Helen Palmer

63 appearances on Living on Earth, from 2009 to 2021.

May 21, 2021: The Beekeepers of Ancient Egypt
Professor Gene Kritsky of Mount St Joseph’s University is an entomologist, but his latest book is a historical look at beekeeping in ancient Egypt. Professor Kritsky discusses honey, hives, and hieroglyphs with Living on Earth’s resident beekeeper Helen Palmer.
January 04, 2019: Kerala’s Ambitious Organic Pledge
Rising rates of cancer in the tropical south Indian state of Kerala have alarmed doctors and the public, and many blamed high levels of chemicals in food. So the government is working to make Kerala’s food supply all-organic by 2020. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer takes a trip to Kerala to discover what’s involved.
January 04, 2019: Pesticide Peril in Paradise
We continue our coverage of Kerala, India’s efforts to reduce pesticide use to take a look at how its ambitious target can be achieved. Part of the success will depend on middle class Keralans who have taken up organic gardening as a hobby, or even a second career. They tend to their rooftop gardens, care for their backyard livestock, and sell extra produce at large organic markets where their chemical-free food sells for premium prices. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer has the story.
May 18, 2018: Kerala’s Ambitious Organic Pledge
We kick off our series on the food and water challenges facing the tropical Indian state of Kerala. Rising rates of cancer there alarmed doctors and the public, and many blamed high levels of chemicals in food. So now there’s a government campaign to make Kerala’s food supply all organic by 2020. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer takes a trip to Kerala to discover what’s involved.
May 18, 2018: Pesticide Peril in Paradise
This week, we return to Kerala, India, to learn more about why that state’s food supply is going organic and how that ambitious target can be achieved. Part of the success will depend on Keralans who have taken up organic gardening as a hobby, or even a second career. They tend to their rooftop gardens, care for their backyard livestock, and sell extra produce at large organic markets where their healthy chemical free food sells for premium prices. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer has the story.
May 18, 2018: Saving Kerala's Fresh Water
Like much of South Asia, the Indian state of Kerala depends on the prolific monsoon rains for water to drink and grow food. But weak monsoons and recent droughts make water conservation and management vital, so farmers and householders are rediscovering old methods that are yielding new water security. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer reported.
May 11, 2018: Pesticide Peril in Paradise
This week, we return to Kerala, India, to learn more about why that state’s food supply is going organic and how that ambitious target can be achieved. Part of the success will depend on Keralans who have taken up organic gardening as a hobby, or even a second career. They tend to their rooftop gardens, care for their backyard livestock, and sell extra produce at large organic markets where their healthy chemical free food sells for premium prices. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer has the story.
May 04, 2018: Kerala’s Ambitious Organic Pledge
We kick off our series on the food and water challenges facing the tropical Indian state of Kerala. Rising rates of cancer there alarmed doctors and the public, and many blamed high levels of chemicals in food. So now there’s a government campaign to make Kerala’s food supply all organic by 2020. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer takes a trip to Kerala to discover what’s involved.
April 06, 2018: The Charm and Mystery of ‘Steve’
When a group of photographers approached University of Calgary physics professor Eric Donovan with images of a purple streak in the sky, he had no idea what it was. So the unknown phenomenon was dubbed ‘Steve’ in the absence of an official name. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer spoke with Eric Donovan about meeting ‘Steve’ and the quest to unravel the mystery of the strange streak in the night sky.
March 02, 2018: A Taste for the Beautiful: The Evolution of Attraction
A peacock’s eye-catching tail; extra notes in a frog’s love song; pheromones of a female bee - all these exploit sexual preferences hoping to give the suitor a better shot at mating and passing on his genes. In this conversation with Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer, evolutionary biologist Michael J. Ryan explains how sexual selection shapes the appearance, songs, smells and behavior of most living things. Michael Ryan explains his arguments in the new book, A Taste for the Beautiful: The Evolution of Attraction.
February 23, 2018: Beyond the Headlines
Peter Dykstra and Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer explore some environmental news beyond the headlines, including a surprise museum hit: a chunk of the London sewer-clogging “fatberg” that is drawing crowds. They discuss Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski, who pushed to open up protected wilderness for oil drilling and now calls for climate change awareness, and in history, they wish a happy birthday to Plutonium, the element that for better and worse helped launch the nuclear age.
December 01, 2017: Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution
How much evolution is a matter of chance and how much its course is inevitable is a matter of prolonged debate explored in a new book from evolutionary biologist Jonathan Losos. Its called Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution, and Jonathan Losos explained to Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer that examples from different ecosystems show nature’s inventiveness often runs on parallel tracks, but not the same one. With telling examples from research, he argues that the continued study of how evolution works is essential to human adaptation in a changing world.
October 27, 2017: A Farewell to Ice
Year by year, the Arctic sea ice cover is dwindling, driven towards seasonal extinction by global warming. And the vanishing ice is having profound effects on the rest of the world. In A Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic, polar researcher Peter Wadhams describes what’s happening to the thawing world in the North, drawing on his decades of study there. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer spoke with Wadhams about the crisis facing our planet and what might be done to thwart disaster.
October 13, 2017: Rise of the Necrofauna
Bringing extinct species like dinosaurs back from the evolutionary graveyard has long been a science fiction story. But with new gene editing technologies, cloning and careful selective breeding, this dream of de-extinction could soon be a reality. In her new book, Rise of the Necrofauna, science writer Britt Wray looks into real-life efforts to bring back lost species and what recreating an extinct creature would entail. She discussed with Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer the scientific, ethical, and cultural challenges of emerging de-extinction technologies and what conquering extinction could mean for conservation in the future.
September 15, 2017: Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray
Patience Gray’s pioneering European cookbook brought foreign tastes to the British home cook and her remarkable Honey From a Weed is still a key source of inspiration for popular food writers, yet she’s largely unknown today. A new biography, Fasting and Feasting, introduces her iconoclastic and meandering life, with artists, architects, and radicals in postwar London, and finally to the simplicity of living and cooking off the land at the remote heel of Italy’s boot. In conversation with Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer, author Adam Federman shares Patience Gray’s story of lifelong artistic and culinary searching – and whets the appetite too.
August 25, 2017: Pollinator Declines Threaten Public Health
Altogether some 200,000 species of animals pollinate crops, and help supply up to 35% of the world’s food, but scientists say pollinator numbers are declining. New studies published in The Lancet examine the potential impacts of total and partial pollinator loss on staple crops and the availability of vitamins and nutrients. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer discusses the findings with study author Dr. Samuel Myers, who explains how these deficiencies would impact public health.
August 25, 2017: Seeds on Ice: Preserving the World’s Agricultural Heritage
Deep in an icy mountain not far from the North Pole are rows upon rows of boxes filled with seeds -- nearly a million samples gathered from nations collections around the globe. Cary Fowler is a founder of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and the author of the new book documenting its story and its treasures called Seeds on Ice. He joins Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer to explain why humanity needs a seed vault at the top of the world to ensure the genetic diversity of our agricultural heritage.
August 04, 2017: Boston in a Warmer World
As a port city with low-lying areas, Living on Earth’s hometown of Boston, Massachusetts is particularly vulnerable to the sea level rise anticipated from global warming. So the City of Boston is arming itself with knowledge. The Mayor has commissioned a team of experts called Climate Ready Boston to report on future climate impacts. By the harbor’s edge at the University of Massachusetts’ Boston campus, hydrology professor Ellen Douglas and host Steve Curwood discuss the alarming implications of the report that she and an interdisciplinary group of academics put together.
July 07, 2017: “The Book That Changed America”
Is Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, says Randall Fuller, Professor of English at the University of Tulsa. Darwin’s book arrived in Boston and Concord, Massachusetts in 1860, as the slavery debate raged and civil war loomed, and its ideas were instantly fodder for those discussions. Randall Fuller explains the influence of Darwin’s new theories on Thoreau and his contemporaries with Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer.
June 30, 2017: New York 2140
Melting ice sheets, and wild storms have added 50 feet to sea level and submerged coastal areas in award winning science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson’s latest novel, New York 2140. Yet the city is still a vibrant hub of global capital, with express boats zooming up the avenues and sky bridges linking the skyscrapers that still stand. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer and the author discuss his twenty-second century vision and how the disaster of a “50 Katrina” hurricane hitting the Big Apple upends the economic order and creates a more equitable, environmentally aware society.
May 26, 2017: A Corporate Way to Meet the Paris Climate Goals
Al Gore, Lord Stern and the head of Shell Oil are part of the ‘Energy Transitions Commission’ that has issued a report out how countries could halve global carbon emissions by 2040 and stay well below the 2 degree warming mark agreed at the Paris Climate Conference. Rachel Kyte, the UN’s Special Representative for Sustainable Energy was also part of the group and explained to Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer how we can create the necessary energy transformation.
May 26, 2017: Paving the Path to Paris with Gold
Around the world, both public and private sources are promising to fund action on climate change, and help vulnerable nations adapt to and mitigate the effects of global warming. An important source of support is the World Bank. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer spoke with Rachel Kyte, the Bank’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, about the sources and aims of the available finance.
May 12, 2017: The Charm and Mystery of ‘Steve’
When a group of photographers approached University of Calgary physics professor Eric Donovan with images of a purple streak in the sky, he had no idea what it was. So the unknown phenomenon was dubbed ‘Steve’ in the absence of an official name. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer spoke with Eric Donovan about meeting ‘Steve’ and the quest to unravel the mystery of the strange streak in the night sky.
May 05, 2017: Breaking the Barriers to Offshore Oil
Keen to roll back regulation, the Trump administration wants to overturn the Obama-era ban of offshore drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, so the President has issued an executive order to return these sites to the market. Founding Director of the Center for Global Energy Policy, Jason Bordoff, joins Helen Palmer to discuss whether the low price of oil makes this drilling uneconomic and the legislative battle about to boil under the sea.
May 05, 2017: Marching for the Climate, Before and In Trump’s Era
Hundreds of thousands worldwide rallied for the People’s Climate March on April 29th, but the mood was bleaker than the First People’s Climate March in New York City in 2014, when citizens demanded nations craft an international climate treaty. Now, a year after some 200 countries signed the landmark Paris Climate Agreement, marchers worry that the Trump Administration might pull the U.S. out of the accord. Host Helen Palmer reports on the Boston march and the changing landscape for climate action.
May 05, 2017: Record March for Climate Action
At the start of 2014’s Climate Week in New York City, Living on Earth’s Emmett FitzGerald, Helen Palmer and Naomi Arenberg were on the scene as 400,000 people of all types and ages marched through the streets demanding global cooperative action on global warming in advance of a UN climate summit. The team shares the sounds and scenes with host Steve Curwood.
May 05, 2017: Unraveling the Myths and Mysteries of the Tides
Tide tables report to the tenth of a foot the fluctuations of sea level as the ocean ebbs and flows. And though the moon has the greatest influence on tides, there’s much more at play. Now a new book, Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean, illuminates how they work. Mariner and author Jonathan White regales host Helen Palmer with the tale of a boating mishap that provided inspiration for the book, and the myths and history that roll in and out with the restless seas.
March 17, 2017: Inoculating the Mind from Climate Misinformation
Concerns about so-called ‘fake news’ have never been higher. Google searches for the term have quintupled since the November 2016 election, and these days it’s hard to be sure what information out there is true. According to Climate Communications scientist Anthony Leiserowitz, on the issue of climate change, there’s a lot to be skeptical about. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer speaks with Leiserowitz about how a new study of his can help protect the public from buying into false climate information.
March 03, 2017: Moose in Trouble
Rising temperatures and a growing tick population are causing problems for moose in New England. So many ticks now live through mild winter temperatures and attack the calves, that few are surviving. Moose researcher Pete Pekins, professor of ecology at the University of New Hampshire, told Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer what can be done to preserve the moose population.
February 24, 2017: “The Book That Changed America”
The book that changed America is Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, says Randall Fuller, the Chapman Professor of English at the University of Tulsa. The book arrived in New England in 1860, as the slavery debate raged and civil war loomed, and its ideas were instantly fodder for those discussions. Randall Fuller explains the influence of Darwin’s new theories with Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer.
January 27, 2017: Beyond the Headlines
Beyond the Headlines Peter Dykstra and host Helen Palmer look at Wisconsin where state government agencies’ websites have removed references to climate change, and delve into the challenges of enforcing environmental regulations in Pennsylvania’s Amish communities, then look back at a time when protecting the environment held bipartisan support.
January 27, 2017: Boston Women March for Science
The day after President Donald Trump’s Inauguration, millions of demonstrators gathered around the globe to protest the new administration. Their reasons for opposing the new President were numerous, but Living on Earth reporters Jenni Doering and Jaime Kaiser spoke with a few of the many thousands in Boston, Massachusetts who showed up to support climate science and the environment.
January 27, 2017: Defending the Gulf Coast
The Louisiana coast is losing ground in the battle against rising seas. So the state has been working on a master plan to shore up the coast and protect homes with wetlands restoration and higher levees. New Orleans Times-Picayune environment reporter Mark Schleifstein filled in host Helen Palmer about the projects in the updated $50 billion, 50 year plan, and the public response.
January 20, 2017: City Lizards Adapt Fast to Urban Living
For anole lizards living in Puerto Rican cities, the slickness of walls and windows poses a challenge to creatures that evolved on rocks and trees. Yet they are fast adapting to grip well on smooth surfaces. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer visited anole researcher Kristin Winchell in her lab at the University of Massachusetts Boston to see how these little reptiles are coping with the built environment.
January 20, 2017: Figs: The Vital Forest Species
Fig trees are one of the world’s most diverse groups of plants, and have fed people and thousands of other species for millennia. Mike Shanahan, author of Gods, Wasps, and Stranglers: The Secret History and Redemptive Future of Fig Trees, tells Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer about the unique ecology, mythology and cultural value of fig trees, and how they can help us care for and protect nature.
January 20, 2017: Small Whale Entangled in Big Threat
The vaquita, the world’s smallest whale, lives only in Mexico’s Gulf of California and is critically endangered, due to illegal fishing. Now the Center for Biological Diversity plans legal action against the U.S. government for its failure to sanction Mexico for not stopping the poaching. Living on Earth’s Steve Curwood spoke with CBD’s Sarah Uhlemann about the threats vaquita face, and the legislative efforts to save them.
January 20, 2017: The Social Cost Of Carbon
A state-of-the-art report that brings together some of the best minds in environmental policy and economics recommends a new way of evaluating the social costs of carbon pollution to keep up with the best available science. Living On Earth’s Helen Palmer and Professor Billy Pizer, an economist at the Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy discussed the changes and why social cost evaluations are crucial to tackling carbon pollution.
January 06, 2017: Decoding Influenza
Winter brings short days and the seasonal flu, and in Europe there’s already an epidemic of the H5N8 bird flu. Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer decodes what H5N8 means, why we use these terms and how flu that infects animals can affect humans and the annual flu vaccination.
November 28, 2014: Danish Green Roofs
Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, was named Europe’s greenest capital in 2014. It’s partly due to the ubiquitous bike paths and the ambitious renewable energy goals, but as Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer reports, also due to the many green roofs the city is installing to soak up excess rain and cool the capital.
November 21, 2014: A ‘Charming’ New Particle
Scientists analyzing data from the Large Hadron Collider have discovered several new particles, including a couple of what are called mesons. Professor Tim Gershon of the UK’s University of Warwick, the lead author of a paper that describes this discovery, told Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer that it could help explain one of the basic forces of the universe.(
November 07, 2014: Green At the 2014 Ballot Box
Host Steve Curwood and Peter Dykstra assess some environmental lessons from the 2014 midterm elections, discussing the effects of money spent by green activists, its effect on the races and some of those who lost their jobs. Also, Living on Earth reporters round up the fate of energy and environmental ballot initiatives.
October 24, 2014: Recycling E-Waste
Discarded electronics are one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world, and a new survey from Best Buy found that only about 40% of people in the United State recycle old computers, TVs and phones, even though Best Buy and Staples are among companies that will take it for free. Most of the e-waste ends up in landfills, but as John Shegerian, CEO of Electronic Recyclers International tells Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer, it can be recycled safely and responsibly.
September 26, 2014: Record March for Climate Action
At the start of 2014’s Climate Week in New York City, Living on Earth’s Emmett FitzGerald, Helen Palmer and Naomi Arenberg were on the scene as 400,000 people of all types and ages marched through the streets demanding global cooperative action on global warming in advance of a UN climate summit. The team shares the sounds and scenes with host Steve Curwood.
August 29, 2014: Whither the Union Jack?
With Scotland set to vote on independence, Living on Earth's resident English producer Helen Palmer asks what would happen to the iconic Union Jack (which includes the Scottish standard, the cross of St Andrew) if the Scots vote for independence.
July 18, 2014: The End of Night
Humans have always had a basic fear of the dark, but the advent of electric light in the late 19th century brought control over the night in the developed world. But with an explosion of light pollution blocking out the natural night sky in much of the world, host author Paul Bogard tells living on Earth’s Helen Palmer we might have gone too far and it might be harming our health.
April 11, 2014: The Growing Threat From Methane
Over the short term, methane is 80 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. The White House has launched plans to control methane emissions from most US sources, but as Living on Earth's Helen Palmer reports, evidence from prehistory suggests methane was a major factor in Earth's largest extinction, and warming projections warn of ballooning emissions in the future.
December 13, 2013: PowerShift—Massachusetts First in Energy Efficiency
For the third year running, Massachusetts has won top efficiency honors from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. In the next story in our series PowerShift, the state's Energy Commissioner Mark Sylvia tells host Steve Curwood what the Bay State is getting right.
July 19, 2013: Hult Prize Competition
The Hult Prize challenges students to create a workable business solution to a global problem and win a million dollars to make it happen. Living on Earth's Helen Palmer reports on one of the regional finals, won by a Canadian team with a plan to grow, process, and sell edible insects to empower low income urban communities.
May 03, 2013: Power Shift - Going Solar
The sun powers the planet, yet few of us actually use sun power to heat, cool and light our houses. Living on Earth's Helen Palmer has just taken advantage of some solar power incentives in Massachusetts to put solar panels on her Cambridge home, and she's so excited, she won't stop talking about her new power source.
May 03, 2013: Solar Shines On
Thanks to incentives and growing awareness, solar panels are becoming increasingly popular across the country. Living on Earth's Helen Palmer had an array assembled on her roof last year, and in this update she tells host Steve Curwood that, among other benefits, the panels have eliminated her electricity bills.

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