Damaged Amazon Adds to Global Warming / Belo Monte Dam Disrupts Amazon Floodplain Balance / Horse of a Different Color / Beyond the Headlines / Prehistoric Magnetic Flip Shook Up Life on Earth / Not Just Maple Syrup: Birch, Beech and Other Sappy Trees
The first broad study of all greenhouse gases in the Amazon rainforest reveals that the damaged ecosyst ... Show More
Oct 30
Microplastics, Inflammation, and Your Health; 50,000 Dead from Europe’s 2026 Heat; Saving a Big Bug ‘Down Under’ and more.
Plastics have been widely adopted in all sorts of products from food packaging to toys to medical devices, in part because they don’t tend to chemically react. But new research challenges that notion when it comes to microplastics, finding that contact by tiny chips of plastic wi ... Show More
51m 50s
Oct 23
Fracking and Data Centers, A Fossil Fuel Treaty Beyond the UNFCCC, Hurricane Helene's Impact Brought to Life and more.
One of the states where data centers to power AI are growing is Pennsylvania, which also has a large supply of natural gas. In Upper Burrell, a town just east of Pittsburgh, a data center expansion could be fed by fracking rigs already pumping gas out of the ground. The Allegheny ... Show More
51m 48s
Oct 16
Powerful Pacific Storms Amid ‘Super’ El Niño, Pesticide Atrazine Contaminating 25% of Rivers, and ‘A Guardian and a Thief’
Boosted by climate change, this year’s El Niño has intensified into a “Super El Niño,” meaning sea surface temperatures in parts of the Pacific are over 2 degrees Celsius hotter than average. How this has brought one strong storm after another churning across the Pacific Ocean wh ... Show More
51m 47s
Aug 2025
Floods, mangroves and rampaging tractors
This week, floods have hit the global headlines. First up, we delve into the various reasons why floods form. After learning about the causes of floods, we discover a nature-based solution in the form of mangrove forests. Laura Michie from the Mangrove Action Project tells us why ... Show More
49m 30s
Jan 2023
The Sunday Read: ‘Has the Amazon Reached Its “Tipping Point”?’
<p>In the past half-century, 17 percent of the Amazon — an area larger than Texas — has been converted to croplands or cattle pasture. Less forest means less recycled rain, less vapor to cool the air, less of a canopy to shield against sunlight. Under drier, hotter conditions, ev ... Show More
58m 17s
May 2020
Episode 37: The World Is Heating Up Faster Than We'd Thought, Tesla Reopens, Tapir Poop Will Save The Amazon
Experts agree global warming poses a tremendous threat to civilization -- and recent studies show we've underestimated just how soon this environmental bill comes due. Over in California, Elon Musk reopened his Tesla factory, and told authorities to arrest him if they had a probl ... Show More
15m 51s
Nov 2025
Why does the Amazon matter?
The Amazon is probably the most famous rainforest on Earth. It’s home to Indigenous communities, one of the world's biggest rivers and a diversity of plant and animal life found nowhere else. But it’s also a region rich in sought-after resources — gold, iron ore, bauxite, coffee ... Show More
26m 29s