PODCAST · news
Living on Earth
by World Media Foundation
As the planet we call home faces a climate emergency, Living on Earth is your go-to source for the latest coverage of climate change, ecology, and human health. Hosted by Steve Curwood and brought to you by PRX.
Episodes
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Powerful Pacific Storms Amid ‘Super’ El Niño, Pesticide Atrazine Contaminating 25% of Rivers, and ‘A Guardian and a Thief’
Boosted by climate change, this year’s El Niño has intensified into a “Super El Niño,” meaning sea surface temperatures in parts of the Pacific are over 2 degrees Celsius hotter than average. How this has brought one strong storm after another churning across the Pacific Ocean while shutting down...
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Maine Senate Race, Climate and Environment; Public Power and Industry Pushback; The Carbon Wave and more.
The closely watched race for US Senate in Maine is pitting two environmentally concerned candidates against each other. Not only do Republican Susan Collins and Democrat Troy Jackson both have fairly similar green and climate views, they’re from the same rural county and both have roots in the...
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‘Blockbuster’ Climate Case at Supreme Court, The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light, State Elections and the Climate, and more.
When the US Supreme Court set Monday, October 5th for oral arguments on an appeal from the Colorado State Supreme Court by Suncor and Exxon, it highlighted what could become a landmark case about damage from climate change and the role of fossil fuels. Why the case could make or break the ability...
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Climate Justice and Healing for Nepal, Leaders Meet Amid Climate Warnings, 12 Trillion Tons of Melted Ice and more.
After the deadly floods in Nepal this August, researchers rapidly assessed the event and concluded that climate change played a “very strong” role in the catastrophic glacial collapse. We discuss the human toll of the floods and the moral duty of the world to slow the climate crisis and help…
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Alarming Global Temperature Rise, Batteries Kicking Out Natural Gas, In Trees, BirdNote®: Roosting Tree Swallows, and more.
2026 was recorded as one of the hottest summers globally, with deadly heatwaves in Europe and catastrophic floods in Nepal. We discuss how the United Nations put out a report warning that current climate policies will lead to at least 1.8°C of global temperature increase, well beyond the 1.5°C…
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Glaciers Crumble as Earth Warms, Climate-Resilient “Super Reefs”, Fat Marmot Week and “OnlyMarms”, and more.
The devastating August 2026 flash floods in Nepal and Tibet were triggered in part by a glacial collapse, a phenomenon likely to become more frequent as the Earth continues to rapidly warm due to human caused climate change. We discuss why climate change is making mountains and glaciers more...
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Blocking New UK Oil and Gas, An Indigenous Bison Harvest, Terry Tempest Williams on ‘The Glorians’ and more.
Great Britain is Europe’s third largest oil and gas producer, even with a commitment to a net-zero economy by 2050. A small group of climate activists is helping the UK meet that target by winning a Supreme Court decision that’s blocking any new UK oil and gas projects that don’t assess climate...
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Highway Reborn as Public Park, Gardening for Special Needs, The Light Between Apple Trees, and more.
The four-lane Great Highway used to run along the Pacific Ocean on the west side of San Francisco, where it was at risk of erosion from sea level rise. Now it’s been transformed into a park where visitors can bike, walk, skate, and play next to the water. Also, for people with developmental or...
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Baby Right Whales Bring Hope, Tylenol Upcycled from Plastic, Community-Led Wildfire Prevention in Africa and more.
North Atlantic Right whales were once so thoroughly hunted they nearly went extinct. When hunting these mammals was outlawed, they slowly started to bounce back, but today Right whales are dealing with newer deadly threats, such as fishing gear entanglement and warming in the Gulf of Maine. So,...
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PFAS and Our Genes, Artemis II Science and Awe, and Clearing the Air and Climate Solutions Hope
A 2025 study found that exposure to certain PFAS chemicals, which are pervasive and persistent in the environment and human bodies, can lead to changes in gene expression that are linked to cancers, autoimmune and other immune disorders, and neurological disorders. Also, the four astronauts of…
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A Cemetery Buzzing with Bees, Bluetooth Butterfly Tracking, How Flowers Made Our World, and more.
While honeybees get most of the buzz, most bees don’t produce honey, and most don’t even live in colonies. Instead, they’re solitary bees who build individual nests. A study details an astonishing finding of several million solitary bees in a cemetery in Ithaca, New York. And monarch butterflies...
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Saving the Klamath, Salmon, and Yurok Culture; Trump Attempts to Shrink Bears Ears -- Again; Hints of Life on Mars; and more.
The culture of the Yurok tribe in Northern California is deeply intertwined with the Klamath river’s salmon. So, when toxic conditions caused by the dams on the river resulted in a massive fish kill, the Yurok people sprang into action and secured the historic removal of four dams, a story…
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Climate Change Speeding Up, Smog and Sunshine – CA’s Cleaner Air, and more.
Current climate change has been well underway for decades, but the rate of that change is now going up so fast that people are noticing things like tornados and extreme heat waves are occurring in places where they have rarely been seen before. How greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, the...
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Extreme Heat and Tooth Decay, The Problem with Plastic, National Parks Magic and more.
The extreme heat that’s becoming far more common in a warming world is now being linked to dental problems. As the body prioritizes sweat for cooling over saliva production, the resulting dry mouth can have devastating impacts on your teeth, and a dentist in Pakistan is documenting a tooth decay...
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Antarctic Ice Missing, Arctic Peatlands Expanding, Nuts to Feed the World and more
Midsummer in the Northern hemisphere marks the dead of winter in Antarctica, usually a time when temperatures plunge and the surrounding ocean ices over, nearly doubling the continent’s size. But this June, scientists found Antarctica’s west coast was missing a chunk of sea ice the size of…
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America’s Enduring Ecology: Forests, Public Lands, and more
As we mark America’s 250th birthday, we celebrate parts of America’s enduring ecology, including our forests, national parks and other public lands. At the heart of one of Washington State’s most expansive wild ecosystems is North Cascades National Park, just a three-hour drive from Seattle yet…
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When the Forest Breathes with Suzanne Simard, Ocean Monitoring Restored, Fighting Fracking in Colombia and more.
Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard has shown through her research that the biggest and oldest ‘Mother Trees’ in the forest anchor networks of social connection among the trees, and indeed the whole forest ecosystem. Her latest book is When the Forest Breathes: Renewal and Resilience in the Natural...
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How Flowers Made Our World, A Cemetery Buzzing with Bees, El Niño Is Here, and more.
Lush peonies, delicate hydrangeas, and vibrant roses burst into bloom in early summer, filling gardens and parks with color and fragrance. But flowers are more than their beauty. They’re some of the oldest beings on Earth, and they played a large role in shaping the natural world as we know it....
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Juneteenth! Celebrating Black and Brown Stewards of the Green Earth
To celebrate Juneteenth we tell the story of plant biologist Beronda Montgomery. When she sat down to write what became a personal memoir mixed with a botanical history of African Americans, she found her research as a PhD lab scientist had brought her squarely into the world of social science as...
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Trump Cuts Ocean Monitoring, Ancient Greek Sites Rich in Biodiversity, Seeking Environmental Justice in Papua New Guinea, and more.
The National Science Foundation has announced it will begin removing most of the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a collection of roughly 900 instruments in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans that gathers fixed-point data on temperature, carbon dioxide levels, and more. The move is part of a broader...
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U.N. Affirms Climate Duty, World Cup in a Warming World, Terry Tempest Williams on ‘The Glorians’ and more.
More than two-thirds of U.N. members recently voted in favor of a resolution affirming a landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice that countries have a legal obligation to limit global warming. While this advisory opinion is not enforceable, it will likely be cited in lawsuits and...
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Cancer and CAFOs, Baby Right Whales Bring Hope, and Indigenous Wisdom in Science.
Living near more large Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations or CAFOs may raise cancer risk, according to a study from Yale researchers. With thousands of cows, pigs, or chickens packed in small spaces, CAFOs produce a lot of waste that pollutes air and water, which may explain the cancer...
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Blocking New UK Oil and Gas, China Making Green Aluminum, Elephant Elder Wisdom and more.
Great Britain is Europe’s third largest oil and gas producer, even with a commitment to a net-zero economy by 2050. A small group of climate activists is helping the UK meet that target by winning a Supreme Court decision that’s blocking any new UK oil and gas projects that don’t assess climate...
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Willing to End Fossil Fuels, AJR Rock Star Recruits for Climate Action, Major National Climate Victory in S. Korea, and more.
A new “coalition of the willing” to transition away from fossil fuels recently gathered in Colombia, born in part out of frustration over fossil fuel friendly nations like the US, Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia stalling the longtime UN climate process. Also, the indie-pop band AJR is known for…
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Glyphosate at the Supreme Court, How Oil Fuels Conflict, The Indigenous Fight to Save Bristol Bay, and more.
The US Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments for Monsanto v. Durnell, a case about whether states can require warning labels on pesticides if the EPA does not. This stems from thousands of lawsuits against Roundup maker Monsanto, alleging that farmers and landscapers who developed cancer...
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Boundary Waters Mining Threat, Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, and Community-Led Wildfire Prevention in Africa.
The US Senate recently voted to reverse a moratorium on mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, a million acres on the US-Canada border that’s teeming with wildlife and crystal-clear waters. The region is also rich in valuable copper, nickel, and cobalt, but Sen. Tina...
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Earth Day – 1970 vs Now, Artemis II Science and Awe, and Clearing the Air and Climate Solutions Hope
The first Earth Day in 1970, when some 20 million people peacefully demonstrated, arrived amid Vietnam War protests and other social unrest. And it came not long after the Apollo 8 astronauts snapped the iconic “Earthrise” photo that showed all of us were on a single, fragile planet amid the...
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Floating Border Wall, Climate Coverage Dropoff, “Night Owl” – Poems, and more.
About two thirds of the US-Mexico border is along the Rio Grande, and the Trump Administration is working to install hundreds of miles of buoy barriers in the river. Now residents of border towns are raising the alarm over how these buoys could impact wildlife, restrict access to the river and...
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Colonizing the Moon, Trump Waives Endangered Species Protections, and A Citizen Science Bioblitz.
The astronauts of the Artemis II mission are prospecting for a planned base on the moon, the first lunar expedition since 1972. The crew includes the first woman, the first person of color, and first Canadian to travel to the Moon. Danny Olivas, an engineer and retired NASA astronaut, talks about...
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Climate Resilience Grants Resume, The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything, and A Woolly Rhino DNA Discovery
A federal judge recently issued an enforcement order mandating the release of funds from FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities or BRIC program, which the Trump administration had stalled. Why money spent to protect critical infrastructure from disasters like storms, floods and...
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Vanguard Retreats from ESG, Running Free from Pricey Gas—EVs, A Vision of a Wind-Powered Venezuela and more.
The investment giant Vanguard is retreating from its climate initiatives as part of a $30 million settlement deal for an anti-trust lawsuit brought by Republican state attorneys general. The lawsuit alleged that Vanguard and fellow asset managers BlackRock and State Street, which are still…
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Fires and Logging Justice, Back to the Moon, Pioneering Women in Science and more.
A decades-old US Forest Service rule that’s been used to supposedly reduce wildfire risk through large-scale logging while bypassing environmental review has been deemed unlawful by a federal court in Oregon. Clearcutting can instead increase wildfire risk, and our guest says USFS needs to…
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Justice Advances in Cancer Alley; Trump, Glyphosate and Cancer; Stinky Seaweed Menace and more.
Descendants of enslaved people fighting pollution in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ have been greenlit for a trial. Their lawsuit alleges the St. James Parish government discriminated against Black residents by repeatedly permitting industrial plants in predominantly Black districts while shielding...
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Bonaire Residents Fight for Climate Justice, The Possibility of Tenderness, Wastewater to Wealth and more.
The Dutch special municipality of Bonaire in the Caribbean is already experiencing dangerous heat and could see a fifth of its land disappear under rising seas by 2100. But the Netherlands is discriminating against these overseas citizens by failing to adequately reduce global warming emissions…
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Trump Canceling Climate Regs, Stormy Weather for Climate Science, Bluetooth Butterfly Tracking and more.
After a landmark Supreme Court case that directed EPA to determine whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health, the agency found in 2009 that indeed they do. Now, the Trump EPA is attempting to revoke that endangerment finding to unravel all subsequent regulations on...
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US Losing Economic and Energy Edge to China, Wind Power Headwinds, Daisy Rewilds and more.
The ongoing efforts of the Trump Administration to walk back climate policy and clean energy development may be handing over the health of the US economy to our chief economic rival. China is outpacing US economic growth by supplying the world with the clean technologies vital today and in the...
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The Law and Environmental Justice, The Power of Black history, The Quest for Env. Justice in Shiloh and more.
In honor of Black History Month Special we highlight some of the voices that stood up against environmental injustice including Civil rights activist the Rev. Dr. Ben Chavis, Dr. Robert Bullard who’s been deemed the “Father of Environmental Justice”, and Louisiana attorney and human rights…
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Hot Prospects for Geothermal Energy, Do Aliens Speak Physics? Global Health Under Trump and more.
As geothermal heating and cooling slowly spreads in the U.S., some communities and utilities are looking to grow small pilot projects into much larger networks of pipes and heat pumps that extract and store heat in the earth to warm and cool homes and businesses as needed. We hear about a large...
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US Leaves Top Climate Science Body, Health and Economic Costs of Fossil Fuels, Gardening for Special Needs and more.
The Trump Administration is withdrawing the US from the scientific Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC, which reports agreement about the basic scientific facts of global warming and the impact of core technologies to address it. A lead author of the IPCC fourth assessment report in...
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Trump Ices Climate Diplomacy, Western Water Crisis Boiling Over, Fungi and Climate Resilience, and more.
The Trump Administration recently announced plans to withdraw the United States from dozens of United Nations treaties and organizations including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, a treaty that was ratified by the US Senate in 1992 and is the key international forum for addressing…
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Environment and Rule of Law Under Trump, Sea of Grass and the Disappearing Prairie, An Indigenous Bison Harvest and more.
In its first year, the second Trump Administration slashed environmental regulations and programs, overstepping its executive authority in the eyes of some environmental advocates. But the judicial and legislative branches appear unable or unwilling to provide a check on what legal expert Pat...
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A City on Mars and the Perils of Settling Space; and Out-of-this-World Discoveries from 2025
As a new space race heats up, private companies and sovereign nations alike have their sights on setting up permanent human settlements in space – but huge technological, medical and legal challenges remain. Kelly and Zach Weinersmith join us to talk about their book A City on Mars: Can We Settle...
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The Earth Is Our Home For the Holidays and Always
At this coldest, darkest time of year, draw near the fire and the radio, join with family and friends, and savor the warmth and joy of good company, good food, and good stories. Master storyteller Jay O’Callahan shares some tales, including one about his community’s tradition of Christmas…
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Winter Solstice Stories and Songs
In many cultures, stories passed down through the generations explain how the world got to be the way it is. The Haudenosaunee people of Northeastern North America have a story about how the star cluster known as the Pleiades came to be, told by Perry Ground, Turtle Clan member of the Onondaga...
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Bill McKibben on Abundant Solar and the Waning Power of Fossil Fuels, and more.
Climate activist Bill McKibben, who authored The End of Nature nearly 40 years ago, is back with Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization. He joins us for a wide-ranging discussion on the stunning growth of renewable energy from the sun and wind, led…
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AI Power Demand and the Climate, MAHA and MAGA Divide Over Pesticides, and Robin Wall Kimmerer on The Serviceberry.
Artificial intelligence or AI’s huge appetite for power is reviving demand for older and dirtier fossil fuel energy. We talk about the massive data centers that power AI, community pushback, and how AI seems to be putting vital climate targets out of reach. Also, the Make America Healthy Again or...
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Bonus: Sy Montgomery on "The Chicken Universe", Earth Heat for Cozy Homes, and Hiking on Wheels
This Giving Tuesday, we've put together some favorite stories into a special bonus episode! Please enjoy, and don't forget to head to loe.org and click on Donate at the top of the page. Thank you so much for helping Living on Earth keep going strong. In this bonus episode you'll hear: Author and...
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Wildfire Threats and Resilience
Wildfire smoke is fouling air quality across the US with increasing regularity, and it carries a heavy toll. A September 2025 study published in the journal Nature found that every year around 40,000 Americans are dying from wildfire smoke, with more on the way as the planet warms. Air filters,...
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Tropical Forests, Forever? Air Pollution Pioneers, and Thanksgiving Feast Favorites.
As the host of this year’s UN climate treaty negotiations and home to most of the Amazon tropical rainforest, Brazil led a major advance for forests and their indigenous inhabitants. The new $125 billion fund, with guarantees for investors, will send its profits to countries with documented…
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Energy Powers Democratic Wins, Earth’s Cryosphere On Thin Ice, Rights of Nature for Stingless Bees and more.
November’s elections brought victories across the country for state and local Democratic candidates who pledged to address rising energy costs. The challenges of meeting those promises the incoming Governors of Virginia and New Jersey, and Mayor of New York, will likely face. Also, a recent…
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Living on Earth currently has 1000 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Living on Earth about?
As the planet we call home faces a climate emergency, Living on Earth is your go-to source for the latest coverage of climate change, ecology, and human health. Hosted by Steve Curwood and brought to you by PRX.
How often does Living on Earth release new episodes?
Living on Earth releases new episodes frequently with a large back catalog of 1000 episodes. Check the episode list for recent publication dates.
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Living on Earth is created and hosted by World Media Foundation.
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