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Protecting Tenerife's Marine Marvels
One of the recipients of this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize is helping to protect an especially biodiverse part of the oceans around the Canary Islands. Carlos Mallo Molina was previously a civil engineer who also loved scuba diving. When he found out about plans to build a massive port on the island of Tenerife that could have devastated the local marine life, he decided to leave construction and dedicate his career to protecting the oceans.
Seagrass "Gardening"
Seagrass is a foundation of marine ecosystems and stores as much as 35 times more carbon than a tropical rainforest, but warming ocean temperatures and other threats are wiping seagrass out. There is hope, though, as a project to “garden” or cultivate more resilient varieties is making waves along the U.S. East Coast.
Public Lands Reprieve
Last-minute changes in the House budget reconciliation bill included scrapping one of the more controversial amendments that would have sold off public lands in the southwest to private developers. But the overall bill isn’t a complete win for the environment, with even deeper cuts to clean energy tax credits added at the last minute.
Pope Leo and Creation Care
The new Pope, Leo XIV, has worked with interfaith environmental networks and there’s hope around the world that he may follow in the footsteps of his predecessor Pope Francis and bring issues of the environment and climate change to the forefront of his agenda.
Autism and Chemicals
Autism spectrum disorder is now diagnosed in about 1 in 31 children in the United States, a rise of 70 percent in just four years according to the CDC. In addition to better awareness and changing diagnostic tools, growing scientific evidence also points to the role of exposure to toxic chemicals especially during early development in the rising prevalence of autism.
"Countermeasures"- Dunlin
On the placid saltpans of Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in coastal Massachusetts, the shorebirds known as dunlin are feeding. Then, just like that, they rise and fly in almost perfect unison to evade an intruder, Living on Earth’s Explorer-in-Residence Mark Seth Lender reports.
Trump Sues States Over Climate Action
President Trump has directed the U.S. Department of Justice to sue four states, Vermont, New York, Hawaii, and Michigan, that are trying to recover some climate costs from major fossil fuel companies through “climate superfund” laws and litigation. The DOJ cases are seen by some as frivolous extensions of the other actions the Trump administration has taken to aid the fossil fuel industry.
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Public Lands Reprieve
Last-minute changes in the House budget reconciliation bill included scrapping one of the more controversial amendments that would have sold off public lands in the southwest to private developers. But the overall bill isn’t a complete win for the environment, with even deeper cuts to clean energy tax credits added at the last minute.
Trump Ignores Social Cost of Carbon
A new White House memo instructs federal agencies to disregard the economic impacts of climate change in their regulations and permitting decisions. This metric is known as the “social cost of carbon” and it has been used for decades to guide policy so that it considers the economic realities of our changing climate.
Seagrass "Gardening"
Seagrass is a foundation of marine ecosystems and stores as much as 35 times more carbon than a tropical rainforest, but warming ocean temperatures and other threats are wiping seagrass out. There is hope, though, as a project to “garden” or cultivate more resilient varieties is making waves along the U.S. East Coast.
This Week’s Show
May 23, 2025
listen / download
Public Lands Reprieve
listen / download
Last-minute changes in the House budget reconciliation bill included scrapping one of the more controversial amendments that would have sold off public lands in the southwest to private developers. But the overall bill isn’t a complete win for the environment, with even deeper cuts to clean energy tax credits added at the last minute.
Listening on Earth: Cenzontle and Zocalo
listen / download
This week’s “Listening on Earth” sounds come from listener Flynn Wendling, who shared the call of a mockingbird (or Cenzontle in Spanish) in Mexico that became his morning wake-up call; and from Living on Earth Producer Paloma Beltran, who visited Mexico City’s Zocalo and captured the sounds of a celebration of 700 years since the founding of Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City.
Trump Ignores Social Cost of Carbon
listen / download
A new White House memo instructs federal agencies to disregard the economic impacts of climate change in their regulations and permitting decisions. This metric is known as the “social cost of carbon” and it has been used for decades to guide policy so that it considers the economic realities of our changing climate.
EPA Cancels Climate Justice Grant
listen / download
Last year, a nonprofit group in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was awarded a large federal grant as part of a $2 billion climate justice program through the Inflation Reduction Act. But now that climate and environmental justice work are non grata at the federal government, their grant has evaporated. The Allegheny Front’s Julie Grant reports.
Protecting Tenerife's Marine Marvels
listen / download
One of the recipients of this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize is helping to protect an especially biodiverse part of the oceans around the Canary Islands. Carlos Mallo Molina was previously a civil engineer who also loved scuba diving. When he found out about plans to build a massive port on the island of Tenerife that could have devastated the local marine life, he decided to leave construction and dedicate his career to protecting the oceans.
Seagrass "Gardening"
listen / download
Seagrass is a foundation of marine ecosystems and stores as much as 35 times more carbon than a tropical rainforest, but warming ocean temperatures and other threats are wiping seagrass out. There is hope, though, as a project to “garden” or cultivate more resilient varieties is making waves along the U.S. East Coast.
Special Features
Field Note: "Countermeasures"
Living on Earth's Explorer-in-Residence, Mark Seth Lender, shares observations about shorebirds in flight.
Blog Series: Mark Seth Lender Field Notes
Field Note: "On the Greenland Ice"
Living on Earth's Explorer-in-Residence, Mark Seth Lender, shares observations about visiting the Greenland ice sheet.
Blog Series: Mark Seth Lender Field Notes
...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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