Living on Earth World Media Foundation

On Earth Day President Biden announced the official launch of his new climate-focused jobs program, the American Climate Corps. Special Assistant to the President on Climate Maggie Thomas discusses the thousands of jobs the Corps offers in community outreach, biological surveys, invasive species removal and more.
 Also, small towns in Appalachia are being targeted for so-called chemical recycling plants, but residents are pushing back and citing concerns about chemical fires, air pollution, and toxic wastewater polluting local rivers. Opponents in Point Township, Pennsylvania succeeded in canceling a project there, and we discuss two other proposed chemical recycling plants in Ohio and West Virginia.
And lithium is used in electric vehicle batteries and plays a key role in the global shift towards clean transportation, but current extraction methods come with environmental costs. Some companies are exploring an alternative that taps brine water deep in the Earth. We explore how it works and what questions about its impacts remain.
--
We rely on support from listeners like you to keep our journalism strong. You can donate at loe.org – any amount is appreciated! – and thank you for your support.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our Earth Day special examines 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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some scientists are predicting this year’s Atlantic hurricane season will be extremely active as a La Niña develops amid ocean warmth linked to global warming. We discuss the science behind these factors and how people along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts can stay safe.
Also, the Biden Administration EPA recently awarded $20 billion to organizations who will turn around and offer low-interest loans to help communities participate in the clean energy transition. The program is catalyzing far more private capital and will help fund projects like insulating homes and replacing gas heating and cooking with heat pumps and induction stoves.
And in her poems, Catherine Pierce grapples with unfolding climate disaster and other 21st century perils, and the ways they reframe parenting. She shares poems from her books Danger Days and The Tornado Is the World and reflects on finding beauty and calls to action during the Anthropocene.
 --
We rely on support from listeners like you to keep our journalism strong. You can donate at loe.org – any amount is appreciated! – and thank you for your support.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The razor-thin majority Democrats hold in the Senate could be crucial to passing more climate legislation under a second term for President Biden, and in the event former President Trump is re-elected, could prevent the total unraveling of President Biden’s climate agenda. One of the key Senate races to watch in 2024 is the Ohio contest between incumbent Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown and Trump-endorsed Republican Bernie Moreno.
Also, on the northern California coast the Yurok tribe is getting 125 acres of its stolen land back thanks to an historic partnership between the National Park Service, California State Parks, and Save the Redwoods League. Chairman of the Yurok Tribe Joseph L James describes how the land will help nurture Yurok cultural traditions.
And in the 2020 novel Migrations set in the future, polar bears are extinct. So are chimpanzees and wolves and big cats. For the novel’s protagonist, this mass extinction is personal. So, she does the first thing that comes to mind: she makes her way onto a fishing boat to follow what might be the very last migration of the Arctic Tern from pole to pole.
-- 
We rely on support from listeners like you to keep our journalism strong. You can donate at loe.org – any amount is appreciated! – and thank you for your support.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

China’s electric car sales are in the fast lane and lead the world while the U.S. EV industry lags. Although Biden administration policies are designed to jumpstart EVs, a partisan divide on EVs is slowing adoption. What’s going on with the U.S. EV industry and why the future looks bright. 
Also, millions of acres of cropland in the U.S. may be contaminated from PFAS-tainted sewage sludge spread on fields as fertilizer. These “forever chemicals” are taken up by plants and then consumed by livestock and people, making them sick. And some say EPA has failed its mission to protect the public.
Plus, an international team of astronomers recently reported the discovery of a 13 billion-year-old black hole, the oldest ever observed, thanks to the powerful James Webb Space Telescope. Lead author Dr. Roberto Maiolino explores new questions about how these mysterious, extremely dense objects form and grow. 
--
Check out the full transcript we provide for every show, with pictures and links to more information, at the Living on Earth website, loe dot org.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A recent study of 1500 women in China found links between personal care product use and in-vitro fertilization problems, including slower embryo development and miscarriage. We discuss the findings and the growing evidence linking hormone disrupting chemicals to pregnancy difficulties for people using IVF.
Also, climate disasters, adaptation costs and market shifts threaten the value of public companies that are inadequately prepared for climate change. So, the Democratic majority US Securities and Exchange Commission recently approved a rule that will require public companies to inform investors about their greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks. But the rule was immediately met with pushback from industry and several Republican-led states.
And the handful of astronauts and cosmonauts on board the International Space Station float in a strange paradox, with the Earth constantly in view, but always out of reach. A new novel called Orbital explores the splendor of planet Earth as seen from orbit through a day in the life of six astronauts up on the ISS.
--
Check out the full transcript we provide for every show, with pictures and links to more information, at the Living on Earth website, loe dot org.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices