Tag: #environmental-history — 24 segments on Living on Earth
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April 17, 2026:
Earth Day - 1970 vs Now
The first Earth Day in 1970, when some 20 million people peacefully demonstrated, arrived amid Vietnam War protests and other social unrest. And it came not long after the Apollo 8 astronauts snapped the iconic “Earthrise” photo that showed all of us were on a single, fragile planet amid the blackness of space. In this moment when humans have finally returned to the Moon after decades, Adam Rome, University at Buffalo environmental historian and author of The Genius of Earth Day, joins Host Steve Curwood to reflect on the movement that led to that first Earth Day and how the world has changed.
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December 19, 2025:
The Haudenosaunee Story of The Seven Brothers
In many cultures, stories passed down through the generations explain how the world got to be the way it is. The Haudenosaunee people of Northeastern North America have a story about how the star cluster known as the Pleiades came to be, told by Perry Ground, Turtle Clan member of the Onondaga Nation of the Haudenosaunee.
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December 19, 2025:
Evergreen, A Cherokee Myth
A Cherokee myth, told here by storyteller Diane Edgecomb, explains why pines, spruces and firs stay green year-round. She joins Host Steve Curwood to talk about the value of bringing old stories alive for people -- what she calls “living myth” – and how stories have accumulated around this time of year, the winter Solstice, when in the Northern Hemisphere the Sun stands still on the horizon for three short days and three long nights.
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December 12, 2025:
Seasonal Celebration with Wassail
As a preview for next week’s Winter Solstice storytelling special, we feature a traditional “Wassail Song” with storyteller Diane Edgecomb.
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July 25, 2025:
Censorship in US National Parks
President Trump has ordered the Department of the Interior to review historic monuments and memorials, and remove any content that might be perceived as negative or unpatriotic. Independent historian Donna Graves joined host Aynsley O’Neill to discuss some National Parks that show America’s complex history and how these federal actions can lead to censorship.
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March 14, 2025:
Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation
From abolitionist Harriet Tubman to novelist Louisa May Alcott, some of the country’s most important women trailblazers shared a connection with the natural world in their girlhood. According to author Tiya Miles in her book Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation, this time spent in the outdoors prepared these women to become pioneers in their fields. She joins Host Paloma Beltran for more.
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August 16, 2024:
Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation
To kick off Women’s History Month, we take a look at the history of women outdoors in America. From abolitionist Harriet Tubman to novelist Louisa May Alcott, some of the country’s most important women trailblazers shared a connection with the natural world in their girlhood. According to author Tiya Miles in her book Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation, this time spent in the outdoors prepared these women to become pioneers in their fields. She joins Host Paloma Beltran for more.
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July 12, 2024:
From the History Books
This week, Living on Earth Contributor Peter Dykstra joins Host Aynsley O’Neill to celebrate the July 12, 1817, birth of nature writer Henry David Thoreau. They also mark the July 1850 invention of icemaking using compressed air.
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July 05, 2024:
From the History Books
This week, Living on Earth Contributor Peter Dykstra and Host Aynsley O’Neill celebrate the birthday of Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome and other engineering marvels aimed at improving energy efficiency. They also look back to President Nixon’s proposal to create two new federal agencies consolidating US work on environmental regulation as well as on oceans, atmosphere, and weather, giving rise to the EPA and NOAA.
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June 14, 2024:
From the History Books
This week, Living on Earth Contributor Peter Dykstra joins Host Steve Curwood to look back on the 1944 creation of Big Bend National Park, renowned for its Chihuahuan Desert ecology and dark skies. They also go further back in time to the 1889 New York law mandating that all electric and phone lines in New York City and Buffalo be placed underground.
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June 07, 2024:
From the History Books
This week, Host Steve Curwood and Living on Earth contributor Peter Dykstra mark 100 years since the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act. Though a step towards equality Native Americans had to wait until 1957 to secure nationwide voting rights. Also, it’s 60 years since the commissioning of the pioneering submersible ALVIN, which went on to discover the unique ecosystems around hot deep-sea vents.
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May 17, 2024:
From the History Books
Living on Earth contributor Peter Dykstra joins Host Aynsley O’Neill for a trip back in time to the creation of the Adirondack Forest Preserve, as well to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s signing of the Tennessee Valley Authority Act.
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May 10, 2024:
From the History Books
Living on Earth contributor Peter Dykstra joins Host Aynsley O’Neill for a trip back in time to a massive dust storm that covered the United States’ eastern seaboard in the 1930s, as well as the start of the Galapagos National Park in Ecuador.
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April 05, 2024:
From the History Books
In their look back in history Living on Earth Contributor Peter Dykstra and Host Steve Curwood celebrate the birthday of Everglades protector Marjory Stoneman Douglas. They also mark the debut of prepared frozen meals marketed as TV dinners.
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March 01, 2024:
Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation
To kick off Women’s History Month, we take a look at the history of women outdoors in America. From abolitionist Harriet Tubman to novelist Louisa May Alcott, some of the country’s most important women trailblazers shared a connection with the natural world in their girlhood. According to author Tiya Miles in her book Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation, this time spent in the outdoors prepared these women to become pioneers in their fields. She joins Host Paloma Beltran for more.
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January 26, 2024:
Remembering An Afternoon WIth Pete Seeger
Iconic musician and activist Pete Seeger has died at the age of 94. Living on Earth spent an afternoon with the folk music legend in 1998. Seeger told host Steve Curwood that Rachel Carson's book “Silent Spring” inspired him to environmental activism. One of Seeger’s goals was to clean up New York’s Hudson River and he helped get the sloop “Clearwater” built to spread the message about pollution. Steve Curwood met Pete Seeger at the Sloop Club on the banks of the Hudson in Beacon, New York and has this profile.
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November 17, 2023:
A Native Perspective of the First Thanksgiving
The story of the “first Thanksgiving” that persists in American culture often stereotypes Native peoples and sanitizes what happened to them as white settlers dispossessed them of their lands. A picture book written and illustrated by Indigenous authors offers a new story of the “first Thanksgiving” that centers the Three Sisters crops. Author Tony Perry joins Host Jenni Doering to discuss the inspiration for Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun’s Thanksgiving Story and share ideas for creating a more inclusive holiday.
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June 23, 2023:
Beyond the Headlines
This week, Living on Earth Contributor Peter Dykstra joins host Aynsley O’Neill to discuss how a batch of hastily crafted hand sanitizer inadvertently released toxic chemicals like the carcinogen benzene. Also, how outdoor activities during the summer are moving indoors due to increasing temperatures from climate change. They follow with REI and Dick’s Sporting Goods banning PFAS forever chemicals in their products. And for history, after a 1907 decision by President Theodore Roosevelt the Owens Valley water was diverted to serve Los Angeles, eventually leaving the valley dry.
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June 16, 2023:
Black Courage Upon the Sea: Robert Smalls' Heroic Escape From Slavery
One night in May of 1862, an intrepid Black man named Robert Smalls commandeered a Confederate ship called The Planter in Charleston, South Carolina and liberated himself and his family from enslavement. His great-great grandson Michael B. Moore and retired four-star Admiral Cecil Haney join Host Steve Curwood to share and reflect on the harrowing story of his escape and life of public service after gaining his freedom.
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April 14, 2023:
Beyond the Headlines
This week, Living on Earth contributor Peter Dykstra joins Host Aynsley O’Neill to share the rewilding of a river in the Florida Everglades. Plus, a study finds that the warming climate is creating better conditions for home runs in baseball. And in history, they mark the birthday of Aaron Burr, well known for his deadly duel with Alexander Hamilton. He also launched the first New York City water utility.
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April 07, 2023:
Beyond the Headlines
Living on Earth contributor Peter Dykstra joins Host Jenni Doering to share news of the uptick in green burials and a new study that finds a link between climate change and the powerful supercell storms that can give rise to destructive tornadoes. And in the history calendar, they look back 75 years to the indictment of nine corporations for allegedly conspiring to shut down streetcar lines in Los Angeles and elsewhere and replace them with buses made or fueled with their own products.
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March 31, 2023:
Beyond the Headlines
Living on Earth Contributor Peter Dykstra joins Host Bobby Bascomb to talk about Scotch whiskey going green. Also, armadillos are marching north into the Midwest thanks to climate change. And in history, they look back to likely the only time mafia boss Charles “Lucky” Luciano was held accountable for a killing, with the victim a pheasant.
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February 03, 2023:
The Nutmeg's Curse
Native to the Banda Islands in Indonesia, nutmeg and other spices like cloves were coveted for their trade value by colonial powers, who set about exterminating the local people to dominate the nutmeg trade. In his 2021 book The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, author Amitav Ghosh reveals the origins of our current climate crisis in the violent extractive economies pioneered by colonial powers centuries ago. Amitav Ghosh joined Host Steve Curwood for a Living on Earth Book Club event to discuss this dark history of the so-called 'enlightenment'.
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January 27, 2023:
Beyond the Headlines With Peter Dykstra
Journalist Peter Dykstra joins host Steve Curwood to discuss why fewer iguanas are falling in Florida during cold snaps. They also consider if England's recent ban on some single-use plastics set to take effect in October will stem the accumulation of disposable plastic. For a history lesson, they dive into Karl Benz's 1886 patent for a three-wheeled, chain-driven, gasoline-powered horseless carriage he obtained with financial and design help from his wife Bertha.
