Tag: #carbon-cycle — 14 segments on Living on Earth
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May 29, 2026:
Note on Emerging Science: Sea 'Lavender' Stores Carbon
Sea ‘lavender,’ a purple flowering plant also known as statice that grows abundantly in salt marshes and coasts around the world, appears to be excellent at removing planet-warming carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in soils. Living on Earth’s Julia Vaz reports on this recent research.
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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.
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September 12, 2025:
Huge Danger from Permafrost Loss
With the Arctic warming four times as fast as the rest of the globe, and fires now routinely burning large swaths of northern forests, carbon stored in permafrost is rapidly escaping into the atmosphere where it can warm the planet even faster. Edward Alexander, Senior Arctic Lead at the Woodwell Climate Research Center and a Co-Chair of the Gwich’in Council International, speaks with Host Jenni Doering about the enormous climate risks of permafrost loss and how Indigenous cultural practices can help protect this vital resource.
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May 23, 2025:
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. Hosts Aynsley O’Neill and Jenni Doering chat about the benefits and promising results of this seagrass “gardening.”
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February 07, 2025:
Searching for Old Growth Forest
Finding the last remaining old growth in the vast forests of Maine is like finding a needle in a haystack, but LiDAR technology is helping pinpoint these biodiversity hotspots so they can be protected. Ecologist John Hagan of Our Climate Common joins Host Jenni Doering to discuss how it works and why it’s bringing the timber industry and conservationists together.
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January 17, 2025:
Redwood Rebirth After Fire
Nearly all the tall coast redwoods in California’s Big Basin Redwoods State Park burned in a 2020 wildfire. But within a few months, the charred trunks had grown a fuzz of healthy green shoots. A paper documents how the trees were able to regenerate using energy reserves stored for many decades. Lead author Drew Peltier teaches at the University of Nevada – Las Vegas and joins Host Jenni Doering to explain the science behind this stunning recovery.
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January 03, 2025:
A Call to Cool the Earth
Earth is choked by too much carbon in the atmosphere and running a fever that is only bound to get worse if we fail to restore its balance. Biologist Dr. George Woodwell explains to Host Steve Curwood why soaking up some of that carbon with the help of trees and plants is vitally important to life on Earth as we know it.
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October 25, 2024:
No Early Intervention of EPA Rule
The U.S. Supreme Court denied an emergency motion from industry to block an EPA rule that compels a 90% reduction in carbon emissions by 2032 for some coal and gas power plants. It will now be up to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to decide first about the rule and its requirement for carbon capture and storage.
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July 05, 2024:
A Vivid New View of Earth
A powerful new NASA satellite called PACE can look at the ocean and clouds to distinguish between different kinds of microscopic phytoplankton and aerosols from an orbit 400 miles up. PACE Project Scientist Dr. Jeremy Werdell joins Host Jenni Doering to describe how the technology works, its value to scientific research on climate change, and the real-time data it provides about water and air quality worldwide.
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May 17, 2024:
Phantom Carbon Credits
Shell’s flagship carbon capture and storage project in Canada generated millions of dollars in carbon credits based on greenhouse gas emission reductions that never took place. According to a study by Greenpeace Canada, the scheme was part of Shell’s billion-dollar Quest carbon capture project. While these phantom credits were legal from 2015 to 2021 under approved carbon tax rules, Shell’s actions raise questions about carbon capture practices in Canada’s lucrative fossil fuel industry. Living on Earth’s Steve Curwood spoke to Greenpeace Canada researcher Keith Stewart.
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August 04, 2023:
Carbon in the Congo
A team of scientists recently found a massive peatland holding more than 30 billion metric tons of carbon in the Congo Basin. It is crucial the carbon remain sequestered there to avoid exacerbating the climate crisis. Senior reporter for Mongabay John Cannon, wrote a four-part series looking into the Congo peatlands and joined host Bobby Bascomb.
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July 21, 2023:
A Call to Cool the Earth
Earth is choked by too much carbon in the atmosphere and running a fever that is only bound to get worse if we fail to restore its balance. Biologist Dr. George Woodwell explains to Host Steve Curwood why soaking up some of that carbon with the help of trees and plants is vitally important to life on Earth as we know it.
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March 17, 2023:
Carbon in the Congo
A team of scientists recently found a massive peatland holding more than 30 billion metric tons of carbon in the Congo Basin. It is crucial the carbon remain sequestered there to avoid exacerbating the climate crisis. Senior reporter for Mongabay John Cannon, wrote a four-part series looking into the Congo peatlands and joined host Bobby Bascomb.
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January 13, 2023:
Beyond the Headlines
In this week’s look Beyond the Headlines, environmental journalist Peter Dykstra and Host Steve Curwood admire the greenery in New York City, which a new study has reported absorbs as much carbon as all the traffic in the city emits on many summer days. They then discuss the climate implications of the Republican House Speaker battle before looking back at Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, who created the Grand Canyon national monument on January 11th, 1908.
