests, fields, and streams.
Bald Eagles At Play
Connecticut River ecosystems have been impoverished over centuries by logging and overfishing, but now American Bald Eagles are returning. Living on Earth’s Explorer-in-Residence Mark Seth Lender watches young eagles on the river as they lock talons and fly playfully and finds them compelling.
Pruitt Under Fire
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is caught in a crossfire of criticism from people who question his ethics and his attempts to rollback key rules that protect the climate and public health. League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski discusses the campaign to “Boot Pruitt,” which his organization is co-leading.
Pruitt Seeks To Double Auto Emissions
EPA Administrator Pruitt has announced that his agency will seek to scrap Obama-era auto emissions standards, a move that would potentially double allowable vehicle pollution by 2025. The decision also sets the stage for a possible legal battle between the federal government and California, which wants to keep its stronger standards.
Steve in the Sky
Up in the Northern sky, a mysterious, heavenly purple and green ribbon of light that’s been dubbed “Steve” appears now and then. Thanks to collaboration between citizen scientists and astronomers, “Steve” has now been mostly explained but another object in the night sky called, “The Blob” is still a mystery.
The Great Lakes and Climate Change
In the last 30 years the largest fresh water lake in the world in terms of surface area, Lake Superior, has warmed nearly six degrees Fahrenheight. The increased temperature is a boon to some fish but warmer water is also more suitable for some species.
Beyond the Headlines
Peter Dykstra of the Daily Climate and Environmental Health News brings us some far-flung environmental stories from this past week that didn’t make the headlines. This week: salt intrusion in Bangladesh and rare earth mining in Greenland.
Cape Wind in Doubt
Wind turbines in the Irish Sea. The United States has yet to establish offshore wind, but countries in Europe have taken the plunge (photo: Andy Dingley)
Pruitt's EPA Allows Dirtier Air
In January 2018, the EPA revoked the Clean Air Act policy known as “Once In, Always In." The rollback of this longstanding provision allows emitters to relax their use of air pollution control technologies, and environmental groups are suing to put the tougher controls back in place.
Leave No Poop Behind
Research shows that most dog owners pick up after their pets in the street and at the local park, but often don’t take along a plastic bag when out hiking in the backcountry, assuming it’s no big deal. But all that dog poop does add up – and it’s introducing foreign bacteria and nutrients to forests, fields, and streams.
Spoiled Water for 300,000: What Lies Upstream
A 2018 documentary film, What Lies Upstream, investigates a chemical spill in 2014 that left 300,000 West Virginia residents with unsafe drinking water. Lax regulations for chemicals, and the shortcomings of government agencies – problems hardly unique to the “Mountain State” – put much of the rest of America at risk as well.
This Week’s Show
April 13, 2018
listen / download
Making Big Oil Companies Pay for Climate Disruption
listen / download
A growing list of US cities and counties are suing fossil fuel companies for damages linked to climate disruption. Among the biggest defendants are Shell and Exxon Mobil, and emerging evidence suggests that they understood the warming effects of greenhouse gas emissions decades ago.
Pruitt's EPA Allows Dirtier Air
listen / download
In January 2018, the EPA revoked the Clean Air Act policy known as “Once In, Always In." The rollback of this longstanding provision allows emitters to relax their use of air pollution control technologies, and environmental groups are suing to put the tougher controls back in place.
Leave No Poop Behind
listen / download
Research shows that most dog owners pick up after their pets in the street and at the local park, but often don’t take along a plastic bag when out hiking in the backcountry, assuming it’s no big deal. But all that dog poop does add up – and it’s introducing foreign bacteria and nutrients to forests, fields, and streams.
BirdNote®: Sharp-tailed Grouse On a Lek
listen / download
Male sharp-tailed grouse are among the few bird species that use communal mating dances to attract females. In today’s BirdNote®, Michael Stein describes the birds’ display and explains why the leks where they gather to dance are becoming more scarce.
Spoiled Water for 300,000: What Lies Upstream
listen / download
A 2018 documentary film, What Lies Upstream, investigates a chemical spill in 2014 that left 300,000 West Virginia residents with unsafe drinking water. Lax regulations for chemicals, and the shortcomings of government agencies – problems hardly unique to the “Mountain State” – put much of the rest of America at risk as well.
Beyond The Headlines
listen / download
This week, tales of spies, murder, and divine intervention, as we follow a plan to track illegal fishing with the help of GPS-fitted albatrosses, and park ranger murders in Virunga National Park, DRC. Then, deep in the history vaults we find a freak April storm during the Hundred Years War that precipitated a truce.
Bald Eagles At Play
listen / download
Connecticut River ecosystems have been impoverished over centuries by logging and overfishing, but now American Bald Eagles are returning. Living on Earth’s Explorer-in-Residence Mark Seth Lender watches young eagles on the river as they lock talons and fly playfully and finds them compelling.
Special Features
Field Note: Eagles At Play
In this field note, Living on Earth’s Explorer-in-Residence Mark Seth Lender remarks on the powerful hold the American Bald Eagle has on our collective awe, and on how severely we have decimated their numbers in the centuries since Europeans landed on North America’s shores.
Blog Series: Mark Seth Lender Field Notes
Sexual Misconduct in the U.S. Forest Service: Michaela Myers' Story
listen / download
Michaela Myers finished college in 2017 and landed what she thought was a dream job: working with the US Forest Service fighting wildfires in Oregon. But a pattern of sexual harassment and hazing by her boss and colleagues turned that dream into a nightmare. She tells her story to Living on Earth host Steve Curwood.
Blog Series: LOE Updates
PBS Journalist Liz Flock on Sexual Misconduct in the U.S. Forest Service
listen / download
PBS NewsHour conducted an investigation into sexual harassment in the U.S. Forest Service, interviewing 34 women along the way. Reporter Liz Flock discusses with Living on Earth host Steve Curwood the culture of sexual harassment at the agency that the women she spoke with described.
Blog Series: LOE Updates
...Ultimately, if we are going prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes, we are going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground rather than burn them...
-- President Barack Obama, November 6, 2015 on why he declined to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline.
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