The multi trillion dollar budget reconciliation bill working through Congress includes billions of dollars to mitigate climate change, improve drinking water safety, and improve resiliency for coastal communities.   Also, a new study finds an association between high levels of phthalate in blood and premature death. These “everywhere chemicals” are linked to elevated risk for cardiovascular deaths for middle-aged Americans.   And Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Powers on his new book, Bewilderment, about a father and son struggling to survive as the damaged planet does the same. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Living on Earth

Biden Infrastructure and the Environment, Phthalates Linked to Premature Death, Author Richard Powers, and More

For Indigenous People’s Day we take a look at the “Land Back” movement that seeks to return land like the Black Hills in South Dakota to its original inhabitants and restore a meaningful connection to the land. Also, with the changing climate, polar bears are moving south in search of food, and grizzly bears are moving north in search of cooler climes. In some cases, the two have mated and created a hybrid animal known as a "pizzly" bear. And until recently landfills in America were often sited in coastal wetlands. Now rising seas are threatening to unleash their trash, toxics, and even nuclear waste into coastal areas.       Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Land Back" For Indigenous Peoples, Warming Arctic’s “Pizzly Bear” Hybrids, Rising Seas Threaten Landfills, and more

If nations adopt new air quality guidelines from the World Health Organization millions of lives could be saved every year from deadly air pollution. Also, for gardeners in the northern hemisphere, now is the time to take stock of this year’s successes and failures. Find out what you can do now to build fertile soil for next spring.  And as the harvest season picks up, we share preservation tips and tricks for keeping the bounty and preventing fresh produce from ending up in landfills. Join us on October 5 for our next Living on Earth Book Club event! “Guardians of the Trees” author Dr. Kinari Webb will join Steve Curwood and Bobby Bascomb to talk about healing the world’s rainforests and the communities who depend on them. Register at https://loe.org/events/   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Saving Seven Million Lives from Bad Air, Fall Gardening Tips, Putting Food By for a Sustainable Harvest and more

Industry and the US federal government have long worked in tandem to sideline climate concerns and continue to promote Earth-warming fossil fuels. Now the US House Oversight and Reform Committee has summoned top executives from Exxon, Shell, BP and Chevron and two affiliated lobbying groups to testify in front of a committee hearing in October, as part of an ongoing investigation into the fossil fuel industry's promotion of climate disinformation.   Also, for the past 50 years, the US government has known about the problem of climate change but has continued to promote fossil fuel development and done little to avert a crisis. Longtime environmental leader Gus Speth joins us to discuss his new book “They Knew.”   And a recent study found that three-quarters of young people surveyed believe the future is frightening because of climate change. What young people are expressing about their eco-anxiety and how parents can safely talk to their kids about climate.   Join us on October 5 for our next Living on Earth Book Club event! “Guardians of the Trees” author Dr. Kinari Webb will join Steve Curwood and Bobby Bascomb to talk about healing the world’s rainforests and the communities who depend on them. Register at https://loe.org/events/   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Big Oil Under Fire for Climate Disinformation; “They Knew”: The Feds’ 50-Year Climate Failure; Widespread Youth Anxiety About Climate and more

As COVID-19 spread continues and vaccine access remains limited in some of the countries most vulnerable to climate impacts, civil society is warning of a “vaccine apartheid” and calling for a delay of the upcoming UN climate talks. Also, how solar power can produce up to 40% of the nation's electricity by 2035 to meet President Biden’s goal of decarbonizing the grid by then.  And Harvard University announced that it will no longer invest in fossil fuel companies, following years of refusal amid a prominent and vocal divestment campaign. Join us on September 23 for our first Living on Earth Book Club event of the season! Richard Powers, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Overstory, will join Host Steve Curwood to talk about his new book Bewilderment. Register at https://loe.org/events/   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Vaccine Apartheid”: A Call to Delay UN Climate Talks, Getting the US Grid to 40 Percent Solar, Harvard Divests Fossil Fuels and more

Hurricane Ida left people in the Louisiana region known as ‘Cancer Alley’ with destroyed homes, no electricity, and polluted water. That’s on top of the toxic air they breathe every day because of some 150 petrochemical plants in the area. We hear from grassroots activist Sharon Lavigne, a 2021 Goldman Prize recipient, about what it’s like living through these disasters and what drives her to keep fighting yet another plastics plant.  Also, hummingbirds are truly superlative creatures -- relative to their size, they are both the world's fastest avians and have some of the longest migratory journeys of any animal. Sy Montgomery focuses on these incredible birds in her latest book, The Hummingbirds' Gift, where she looks back on her harrowing but rewarding time raising two orphaned baby hummingbirds alongside an artist and hummingbird rehabilitator. And join us on September 23 for our first Living on Earth Book Club event of the season! Richard Powers, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Overstory, will join Host Steve Curwood to talk about his new book Bewilderment. Register at loe.org/events

Hurricane Ida Adds Misery to Cancer Alley, ‘The Hummingbirds’ Gift,’ and more

As Living on Earth celebrates 30 years on the air, we examine this decisive moment for the human species and our challenging relationship with our planet.  We meet people who envision a future reshaped by an emerging energy system and new power structures, as we wean off of fossil fuels. Next we take a big-picture view of Earth as a complex and sustaining organism known as Gaia. Over billions of years life has interacted with the elements of this planet in cycles of constant change and adaptation. With the help of deep ecologists, children, an astronaut and more, we survey our place on this ever-evolving living planet. And while science and policy are vital in building a more sustainable world, they can’t convey the values we need as we strive for ecological harmony. Indigenous stories, holy scriptures, East Asian cosmologies, papal encyclicals and divine revelation all shed light on our duties and relationship to each other and to our common home.

The Way Forward For People And Our Planet

A major Alaska drilling project to tap 600 million barrels of oil has been blocked. A federal judge ruled in favor of Indigenous and environmental groups, finding that the permitting process has yet to fully consider impacts on the climate and polar bears.   Also, higher levels of the hormones estrogen and progesterone lead to a greater risk of breast cancer. Researchers at the Silent Spring Institute have shed new light on how chemical exposure can raise those hormone levels in women, and found that nearly 300 chemicals increased one or both hormones.   And an intricate web of roots and fungi connects life in an old growth forest, allowing ancient “mother trees” to nourish and protect their kin. A forest ecologist shares her research findings and reflects on how mother trees helped her through the challenges of motherhood and a cancer diagnosis.

Alaska Drilling Project Blocked, Chemicals and Breast Cancer Risk, Finding the Mother Tree and more

Scientists are once again sounding the alarm about the climate emergency, with a new UN climate report. Hundreds of experts collaborated to bring together the best science on past, present, and future climate change.  Also, the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill includes some green measures to address and invest in crumbling American infrastructure. But climate and environmental justice advocates say much more is needed now from a much larger budget reconciliation package that’s in the works.  And the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the pace of life for many of us, and for writer David Gessner, this era of retreating to our homes brought to mind one famous expert in social distancing. Looking to Henry David Thoreau for guidance on living through a pandemic, a time of racial reckoning, and a climate crisis.

U.N. Report Charts Possible Climate Futures, Investing in Green Infrastructure, Sheltering with Thoreau in the Age of Crisis and more

Earth’s complex, interconnected climate system means that changes in one part of the world can impact atmospheric moisture and the climate thousands of miles away. Research shows that when trees die in California from drought, wildfires, and bark beetles, that can hinder plant growth all the way across the continent in Eastern North America. Also, every year, several hundred intrepid hikers walk all the way from Mexico to Canada, along the Pacific Crest Trail. At more than twenty-six hundred miles long, it covers some of the most challenging and spectacular terrain in North America. But with a tight-knit community of thru-hikers, the PCT isn’t just about the pretty scenery.  And a walk in the woods might be just what your health care provider ordered. Numerous studies suggest that taking in the peaceful atmosphere of a forest can have significant health benefits. Now the practice of “forest bathing,” which originated in Japan in the 1980s as a form of nature therapy, is becoming more popular around the world.

Tree Deaths and Climate, ‘Forest Bathing’, Journeys North: The Pacific Crest Trail and more

Small particulates from fossil fuels are linked to as many as 300,000 excess deaths in the United States each year. And these small, PM 2.5 particulates may also be harming the mental health of children and teens by worsening depression, anxiety, suicidality and more. Also, the Colorado River that carved the Grand Canyon and now quenches the thirst of much of the American West is parched in a “megadrought.” Two key reservoirs are expected to drop to record low levels this year and trigger a formal water shortage declaration. Why supply continues to shrink as demand holds steady.  And a healthier planet also means a healthier society. We’ll look at the intersection of environmental change and human health, and how saving the planet can also save human lives.

Anxiety and Bad Air, Colorado River in Crisis, Planetary Health and more

As a slew of extreme weather events hits the headlines, the evidence mounts we are headed for dangerous thresholds of climate disruption beyond the reach of adaptation to cope. Why sea level rise could be counted in the dozens of feet by 2100, and how an unchecked climate emergency imperils human civilization. Also, the Biden Administration has now rolled out details of its environmental justice plan called Justice40, which aims to share at least 40% of benefits from federal climate and infrastructure spending with disadvantaged communities. And Charlotte McConaghy, the author of last year’s best-selling novel Migrations, talks about her newest book Once There Were Wolves. It’s a mysterious tale of a woman-led team working to re-introduce wolves to the Scottish Highlands, the people who confront them and the deadly toll of domestic abuse.    

The Climate Emergency Warning from Extreme Weather, Eco-Justice40, Imagining Wolves Returning to Scotland and more

New research confirms that the damaged Amazon rainforest is now a net contributor to climate change overall, and parts of the Amazon are showing signs of nearing a crucial “tipping point”. But there is hope for protecting the forest: Indigenous people have taken care of these forests for millennia, and now with the help of a nonprofit they’re using GPS data to take a stand against illegal deforestation. Also, many of us are fixated on the now, and in fact much of the environmental damage we are causing is an outcome of seeking short-term rewards at the cost of long-term sustainability. But the author of the book “Deep Time Reckoning” is on a mission to get us to think far beyond. He profiles safety experts in Finland working on how to prudently store nuclear power waste, which can be radioactive for millions of years.    

Amazon Near Climate Tipping Point, Indigenous People and Forest Care, Deep Time Reckoning: How Future Thinking Can Help Earth Now, and more

Over the past four decades, sperm counts have dropped by more than 50% in the US, and female fertility is also declining. Some chemicals that disrupt hormones are key culprits, including those found in plastics, cosmetics and fracking solutions. Why this looming fertility crisis hits vulnerable communities especially hard. Also, a recent study finds the toxic class of chemicals called PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals”, is widespread in lipstick, mascara, and other cosmetics. The ugly truth about your beauty products. And worried about the environmental degradation caused by increasing plastic pollution in her home country of Malawi, Gloria Majiga-Kamoto organized a grassroots movement to fight the plastic industry and to support a national ban on thin single-use plastic. She’s been recognized with a 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize.

The Troubling Decline in Fertility, Chemicals and Hormone Havoc, Winning a Fight Against Plastic Bags and more

Recent data show the Earth’s oceans are warming much more rapidly than previously reported. That means rising sea levels, stronger storms, and more intense droughts. Also, fertilizer runoff can create massive algae blooms in water that suck up oxygen and create dead zones for most other forms of life. The Chesapeake Bay is particularly vulnerable but restaurants in Pittsburgh are pitching in to help. And a documentary miniseries seeks to unravel the secrets of whale behavior and understand whale cultures of orcas, humpbacks, narwhals, belugas, and sperm whales. “Secrets of the Whales” and more, this week on Living on Earth.    

Ocean Warming Speeding Up, Oyster Shell Recycling, Secrets of the Whales and more

Living on Earth is a weekly news and information program from PRI about the world's changing environment, ecology, and human health. If there's something new about global warming, climate change, environmental politics or environmental quality and human health, you can count on Host Steve Curwood and the LOE public radio news team to keep you up to date with fair and accurate coverage.

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Living on Earth

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