This week we're bringing you a interview with NPR's Howard Berkes about the proliferation of black lung disease among coal miners in Appalachia. It comes from our sister podcast called Energy Explained, produced by the public radio collaboration StateImpact Pennsylvania The interview covers not just this administration's current policies on coa ...…

If there were a billboard top 100 for policy ideas, the Green New Deal would be at the top of the charts for several weeks running. It’s not a policy, or a bill--more like aspirations that combine swift action on climate change with broad social and economic reforms. Alexander Kaufman has been covering the Green New Deal for the HuffPost, and h ...…

The federal government is the nation's largest landowner, managing 500 million acres under the Department of the Interior. And while some expect that America's public lands are managed for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, others say the Trump administration has allowed interests like energy development to lead land policy. Trump's first ...…

Three years ago, most of the world’s nations signed onto the Paris Climate Agreement, which committed countries to do their best to avert a climate catastrophe. Well, things are different now. President Donald Trump has vowed to take the U.S. out of the deal, but the vast majority of countries are still in it, and they met recently in Poland at ...…

When President Trump started his tenure he promised to repeal something called the ‘Waters of the U.S.’ rule. And this week he made good on that promise. The revised definition of “Waters of the United States” eliminates protections for half of the nations wetlands and nearly a fifth of streams. On this episode, we spoke with Ariel Wittenberg, ...…

President Donald Trump’s performance and policies were front and center in many races across the country--whether candidates were for or against them--and the environment was on the ballot, too...in some cases, literally. A least nine states had ballot initiatives focused on environmental issues from banning offshore drilling to ramping up rene ...…

Historically, polls have shown that environmentalists are terrible at voting. In the 2014 midterm election, more than 15 million environmentalists didn't show up on Election Day. And to be clear, all of them were already registered and already committed to environmental issues. So why are they so bad at voting? And will they turn out in the mid ...…

President Trump says he'll look into a recent UN Climate Change report that predicted we have 12 years to drastically lower our carbon footprint or else the world will witness catastrophic impacts of climate change. He did this as his EPA is actively scaling back Obama-era regulations that would have cut back on America's carbon pollution. A lo ...…

You’ve probably heard by now that, according to a new UN report, the world has just over a decade to get climate change under control before it’s too late. And the report says we need a profound transformation to get there. The report has got us thinking about an episode we aired last year about what life on Earth could look like with the worst ...…

Today we're bring you an episode of a podcast we've been enjoying lately. Democracy Works, produced by Penn State's McCourtney Institute for Democracy, aims to rise above the daily news grind and take a broader look at issues impacting democracy — which can be just about anything. If you’re looking for partisan bickering or hot takes on the new ...…

This administration is hell bent on dismantling environmental and human health protections, but judges are pushing back on Trump's deregulatory agenda in sometimes rapid fire succession.

People of faith are joining the ranks of the People Climate Movement, which takes to the streets this weekend demanding action. One religious leader tells us why climate change is becoming a top priority. Fletcher Harper is an Episcopal priest and the executive director of GreenFaith, a member organization of the People's Climate Movement.…

Coal was the engine of the Industrial Revolution and employed nearly 1.2 million people in Britain at its height. But the UK has gone more than 1,000 hours without using coal to generate electricity this year - the longest streak since Thomas Edison opened the country’s first coal power station in 1882. How did they do it? Our guest is Carolyn ...…

Less than a week after the announcement that Justice Anthony Kennedy would retire, President Trump nominated DC Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh as Kennedy’s replacement. In this episode, we learn more about Kavanaugh's environmental record and what cases he'd be weighing in on if confirmed. Our guest is Melissa Powers, a law professor and directo ...…

For months on end, Pruitt seemed to defy the laws of gravity at the EPA, maintaining his job through more than a dozen scandals. But Pruitt’s term has ended after it was reported that President Trump’s Chief of Staff John Kelly--presumably at the president’s behest--asked Pruitt for his resignation. So the big question is--why now? And, importa ...…

When Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act on December 28, 1973, it made the United States the only nation on Earth to declare a basic right of existence for species other than our own. Currently, the Act protects more than 1,600 species across the country. Now, the landmark legislation is being targeted by industry, with support from ...…

Earlier this month, Scott Pruitt gave a big gift to the chemical industry in the form of narrowing how the EPA will determine the health risks posed by chemicals. Is it a policy change that could prove deadly?

Before he was EPA administrator, before he was Oklahoma's attorney general, before he was even a state senator, Scott Pruitt was an unknown attorney in the suburbs of Tulsa, Oklahoma. What do Scott Pruitt's early days in public life tell us about his beliefs and motivations as he sets about dismantling EPA regulations? On this episode, we talk ...…

From its inception, science has been at the core of the EPA’s mission. It’s used science about the health effects of industrial pollution to make our air and water cleaner. But EPA administrator Scott Pruitt wants to limit what kinds of research the agency can use when making regulations. To that end, he has introduced the Strengthening Transpa ...…

First class flights, pricey office furniture, a soundproof booth and a security detail the size of a small police department. And don’t forget a rented room inside a condo owned by a lobbyist’s wife. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is embroiled in a series of concentric ethics scandals, and it’s led to speculation about his future there. Today w ...…

The Trump administration says it wants to open up nearly all of the country’s oceans to oil and gas drilling. So what will this mean for communities around the country that depend on our coasts for their livelihood? What will this mean for our oceans?

More than 60 percent of Alaska is owned by the federal government. That's 225 million acres; a plot of land bigger than Texas. So if any state is going to be impacted by environmental decisions made in Washington D.C., it's Alaska. On this episode, we talk about those decisions being made in D.C. and their impacts on the 49th state with two of ...…

There have been lots of presidential orders and proclamations, and many proposals are in the works. But just how effective has Trump been in changing environmental policy during his first year in office? To answer that we spoke with Dan Farber, an environmental law professor at the University of California at Berkeley. He also blogs about these ...…

Rolling back regulations is fundamental to the philosophy of the Trump administration. And a lot of the action has been directed towards environmental regulations. According to a review done by the Washington Post, 63 environmental rules have been targeted across all agencies. That’s more than other policy area. So what’s the case for environme ...…

The Trump administration has rolled back 60 environmental policies at last count. ProPublica reporter Talia Buford dug into the overturning of one of EPA rules that took the agency a decade to craft and the Trump administration just months to undo. The rule was meant to keep toxic waste out of rivers and streams. Now it's in limbo as the EPA ha ...…

The whole concept of "clean coal" is wonky. Real technical, real complicated. Not as simple as President Trump would have you believe. But what does the term actually mean? In truth, it can mean a lot of different things. When many people talk about clean coal, they are talking about cleaning up carbon dioxide out of coal emissions. In Wyoming, ...…

We all remember the financial and auto bailouts during the Great Recession. They arguably saved significant parts of the economy from even further damage. The Trump administration says the federal government now needs to step in to save the coal and nuclear industries. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has proposed a rule that will force the electric ...…

A few weeks ago, President Trump approved the largest rollback of federal land protection in our country’s history. Trump’s announcement to drastically slash the size of two national monuments in Utah - Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante among additional changes to other national monuments - was not a surprise. But it has been controversi ...…

Can scientists who get grant money from the Environmental protection agency be objective enough to serve on its advisory boards? According to Administrator Scott Pruitt, the answer is “no.” Today’s episode examines one aspect of the sweeping changes taking place at EPA: Scott Pruitt’s bar on scientists who’ve taken money from the agency also se ...…

The Trump administration has been pulling back federal environmental regulations as fast as it can. The legal argument is that states should be the ones to decide what level of environmental protection and regulation is right for them. In practice, many regulations related to oil and gas development are already in the hands of states, and even ...…

In October, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt ordered scientists who receive EPA grants to either end their grants or get off EPA scientific advisory boards. What about industry-backed scientists? They can stay In this episode of Trump on Earth, we talk with Washington Post Environmental Reporter Brady Dennis about ...…

About three quarters of the 640 million acres of land that the federal government owns is managed by the Department of the Interior. And under the leadership of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, the Department of Interior is poised to shrink the borders of at least four national monuments, potentially opening up hundreds of thousands of acres to d ...…

As Congress pays out more than 36 billion dollars in disaster relief, the General Accounting Office recommends that the federal government find ways to minimize the economic impacts of climate change. President Obama started moving in this direction. He signed an executive order requiring infrastructure like roads and bridges be designed to sur ...…

The NY Magazine article "The Uninhabitable Earth" presents a portrait of a worst case scenario of climate change in which the planet gets so hot, humans can no longer live there. It imagines a future so grim, it spawned response articles like “Are we as doomed as that New York Magazine Article Says?” In this episode, we talk to the author of th ...…

On Tuesday, administrator Scott Pruitt signed the paperwork to revoke the Clean Power Plan. But what is the case for its repeal? And what happens next in the search to rein in carbon dioxide pollution?We’ve heard from many of the proponents of the Clean Power Plan over the past few months, but on this week’s episode, we talk to someone who oppo ...…

Sam Clovis is Trump's pick for head scientist at the USDA. He has been many things -- Air Force fighter pilot, conservative talk show host, defeated U.S. Senate candidate, co-chair of Trump’s presidential campaign. But one thing not on his resume: scientist. We learn more about why we should be paying attention to what happens with Clovis from ...…

While the world has been paying attention to President Trump's action on immigration and health care, his administration has been steadily reshaping environmental policy. But how far has it gotten? And what can we expect out of Washington in the coming months?

Increasingly sophisticated climate science is able to tell us a lot more about the role climate change is playing in extreme weather events. But while Hurricane Irma was bearing down on South Florida last week, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said now is not the time to talk about climate change and its impacts on these terrifying storms. So if ...…

Arlie Russell Hochschild spent five years in some of the most polluted parishes of Louisiana trying to find out why some of the people whose lives have been ravaged by the oil and petrochemical industry are deeply hostile to environmental regulation. She is the author of Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right.…

What is the future of renewable energy under Donald Trump? Are recent gains made by solar and wind in jeopardy? Or is the momentum these industries have gained over the past eight years made them borderline unstoppable. This week on the Trump on Earth podcast we talk with a man who's literally writing the book on this topic. Varun Sivaram has b ...…

Only 11 percent of conservative Republicans say climate scientists understand the causes of climate change very well. So, can anything change their minds? One conservative says ‘yes’. Bob Inglis is a former South Carolina Republican congressman who now heads a group called republicEN.org which aims to promote ‘free market’ solutions to climate ...…

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funds projects that protect and restore the largest system of fresh surface water in the world. Can it be saved?

In this episode of Trump on Earth, we talk with environmental justice lawyer Lisa Garcia, who was senior adviser to the administrator for Environmental Justice at the EPA during the Obama Administration. Garcia explains just what environmental justice is, why we need it, and how she plans to keep fighting the good fight in spite of the cuts.…

In this episode, we talk with Ann Carlson who for years has been watching the UN climate negotiations that led to the Paris agreement. She’s a professor of Environmental Law and the director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA. In her view, pulling out of Paris really isn't doing very much except that it's tell ...…

President Trump’s proposed 2,000-mile long, 30-foot high border wall would obstruct more than just a pretty landscape. It could bring an end to the species that live in the lush coastal grasslands, searing hot deserts, and staggering mountain peaks in the path of the wall. In this episode of Trump on Earth, we team up with a fellow environmenta ...…

About one-third of the country is federally-owned. That means it belongs to all of us -- the public. But that also gives the President a lot of power over these places. Today on Trump on Earth, we’re taking a closer look at what’s at stake, and what we can expect next for our public lands.

Somewhere between 97 and 99 percent of scientists are convinced by the evidence that climate change is real, human caused, and a problem. But at a recent hearing held by the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, only 25 percent of the witnesses reflected that position: Michael Mann.

This weekend, thousands of scientists will be marching to protest the Trump administration. On this episode we hear from three of them/

Last week — to the surprise of no one — Donald Trump issued an executive order to begin dismantling the Clean Power Plan. But the country's keystone rule on climate change isn't dead yet.

Trump’s first months in office have left us with more questions than answers. But on environmental policy, some themes are emerging that will likely shape a lot of what’s to come. In this week’s episode, we dig into three key storylines to watch with Rebecca Leber of Mother Jones and The Atlantic’s Rob Meyer.…