Jenni Doering

542 appearances on Living on Earth, from 2014 to 2026.

May 29, 2026: U.N. Affirms Climate Duty
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 appeals as a fact in the fight against climate disruption. Inside Climate News reporter Bob Berwyn speaks with Host Jenni Doering about the significance of the ruling and its U.N. adoption.
May 29, 2026: Terry Tempest Williams on 'The Glorians'
The Utah desert with its raw beauty has long been a muse for writer Terry Tempest Williams. In her 2026 book, The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary, she explores miraculous moments of grace that call for our attention, even in spaces that may at first seem unremarkable. Terry Tempest Williams joined Hosts Steve Curwood and Jenni Doering for an online Living on Earth Book Club event.
May 29, 2026: World Cup in a Warming World
The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup will mostly take place during the North American summer, and the prospect of extreme heat prompted a group of current and former players to write an open letter to FIFA calling for better protection of players. Stuart Parkinson, a co-author of the 2025 report “FIFA’s Climate Blind Spot: The Men’s World Cup in a Warming World”, talks with Host Steve Curwood about the risks for players and fans as well as the climate costs of the 2026 games.
May 08, 2026: Willing to End Fossil Fuels
The first gathering of a new international “coalition of the willing” to transition away from fossil fuels recently took place in Colombia. It’s a separate event from the UN COP climate negotiations and was born in part out of frustration over fossil fuel friendly nations like the US, Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia stalling the COP process. Rodrigo Estrada, Senior Climate Advisor at Greenpeace International, was there and joins Host Aynsley O’Neill to share the takeaways and next steps.
May 08, 2026: Nostalgic Mothering: "Saturnine" Poem
Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of the collection of poems Night Owl, joined us in April for poetry month. And in this poem, called “Saturnine,” Aimee recalls a moment when her then-seven-year-old son announced his plan to move to Saturn, reminding her that one day, she’d have to let her little boy fly from the nest. Aimee Nezhukumatathil speaks with Host Jenni Doering.
May 08, 2026: Coastal Damage Cases Move to Federal Court
In 2025, a Louisiana jury awarded Plaquemines Parish $745 million to repair environmental damages and land loss caused by oil giant Chevron and its subsidiary Texaco over many decades. But in April the US Supreme Court ruled 8 to 0 that the claims belong in federal court. In his majority opinion Justice Clarence Thomas found that Chevron’s work producing aviation fuel for the United States military during World War II made them federal agents beyond the reach of state courts. Blaine LeCesne, a distinguished professor and an associate dean at the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, explained the case with Living on Earth’s Paloma Beltran.
May 08, 2026: Night Owl" -- Poems by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
The poems in Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s new book Night Owl offer a window into the magic of nature at night and a light in the darkness. She joins Host Jenni Doering to share selected poems from the collection and talk about how poetry can help us grapple with ecological loss and celebrate natural wonders alike.
April 24, 2026: Boundary Waters Mining Threat
On April 16 the US Senate 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. For years a Chilean company has proposed to extract valuable copper, nickel, and cobalt there using copper sulfide mining. Democratic Senator from Minnesota Tina Smith speaks with Host Jenni Doering about why in her view mining in the same watershed as the Boundary Waters is not worth the risk.
April 24, 2026: Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism
While electrifying transportation is essential to addressing the climate crisis, the mining of nickel, copper, and lithium required to build out these green technologies brings its own environmental and social costs. To understand these impacts, author and political scientist Thea Riofrancos traveled to the Atacama Desert in Chile, home to one of the largest lithium reserves in the world. She joins Host Paloma Beltran to discuss her book, Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism.
April 24, 2026: Community-Led Wildfire Prevention in Africa
Nigerian conservation ecologist Iroro Tanshi rediscovered the short-tailed roundleaf bat in 2016, after decades when it was believed extinct in the region. The species is still critically endangered, with habitat loss from wildfires as one of its top threats. So Iroro joined with local groups to start a community-led program to develop safer field burning practices and wildfire fighting strategies. Iroro Tanshi is the recipient of the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa and talks with Host Jenni Doering.
April 10, 2026: Floating Border Wall
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, to prevent illegal crossings. Now residents of border towns, researchers, and activists are raising the alarm over how those buoys and other barriers could impact wildlife, restrict access to the river and sever cultural ties. Martha Pskowski, a reporter based in Texas for our media partner Inside Climate News, joins Host Paloma Beltran to discuss.
April 10, 2026: Night Owl" -- Poems by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
The poems in Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s new book Night Owl offer a window into the magic of nature at night and a light in the darkness. She joins Host Jenni Doering to share selected poems from the collection and talk about how poetry can help us grapple with ecological loss and celebrate natural wonders alike.
April 10, 2026: $1 Billion to Abandon Offshore Wind
The US Department of the Interior recently announced an agreement to pay the multinational company TotalEnergies nearly $1 Billion to abandon its offshore wind leases and instead invest in oil, natural gas and LNG production in the U.S. Yet several major offshore wind projects are coming online, including Revolution Wind in New England and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind. Katharine Kollins, president of the advocacy group Southeastern Wind Coalition, speaks with Host Jenni Doering about the Trump administration deal with TotalEnergies and the state of offshore wind.
April 03, 2026: Colonizing the Moon
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. John Daniel "Danny" Olivas, an engineer and retired NASA astronaut, speaks with Host Aynsley O’Neill about the mission objectives and challenges, why it faced delays and what sets the Artemis program apart from the Apollo visits to the moon of more than 50 years ago.
April 03, 2026: Trump Waives Endangered Species Protections
A panel known as the “God Squad”, consisting mostly of Trump cabinet members, recently voted to exempt the oil and gas industry operating in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act. If courts do not intervene, this decision would waive the standard ESA requirements to protect endangered species including the Rice’s whale, of which there are only a few dozen left. Pat Parenteau, Emeritus Professor at Vermont Law and Graduate School, joins Host Jenni Doering to discuss.
March 27, 2026: Climate Resilience Grants Resume
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. Alice Hill, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and the former senior Resiliency Director on the National Security Council for President Obama, discusses with Host Steve Curwood why money spent to protect critical infrastructure from disasters like storms, floods and wildfires pays for itself many times over.
March 27, 2026: The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything
Over billions of years of its history, the planet has frozen over almost completely and then lost all its ice as crocodiles basked in a balmy Arctic. Carbon-based life arose and adapted to all this change. And at the center of it all is the notorious greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, the focus of journalist Peter Brannen’s book The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World. He joins Host Jenni Doering to describe the extreme climate whiplash of Earth’s past.
March 27, 2026: BirdNote®: Meet the Tiniest Owl in the World
At just six inches tall, the desert-dwelling Elf Owl is the smallest known species of owl in the world. As BirdNote®’s Michael Stein reports, despite its tiny stature the Elf Owl is a fierce predator of crickets, scorpions, and mice.
March 20, 2026: Note on Emerging Science: Lightning-Rod Trees
An especially tall species of rainforest tree known as the almendro appears to benefit from lightning strikes, according to a 2025 study in the Panama rainforest. Living on Earth’s Don Lyman reports in this note on emerging science that the almendros seem unharmed after lightning strikes, compared to a high mortality rate among other trees and the lightning clears out parasitic vines and competing trees to free up light and nutrients.
March 20, 2026: Vanguard Retreats from ESG
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 fighting the suit, conspired to kill the coal industry. Vanguard did not admit to wrongdoing but is now barred from participating in climate investment watchdog groups such as Ceres. General Counsel for Ceres, Michael Boudett joined Living on Earth Executive Producer Steve Curwood to explain.
March 20, 2026: Iran War and the Price of Oil
The US and Israel’s war with Iran has stopped many ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, a vital shipping corridor especially for fossil fuels, leading to global oil and gas price spikes. Lorne Stockman, the research co-director for Oil Change International, discusses with Host Jenni Doering why US consumers are paying through the roof price despite US dominance on oil and gas production, while oil companies cash in. Meanwhile, countries like Spain with significant renewable energy are enjoying price stability.
March 06, 2026: Justice Advances in Cancer Alley
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 mostly white districts from industry. Monique Harden, a longtime environmental justice attorney and advocate, joins Host Jenni Doering to explain how the 13th amendment outlawing slavery plays into the case.
March 06, 2026: Stinky Seaweed Menace
Though the floating seaweed known as Sargassum provides critical habitat for many species in the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic, it is now finding a fertile home in southern waters, where it’s wreaking havoc on coastal communities and ecosystems. Teresa Tomassoni, oceans correspondent with our media partner Inside Climate News, spoke with Living on Earth’s Aynsley O’Neill about impacts to respiratory health, tourism and sea turtles.
March 06, 2026: Trump, Glyphosate and Cancer
President Trump has deemed glyphosate as essential for national security even though some 200,000 people have complained they have gotten cancer or other adverse health effects, while using it as directed. Meanwhile a Missouri state court has given preliminary approval to a class action settlement plan for people sickened by Roundup, which contains the herbicide glyphosate. Carey Gillam of The New Lede speaks with Host Steve Curwood about the latest developments in glyphosate lawsuits and why some in the Make America Healthy Again movement feel betrayed by the Trump Administration’s support for glyphosate.
February 20, 2026: Bluetooth Butterfly Tracking
Monarch butterflies can travel thousands of miles each year between Mexico and North America in an epic relay race of multiple generations. And thanks to new technology, our phones and other Bluetooth devices can now tell us what paths these brave little insects take on this journey. Dan Fagin, who teaches environmental journalism at NYU and is writing a book about monarchs, talks with Host Steve Curwood about the tiny trackers and what it’s like to be among millions of monarchs where they overwinter in Mexico.
February 20, 2026: Stormy Weather for Climate Science
The Trump administration has declared scientists at places like the National Center for Atmospheric Research are promoting ‘climate hysteria’ by overstating the risks to public health and safety, so it’s moving to cut off funds for NCAR. Former TV weatherman Alan Sealls, president of the American Meteorological Society, joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss the important climate and weather modeling NCAR does and how the loss of funding could impact this research.
February 20, 2026: Trump Canceling Climate Regs
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 tailpipes, smokestacks and more. Vermont Law and Graduate School emeritus Professor Pat Parenteau explains to Host Jenni Doering why this step is just the beginning of what looks to be a long legal fight.
February 13, 2026: Remembering Mike McElroy
Harvard atmospheric science Professor Michael B. McElroy, a long-time board member of the World Media Foundation (which produces Living on Earth), passed away in January 2026. Host Steve Curwood offers a brief tribute to Mike’s groundbreaking contributions to research and education.
February 13, 2026: US Losing Economic and Energy Edge to China
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. Veteran BBC journalist Isabel Hilton, the founder of Dialogue Earth, joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss how China is outpacing US economic growth by supplying the world with clean technologies.
February 06, 2026: The Power of Black History
The burial of a nine-year-old enslaved girl on a plantation in Louisiana may halt construction of a new petrochemical plant on that land in the state’s “Cancer Alley.” Many descendants of enslaved people in the region already live with health problems from exposure to industry and are looking to their ancestors to stop further expansion. Lenora Gobert, a genealogist for the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, joined Living on Earth’s Steve Curwood.
January 30, 2026: Global Health Under Trump
The current Trump administration has in its first year cut off the World Health Organization, dismantled the United States Agency for International Development or USAID, and overhauled vaccination recommendations, just to name a few decisions impacting health. Physician and Harvard public health professor Vanessa Kerry is also WHO Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health. She talks with Host Steve Curwood about the lives that could be lost as the US retreats from global health.
January 30, 2026: Do Aliens Speak Physics?
Classic science fiction tends to assume that if aliens visit Earth, they will have done so thanks to using math and science that’s like our own. But physicist Daniel Whiteson and cartoonist Andy Warner aren’t so sure. They speak with Host Steve Curwood about their book Do Aliens Speak Physics? And Other Questions About Science and the Nature of Reality.
January 30, 2026: Hot Prospects for Geothermal Energy
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. Inside Climate News journalist Phil McKenna joins Host Jenni Doering to discuss the bipartisan interest in geothermal and describe a large geothermal HVAC system that demonstrates the possibilities and benefits of scaling up.
January 16, 2026: Trump Ices Climate Diplomacy
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 the climate crisis. Marianne Lavelle, the Washington Bureau Chief for Inside Climate News, speaks with Host Jenni Doering about what this decision could mean for global climate progress.
January 16, 2026: Fungi and Climate Resilience
Mycorrhizal fungi form intricate and vital partnerships with plants through enormous underground networks that could help ecosystems and agriculture withstand climate impacts. But these fungi are threatened by habitat loss, nitrogen pollution and more. 2025 MacArthur Fellow Toby Kiers is leading fungi research and conservation efforts. She shares with Host Jenni Doering the wonders of fungi and why they’re worth protecting.
January 16, 2026: Western Water Crisis Boiling Over
The Colorado River provides water to seven western states, and there is not enough to go around. Recently the federal government ordered the states to agree on a plan on how to share what's left amid a worsening drought. Luke Runyon co-directs The Water Desk at the University of Colorado-Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism. He joins Host Paloma Beltran to discuss the challenges of allocating water resources when demand continues to outstrip supply.
January 09, 2026: Tropical Forests, Forever?
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 called the Tropical Forest Forever Facility. The new $125 billion fund, with guarantees for investors, will send its profits to countries with documented forest preservation, including some cash going directly to indigenous and local populations. Michael Coe, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center who was at COP30, joins Hosts Steve Curwood and Jenni Doering to explain why forest protection is a vital piece of stabilizing the climate.
January 09, 2026: EPA Ignores Climate Dangers
This June the US Environmental Protection Agency proposed eliminating regulations that limit climate changing gases from power plants, about a quarter of US emissions. Harvard Law Professor Richard Lazarus, an environmental and constitutional law scholar and author of The Rule of Five: Making Climate History at the Supreme Court, speaks with Host Steve Curwood about the perils of the broader Trump administration effort to weaken federal environmental protections.
January 09, 2026: Innovation to Fund Tropical Forest Protection
The new Tropical Forest Forever Facility launched by Brazil at the 2025 UN climate talks is different from other efforts to protect nature in that it doesn’t rely on charity. Instead, it’s an investment fund that will pay dividends to both private investors and governments that keep their tropical and subtropical forest intact. Host Paloma Beltran walks Host Aynsley O’Neill through how it would work.
January 02, 2026: A City on Mars and the Perils of Settling Space (Cont'd)
A City on Mars authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith continue their conversation with Host Jenni Doering about the challenges of settling space. They discuss why the Moon has limited “primo” real estate, what it was like to write this book together as a married couple, and why they view humor as an essential piece of helping a general audience understand such complex issues as international space law.
January 02, 2026: A City on Mars and the Perils of Settling Space
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. Biologist Kelly Weinersmith and cartoonist Zach Weinersmith are a married couple who teamed up to write the 2023 book A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? They join Host Jenni Doering to chat about the comically hostile environments beyond our home planet.
January 02, 2026: Out-of-this-World Discoveries from 2025
2025 brought some exciting extraterrestrial scientific discoveries that might have been missed amid other headlines. Hosts Aynsley O’Neill and Jenni Doering discuss new evidence about the Martian environment and the possibility of past life on Mars, the discovery of important building blocks of life in samples from the asteroid Bennu, and observations of the third interstellar object that’s been documented in our solar system.
December 05, 2025: Robin Wall Kimmerer on The Serviceberry
Braiding Sweetgrass author Robin Wall Kimmerer is also the author of a 2024 book that continues her explorations of gift economies. Robin Wall Kimmerer joins Host Jenni Doering to share insights from The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World and how gift economies can offer an alternative to overconsumption.
December 05, 2025: AI Power Demand and the Climate
Artificial intelligence or AI’s huge appetite for power is reviving demand for older and dirtier fossil fuel energy. Dan Gearino, clean energy reporter with our media partner Inside Climate news, speaks with Host Steve Curwood about the massive data centers that power AI, community pushback, and how the AI trend could put vital climate targets out of reach.
December 05, 2025: MAHA and MAGA Divide Over Pesticides
The Make America Healthy Again or MAHA movement has pinpointed some health concerns backed up by credible research, including concerns about pesticides such as the probable carcinogen glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup. But after agribusiness lobbying the Trump Administration erased pesticides from its MAHA Commission report. Investigative journalist Carey Gillam, author of The Monsanto Papers: Deadly Secrets, Corporate Corruption, and One Man’s Search for Justice, joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss.
November 28, 2025: Stream Life is Thriving 5 Years After Oregon Fires
In 2020 Oregon faced its most destructive wildfire disaster, when more than a million acres burned in the “Labor Day” fires. The sheer size and severity of those fires gave scientists a unique chance to learn what happens after a massive burn. Jes Burns of OPB reports on the surprising resilience of fish and amphibians five years after the fires.
November 28, 2025: Life As An Incarcerated Firefighter
Around a thousand of the firefighters who battled blazes around southern California in January 2025 were incarcerated. They do essentially the same work as other firefighters but are paid as little as around $5 a day. Eddie Herrera Jr. shares with Host Aynsley O’Neill what it was like to serve as an incarcerated firefighter, and how the experience helped him forge a new life after prison as a professional firefighter.
November 28, 2025: Underpaid Incarcerated Firefighters Get a Big Raise
Around a third of the firefighters who battle wildfires in California are incarcerated, and until recently they were paid just $5 to $10 a day. Under a state law enacted in October 2025, incarcerated firefighters are now paid at least $7.25 per hour while actively fighting fires. Formerly incarcerated firefighter and current fire apparatus engineer for the state of California, Eddie Herrera, Jr., returns to Living on Earth to speak with Host Aynsley O’Neill about how this pay raise can help transform lives.
November 28, 2025: Deadly Toll of Wildfire Smoke
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. Senior author Dr. Marshall Burke, a professor in the Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford University, joins Host Jenni Doering to discuss how air filters, face masks and low-intensity prescribed burning can help protect the public from this growing threat.
November 28, 2025: Wildfire Trauma and Recovery
Wildfires can take a huge mental toll and people who live in wildfire-impacted communities may experience post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression. Host Jenni Doering tells Host Aynsley O’Neill about her frightening childhood experience of the 2003 Cedar Fire in San Diego and they discuss emotional resilience strategies shared by Jyoti Mishra, a UCSD professor of psychiatry who co-directs the University of California Climate Change and Mental Health Council.

Showing the 50 most recent appearances out of 542.

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