How On Earth

IF Federal Environmental Protections Go Away . . . EDF Speaks Out.

World Climate Talks (Starts 1:00) CU Boulder Director of Environmental Journalism Tom Yulsman gives an update on COP29 United Nations 29th Conference on Climate Change, in this hottest year on record, and threats to shut down NOAA.

Methane Leaks, Trump and the EDF (starts 4:10) EDF — Environmental Defense Fund’s Rosalie Winn, explains why reducing methane leaks is crucial, and what to do if many federal environmental protections against methane leaks or air pollution go away.

Executive Producer/Show Producer: Shelley Schlender
Additional Contributions: Tom Yulsman, Joel Parker
Engineer: Jackie Sedley

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:58 — 37.1MB)

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Where is Science Going in the Next 4 Years?

WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 05: U.S. President Donald Trump and Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, hold a press briefing with members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force on April 5, 2020 in Washington, DC. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recommendation that all Americans should wear masks or cloth face coverings in public settings. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)

Today on How on Earth, Beth speaks with Dr Jon Samet, former dean of the Colorado School of Public Health and Professor of Epidemiology and Occupational and Environmental Health. Dr. Samet has served on and chaired numerous committees of the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, also chairing the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee of the U.S. EPA and the FDA’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee. He has an insider view on some of the implications of the newly elected administration for science.

Executive Producer: Shelley Schlender
Show Producer: Beth Bennett
Additional Contributions: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Jackie Sedler

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:11 — 20.5MB)

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Europa Clipper

Today’s show features NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, which launched on October 14th, 2024 on a Falcon Heavy rocket, setting the spacecraft on its 10-year journey to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa. Europa Clipper carries nine instruments to study this ocean world covered by an ice shell to determine if there are places in the watery depths below the surface that could support life. The mission’s goals are to study ice shell, the sub-surface ocean, and the moon’s composition and geology. Our guest is Dr. Bonnie Buratti, a Senior Research Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Deputy Project Scientist for the Europa Clipper mission.

Executive Producer: Shelley Schlender
Show Producer & Engineer: Joel Parker

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:00 — 37.1MB)

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COP16 Biodiversity Conference

COP16: Hope & Hurdles (start time: 1:20) On this week’s show, host Susan Moran interviews two conservation biologists at Colorado State University — Chris Funk and Liba Pejchar. They both recently attended the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP16, which is still underway in Cali, Colombia, and they share their experiences, perspectives, and optimism from the global gathering. Nearly 200 nations are attending the summit to negotiate targets aimed at slowing the alarming decline in plant and animal species and critical habitats around the world. The outcomes of the talks could determine the roadmap for the future of the planet (despite the fact that the United States has not been a signatory to the global biodiversity treaty). The stakes are high: Biodiversity is shrinking globally faster than at any time in history, with around 1 million plant and animal species currently threatened with extinction, according to an intergovernmental panel of scientists. Two years ago, the biodiversity conference, which convenes every two years, met in Montreal and hashed out a landmark agreement. Among the 23 measures in the accord is a commitment to place 30 percent of the planet, and 30 percent of degraded ecosystems, under protection by 2030. Some progress has been made, yet so far no nations have met their targets, and COP has no enforcement mechanism.

Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker
Show Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Shelley Schlender

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:25 — 37.7MB)

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Wildfire Mushrooms for Wildfire Mitigation

Wild, local mushrooms can break down deadwood into healthy soil, and they can do this surprisingly fast. Used correctly, fungi are an emerging way to reduce the forest tinder that makes mega-wildfires more likely. But there’s a wrong way and a right way to use mushrooms for mitigation Our experts today will talk about the ways that are safe for the environment, and the results.

Our experts today are Jeff Ravage of the Coldfire Project and Zach Hedstrom of Boulder Mushroom . They describe efforts underway to use mushrooms to break down deadwood into soil — to reduce forest tinder and also for sequestering carbon in soil.

Host/Show Producer: Shelley Schlender

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:11 — 30.0MB)

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CU Boulder Nobel Prize Winner Tom Cech & “The Catalyst”

Nobel Laureate and CU Boulder researcher Tom Cech. (Photo by Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado)

CU Boulder Nobel Prize Winner Tom Cech discusses his new book, The Catalyst, RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life’s Deepest Secrets

Tom Cech is our featured interview for the KGNU Fall Membership Drive. Thank you to listeners who are contributing funds to help our volunteer powered, noncommercial, community radio station. If you like what you hear and want to aid our efforts, please donate securely on line at KGNU.org.

If you would like to join our team of volunteers who report for the science show and make it happen, please contact us via: contact [no spam] howonearthradio.org
Just put the @ where it belongs.

Hosts: Shelley Schlender, Susan Moran
Show Producer: Shelley Schlender

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:46 — 38.1MB)

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Emotions, Beliefs, Politics

Beliefs, Perceptions, Decision-making (start time: 4:37) For many people if feels like our society, and our beliefs, have never been as polarized as they are now. Indeed, we are living in a politically polarized society. But it’s not as unique, or as extreme, as many think. In this week’s show we look behind the curtain of our beliefs and behaviors, and we discuss how emotions, far more than reason, determine our decision-making, including how we vote.
How On Earth host Susan Moran interviews Leaf Van Boven, a psychology professor at CU Boulder; and Drew Westen, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia, who is the author of The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.

Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker
Show Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:39 — 36.6MB)

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Eight-Legged Wonders: The Surprising Lives of Spiders

Local Science/Nature Calendar (starts 1:00) We share news about the Marshall Mesa Trailhead Closure to eliminate burning underground coal, CSU Professor Mark Easter talks about the Blue Plate Book Launch, THIS THURSDAY at Boulder’s Patagonia Store, and a Hiking Song:Vocal Improvisation in the Wild, NEXT THURSDAY October 9th.

EIGHT-LEGGED WONDERS: The Surprising Lives of Spiders (starts 5:41) HowonEarth Hosts talk about spider phobias, and zoologist James O’Hanlon shares stories from his new book about peacock spiders, vegetarian spiders, spiders in outer space, and more.

Hosts: Esther Frost, Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Show Producer: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Jackie Sedley

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:50 — 36.9MB)

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The Carbon Footprint of Food

The Blue Plate in a Red-hot World (start time: 7:46) While adding cream to your morning cup of coffee, or digesting the hamburger that you grilled last night, you might not have been asking yourself, What’s the carbon footprint of these ingredients and meals? Understandable. Our guest today, ecologist Mark Easter, however, has pondered this question intensely for many years, when he grocery shops, plans his next meal, and researches. Easter is a so-called greenhouse gas accountant, one who measures the sources and sinks of GHG emissions from agricultural practices.
It’s a vexing and critical calculus. After all, agriculture generates more than 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Easter’s debut book, The Blue Plate: A Food Lover’s Guide to Climate Chaos (Patagonia), has just been published. It highlights not just the causes of our climate crisis, but also a growing number of farmers, ranchers and orchardists who are practicing low-carbon, soil-enhancing methods on their land, and as a result boosting their crop yields and revenues.

Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker
Show Producer/Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Joel Parker
Headline contributors: Beth Bennett, Joel Parker, Shelley Schlender

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:46 — 25.4MB)

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Hoofbeats – Horses & Human History//Colorado Wolf Family ReCaptured

Wolf Family Recaptured (Starts 1:40) Colorado Parks & Wildlife did not reply to our request for an update on the fate of Colorado’s newly captured wild wolf family. CU Boulder Professor Marc Bekoff did, offering suggestions for how to improve human-wolf interactions under the voter mandate to reintroduce wolves to Colorado. Go here for a transcript and extended interview with Marc Bekoff. Go here to see the “Kill Permit” Colorado Parks & Wildlife denied to the rancher who lives near the wolf family’s den.

HOOF BEATS. How Horses Shaped Human History. (Starts ) We speak with CU-Boulder Archeologist William Taylor about his new book, Hoofbeats, that chronicles the origin of horses and the human/horse bond. Taylor will give a talk about his new book, Thursday, September 19th at the Boulder Bookstore.

Special music courtesy of YouTube and The Hu, about Mongolia, the cradle of horse domestication, where a horse culture still exists and thrives.

Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Show Producer: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Jackie Sedley

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:54 — 32.8MB)

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