Tag: #indigenous-rights — 65 segments on Living on Earth

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2026

May 22, 2026: Indigenous Wisdom in Science
In accounts of scientific expeditions into the remotest parts of our world, indigenous people can often be depicted as mere backdrop—part of a quote “exotic” landscape, or at best, helpful sidekicks. But for Dr. Rosa Espinoza, a Peruvian chemical biologist and conservationist, the traditional knowledge and worldviews of indigenous people could be the key to unlocking some of nature’s greatest mysteries, if scientists are willing to listen—and collaborate. Host Aynsley O’Neill and Dr. Espinoza talk about her 2025 book, The Spirit of the Rainforest: How Indigenous Wisdom and Scientific Curiosity Reconnects Us to the Natural World.
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 01, 2026: The Indigenous Fight to Save Bristol Bay
In 2001, a Canadian mining company proposed a massive gold and copper mine at the headwaters of pristine Bristol Bay, Alaska. Local Native Alaskans became concerned about how the mine could harm their plentiful sockeye salmon run, a cultural and economic lifeblood. Alannah Acaq Hurley, Executive Director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, helped lead the fight against the mine and was awarded the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for North America. Alannah Hurley joins Host Steve Curwood.
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 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.
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: 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.

2025

December 26, 2025: A Mainer's Family Traditions
Denny Breau, a singer/songwriter from Maine, joins host Steve Curwood during these cold winter months to discuss some of the moments that warm his heart. He shares stories about one of his favorite holiday meals, ice-fishing, his Acadian family origins, and traditions of song that span the generations.
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.
December 05, 2025: Earth Prayer
Nulhegan Abenaki storyteller Joe Bruchac joins Host Steve Curwood to deliver his poem of gratitude for the gifts of the Earth, called “Earth Prayer.”
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.
November 28, 2025: Good Fire": How Cultural Burning Heals Land and People
Around the world, Indigenous people have been using fire on the landscape for thousands of years. One such practice comes from the Métis tradition in Western Canada. Cree-Métis scientist Dr. Amy Cardinal Christianson is a senior fire advisor with the Indigenous Leadership Initiative and joins Host Aynsley O’Neill to share how this low-intensity “good fire” helps rekindle cultural traditions and cultivate healthier ecosystems.
November 21, 2025: 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.
October 31, 2025: Gwich'in People Resist Arctic Drilling
The fossil fuel industry has sought drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for decades and a recent Trump administration order brings the renewed threat of oil extraction in ANWR. But Gwich’in Alaska Natives, which consider the land sacred and local Porcupine Caribou as relatives, are expressing alarm at how drilling in this fragile environment could upend their world. Kristen Moreland, Executive Director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss.
October 24, 2025: Overseas Chinese Mining and Spills
As part of the Belt and Road Initiative, China has invested over $1 trillion in overseas infrastructure for projects that include mining in developing countries for minerals to fuel the clean energy transition. In the “copper belt” of Zambia, a Chinese-owned tailings dam collapsed, sending toxic sludge into homes and crops. Inside Climate News reporter Katie Surma speaks with Host Jenni Doering about the aftermath and “green colonialism” that appears to no longer be only at the hands of the Global North.
September 05, 2025: Roadless Rule Under Fire
With an unusually short period for public comments the Trump administration is moving to repeal the “Roadless Rule,” which currently protects over 45 million pristine acres of national forests from access roads for logging. Randi Spivak, the public lands policy director for the Center for Biological Diversity, joins Host Jenni Doering to explain the potential consequences for critical habitat, watersheds, carbon storage and recreation if the Roadless Rule is repealed.
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.
June 27, 2025: Just Earth: How a Fairer World Will Save the Planet
In his recent book Just Earth: How a Fairer World Will Save the Planet, Tony Juniper explores how tackling economic inequality within and between countries will go far to solve the climate and biodiversity crises. Tony Juniper is a former head of Friends of the Earth UK, has long advised King Charles III on the environment and climate and now chairs Natural England, a government conservation agency. He joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss the transformation that’s urgently needed to allow planet and people to thrive.
June 13, 2025: Saving a Sacred Mountain in Mongolia
Batmunkh Luvsandash, winner of the 2025 Goldman Environmental Prize for Asia, was raised as a Mongolian herder and later became an engineer who worked on mining projects in the mineral-rich country. But when he learned that the Mongolian government was planning to mine the sacred Hutag mountain, which is also home to the endangered Asiatic ass, he sprang into action. Batmunkh joined Living on Earth’s Paloma Beltran (speaking through a translator) to share why protecting the area is so important to him.
June 13, 2025: Climate Injustice Floods Nigeria
At the end of May a flood caused by torrential rain swept into Mokwa, a poor rural community in western Nigeria, leaving behind a horrific scene of death and destruction. Uwaisu Idris reported from the scene for Deutsche Welle and joins Host Jenni Doering to talk about how climate change is bringing more intense floods to Nigeria, and the responsibility of the rich nations of the world to assist poor countries that did not cause the climate crisis.
March 28, 2025: Deb Haaland: ‘Fierce for our Planet’
Congresswoman Deb Haaland of New Mexico is President-elect Biden’s nominee for Secretary of the Interior. She’ll be the first Native American to lead the Department if confirmed, and would bring a strong conservation, climate action, and tribal rights perspective to the department. Living on Earth’s Jenni Doering reports on Deb Haaland’s experience and what’s shaped her into who she is today.
March 28, 2025: Deb Haaland on Our Public Lands
Deb Haaland became the first Native American cabinet member when President Biden appointed her as Secretary of the Interior and helped consult with tribes to designate new national monuments. Now she’s running for Governor of New Mexico, and Deb Haaland joins Host Jenni Doering to discuss the current threats to public lands and her deep ancestral connections to the New Mexican landscape.
March 28, 2025: Madam Secretary Haaland
On March 15th the U.S. Senate voted 51-40 to confirm Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior. A member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, Secretary Haaland is the first Native American to serve as head of a cabinet agency. Her historic appointment places her in command of a department that manages US public lands and oversees the Bureaus of Indian Affairs and India Education. Host Bobby Bascomb discusses Ms. Haaland’s appointment and her priorities for the future of the department.
March 28, 2025: Meet Deb Haaland, Native American Congresswoman
New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District is sending to Capitol Hill one of the first two Native American women to ever go to Congress, both elected as Democrats in 2018. Deb Haaland campaigned on climate change and other environmental issues, and cites a lifelong care for the environment inspired by her father. Living on Earth Host Steve Curwood talks with Deb about her environmental priorities for the new Democratic-majority House of Representatives.
March 28, 2025: National Monuments Restored
President Biden has restored the Northeast Canyons and Sea Mounts, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Bears Ears National Monuments, reversing orders of former President Trump. The lapse in protection for the Bears Ears area had especially led to an increase in vandalism and looting. Executive Director of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition Patrick Gonzales-Rogers explains to Host Bobby Bascomb how lands are more than just historical sites for native peoples, and how they are key to their cultures, their spirituality, and their being.
March 28, 2025: Dakota Pipeline High Stakes
The movement led by the Standing Rock Sioux to stop the final link of the Dakota Access Pipeline, construction of a tunnel under the Missouri River, is standing firm, but DAPL supporters are equally determined. Sandy Tolan has followed the evolving and increasingly contentious protests since April, and reports on what’s at stake.
February 28, 2025: Bringing Sea Otters Back
Sea otters were hunted out from Oregon and Northern California more than a century ago amid the fur trade, but the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians and conservation partners are now working to bring them back. Robert Kentta, treasurer of the Siletz tribe, talks with Host Paloma Beltran about how reintroducing sea otters can help revive the kelp ecosystem and restore a vital cultural connection for Native people.
February 14, 2025: Exploring the Parks: Brand-New Sáttítla Highlands National Monument
In his last days in office President Biden designated the new Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in northern California. Hosts Paloma Beltran and Jenni Doering discuss the otherworldly volcanic landscape and its importance to local tribes.
January 31, 2025: Exploring the Parks: Brand-New Chuckwalla National Monument
In his last days in office President Biden designated a new national monument in the southern California desert called Chuckwalla. Producer Paloma Beltran joins Hosts Aynsley O’Neill and Jenni Doering to share perspectives from locals on this unique landscape, including a Native tale of how Coyote gave the “painted canyon” in Chuckwalla its name.

2024

December 20, 2024: Stories of Hope from Noa Baum
Israeli-American storyteller Noa Baum believes that sharing stories keeps hope alive, and she has two examples to demonstrate. First there’s a traditional, Eastern European tale about the importance of stories, and the true recollection of a Pakistani who discovers that his family tree includes people from all over the world and of all faiths.
November 22, 2024: Earth Prayer
Nulhegan Abenaki storyteller Joe Bruchac joins Host Steve Curwood to deliver his poem of gratitude for the gifts of the Earth, called “Earth Prayer.”
November 15, 2024: A win for Indigenous Groups Protecting the Planet
This year’s 16th meeting for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity was suspended as negotiations ran overtime and delegates needed to catch flights home. But earlier in the talks, a decision was reached to give indigenous communities a proper seat at the table moving forward. Carmen Rosa Guerra Ariza is delegate from one such indigenous community, the Kankuamo people, and she joins Host Aynsley O’Neill to discuss this win.
November 08, 2024: Biodiversity Talks Unfinished
The latest summit for the UN’s biodiversity treaty to attempt to avert mass extinctions was recessed when it ran out of time to make major decisions. Vox journalist Benji Jones was at the meeting in Cali, Colombia and joins Living on Earth’s Aynsley O’Neill to talk about what it did achieve and what is still unresolved.
November 01, 2024: Facing the Biodiversity Crisis
As the world meets in Cali, Colombia at the 2024 UN biodiversity summit, we speak with KM Reyes, co-founder of the Centre for Sustainability Philippines, in a conversation first broadcast in 2022 about how indigenous people are often vital protectors of land and biodiversity. She joined Host Steve Curwood to describe indigenous land protection on the island of Palawan in the Philippines.
October 04, 2024: Jill Stein and the Planet
Dr. Jill Stein is the 2016 Green Party nominee for President of the United States. In a wide-ranging interview with host Steve Curwood they discuss her “Green New Deal” to avert a climate emergency, her plans to scale back military spending, and why she participated in protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline that led to a warrant for her arrest.
September 06, 2024: Tim Walz's Climate Record
Tim Walz, the running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, has signed climate legislation as Minnesota Governor and supported regenerative agriculture bills as a Congressman. Inside Climate News reporter Kristoffer Tigue joins Hosts Aynsley O’Neill and Jenni Doering to discuss the praise Walz has received for his climate work as well as some criticism over his history of supporting the ethanol industry and oil pipelines.
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.
August 16, 2024: Replanting The Klamath River
Four dams are being torn down on the Klamath River, revealing land that’s been submerged for decades. Juliet Grable of Jefferson Public Radio reports that local tribes and partners are working to replant the area with native species.
August 16, 2024: Land Back for the Yurok Tribe
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 joins Host Jenni Doering to describe how the land will help nurture Yurok cultural traditions.
June 28, 2024: A Black-led Land Trust
The 40 Acre Conservation League is an African-American grounded land trust that seeks to ease access to the outdoors for people of color, who have historically been excluded from green spaces. The nonprofit recently purchased its first piece of land, 650 acres bordering the Tahoe National Forest in northern California. Jade Stevens is the president of the 40 Acre Conservation League and joined Host Steve Curwood to discuss her vision for the land and improving access to nature for Black and Brown folks.
June 21, 2024: Robert Smalls' Legacy and Liberating Nature
Host Steve Curwood and guests Michael B. Moore and Admiral Cecil Haney continue their conversation about Robert Smalls and are joined by Joel Christian Gill, a cartoonist and historian who authored a graphic biography about Smalls. They discuss Robert Smalls’ legacy, the current enslavement of nature, and how his courage relates to the courageous action and leadership that is now urgently needed to deal with the climate emergency.
June 14, 2024: Queer Brown Vegan
Isaias Hernandez is an environmental activist and social media creative who uses the handle @QueerBrownVegan on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. His topics include environmental racism, mushroom foraging, and queer ecology. He joined Living on Earth’s Paloma Beltran during Pride Month to talk about intersectionality, “rainbow-washing”, and more.
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.
May 31, 2024: First Nations Stop Australian Coal Mine
First Nations people in Australia saw plans to build an enormous new coal mine in Queensland as a threat to their culture, so they went to court and won. Murrawah Maroochy Johnson is a Wirdi woman from the Birri Gubba Nation who was awarded a 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize for her leadership in stopping the coal mine. She joins Host Jenni Doering to share the significance of land and water to her people.
May 31, 2024: Saving the Wild Coast of South Africa
In 2021 the “Wild Coast” of eastern South Africa was targeted by Shell for oil exploration, raising concerns for the local Mpondo people about impacts to wildlife and possible contamination of land and water. Environmental activists Nonhle Mbuthuma and Sinegugu Zukulu mounted a campaign and secured a victory from the High Court revoking Shell’s permit. They shared the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa, and Sinegugu Zukulu joined Living on Earth’s Steve Curwood to discuss why he believes the Wild Coast needs protecting.
May 24, 2024: The "Little Sea" with a Big Champion
The Mar Menor or “little sea” lagoon on the coast of Spain faces impacts from mining, agriculture, and a booming tourist industry. Teresa Vicente is a professor of philosophy of law at the University of Murcia who helped pass a 2022 law granting the lagoon legal personhood to give it greater protection. She recently received the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize for Europe and joins Host Aynsley O’Neill to share how she led a grassroots movement to protect this beloved lagoon.
May 24, 2024: From the History Books
This week, Living on Earth Contributor Peter Dykstra and Host Aynsley O’Neill look back to the Lacey Act of 1900, one of the first wildlife protection laws. They also note the founding of the Sierra Club and discuss how the conservation legacy of its first president John Muir has been complicated by his racist views on Native and African Americans.
April 19, 2024: Ecological Conversion and Solidarity
Science and policy are vital in building a more sustainable world, but they often don’t convey the values we need in order to engage people to do so. With spiritual guides who carry diverse traditions and teachings, Host Steve Curwood surveys the values that can guide us along this path towards 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.
April 05, 2024: Land Back for the Yurok Tribe
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 joins Host Jenni Doering to describe how the land will help nurture Yurok cultural traditions.

2023

December 22, 2023: Stories of the Night Sky and an English Wassail
Writer, storyteller, and musician Joseph Bruchac offers Iroquois myths, first about the twinkling stars of the Pleiades in the winter sky and then about why life on earth continues through the long, dark nights of mid-winter. Then storyteller Diane Edgecomb shares an English tale in which barnyard animals get the last word. She closes with a Cherokee myth about the trees that stay green all winter long, the evergreens.
December 08, 2023: Australia's Climate Visas for Tuvalu
The tiny island nation of Tuvalu faces inundation from rising seas, and a new treaty would allow a limited number of its citizens to study, work or live in Australia under a climate-related visa program. Abul Rizvi is the former Deputy Secretary of the Dept. of Immigration in Australia, and he joins Host Steve Curwood to explain the geopolitical implications of the deal.
December 01, 2023: Beyond the Headlines
This week, Living on Earth Contributor Peter Dykstra joins Host Jenni Doering to share some good news about regulations on PFAS “forever” chemicals. Also, a new freshman dorm at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska uses updated rooftop solar thermal technology to heat water. And in history, they look back to a major Alaska public lands bill that protected 100 million acres in 1980.
September 29, 2023: Listening on Earth: Eno River in North Carolina
The Eno River gives life to great blue herons, Eastern box turtles, and yellow trout lilies as it flows through Durham, North Carolina. Living on Earth’s Fern Alling recorded this audio in Eno River State Park.
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.
August 04, 2023: Saving the Second Lung of the Planet
The Congo Basin in Central Africa is a critical biodiversity hotspot and linchpin in the fight against climate disruption. Conservationist Irene Wabiwa joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss the urgent need to turn the United Nations’ promises to protect biodiversity into reality in the Congo and around the world.
June 02, 2023: Curbside Capture of Desert Rain
Thirty years ago, a neighborhood group in Tucson started harvesting local rainwater by directing runoff into street-side basins filled with native, food-bearing plants. Co-founder Brad Lancaster joined Living on Earth’s Bobby Bascomb to tell how “planting the rain” improves neighborhoods, builds climate resilience, and helps the desert bloom.
May 26, 2023: ExxonMobil Sued in Guyana
Guyana has one of the fastest growing economies on the planet as an offshore oil boom gets underway. But a potential spill could wipe out its fishing and ecotourism economy. So, a trial judge recently ruled that a major ExxonMobil crude oil project needs to provide an “unlimited guarantee” to cover the costs of such a spill. Journalist Amy Westervelt of the Critical Frequency podcast joins Host Jenni Doering to explain the ruling and Exxon’s oil development in Guyana.
May 12, 2023: Beyond the Headlines
This week, Living on Earth Contributor Peter Dykstra joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss new Indigenous reserves in the Brazilian Amazon totaling a million and a half acres. They also unpack how in the U.S., Indigenous care for the forest, including traditional burning, has been disregarded and contributed to massive wildfires in California. In history they look back to the man who gave Cape Cod its name.
April 28, 2023: UK Courts Force A Zambian Copper Mine Cleanup
The 2023 Africa recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize brought a UK based mining company to justice for polluting a river in Zambia with waste from an open pit copper mine that sickened locals and killed fish. Prize winner Chilekwa Mumba joins Host Paloma Beltran to share how he organized the community and persuaded a UK based law firm to take on the case.
April 28, 2023: Beyond the Headlines
This week, Living on Earth commentator Peter Dykstra joins Host Steve Curwood to share news of a lawsuit seeking to curb the use of aerial fire retardants to combat wildfires over water pollution concerns. They also shed light on the murder of Ecuadorian Indigenous activist Eduardo Mendúa, who opposed oil drilling in the Amazon. And they look back 70 years to the day Hooker Chemical Company sold off its Love Canal toxic chemical dumpsite for just one dollar, setting the scene for a public health crisis that came to light years later.
March 31, 2023: Natl Audubon Keeps Enslaver’s Name
The namesake of the National Audubon Society was an enslaver, racist and white supremacist, so several local chapters are changing their names. But the leadership of the national group has rejected making a change. DC chapter President Tykee James joins Host Steve Curwood to say the decision is an obstacle to a more inclusive birding community.
March 17, 2023: Saving the Second Lung of the Planet
The Congo Basin in Central Africa is a critical biodiversity hotspot and linchpin in the fight against climate disruption. Conservationist Irene Wabiwa joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss the urgent need to turn the United Nations’ recent promises to protect biodiversity into reality in the Congo and around the world.
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'.
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.

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