Living on Earth Podcast
1) 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 ...Show More
2) 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 bill...Show More
3) 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 Go...Show More
4) UN Climate Talks Kick Off in Brazil, Pope and King Share a Prayer for Creation, Hurricane Melissa Recovery Effort and more.
The biggest climate negotiations of the year, COP30, are kicking off in Belem in the Brazilian Amazon. Longtime COP observer Jennifer Morgan joins us to preview COP30 and discuss the focus on closing ...Show More
5) Climate Monster in the Caribbean, Gwich’in People Resist Arctic Drilling, Serial Killers and Lead Exposure, and more.
Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean in modern times, left a wake of destruction in Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti that will take years to recover from. A Jamaican climate physics prof...Show More
6) The Forest Cost of Beef, Media and the Meat Habit, Rebuilding Back Better After Wildfire and more.
A recent Human Rights Watch report found that illegal cattle ranching and clearing of the Amazon rainforest has led to the forced eviction of small farmers and indigenous people in the state of Pará, ...Show More
7) Coalition Defends Solar for All, Taming the Monsters of Halloween Waste, Chicago River Restored to Health and more.
Facing lost jobs and higher energy prices after the Trump EPA canceled $7 billion in low-income solar grants, a coalition of labor, green and anti-poverty groups is teaming up to fight in court for cl...Show More
8) China’s Climate Pledge, Balcony Solar, Remembering Jane Goodall and more.
China has for the first time committed to an absolute target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, by 7 to 10 percent by 2035. We discuss China’s growing dominance in the global clean energy transition ...Show More
9) Youth Climate Case, Salmon Run Fattens Bears, The Practice of Re-Enchantment and more.
In the federal youth climate case Lighthiser v. Trump, plaintiffs are seeking immediate relief from three executive orders and subsequent actions of the Trump administration that boost fossil fuels. B...Show More
10) Trump Denies, China Leads on Climate; Highway Reborn as Public Park; An Extraordinary New Telescope; and more.
Speaking to the UN, President Trump railed against climate science and clean energy, drawing sharp rebukes from other nations, rival politicians and business leaders. Meanwhile, China for the first ti...Show More