In This Climate

We took a trip to Fort Collins, Colorado, for the annual Society of Environmental Journalists conference, and we want to tell you about it. Between the Rocky Mountains and the short-grass prairie, topics surrounding public lands flowed easily — as did connections with journalists, researchers and other attendees. In this episode, we dig into the conversations, moods, and trends that emerge when environmental journalists converge. Special guests this episode include Meera Subramanian and Lyndsie Bourgon.

Late September in the U.S. saw a host of abnormal weather events: record heat in the Southeast, a Category 5 hurricane in an odd location, and five feet of snow in Montana. This episode, the team zeroes in on the early, heavy snows that could have a long-term effect on farmers in the Northern Plains. 2:00 - Gerald Wagner, director of the Blackfeet Environmental Office 14:00 - Ray Wolf, science and operations officer, NOAA/NWS Quad Cities 20:45 - Ben Thomas, director of the Montana Department of Agriculture  

Like many of us, Bathsheba Demuth grew up seeing the human world and the natural world as separate. Then, she spent a couple years between high school and college in Old Crow, Yukon. There, she developed a sense of a social world that contains more than human beings. Emily talks in this episode with Demuth, now a Brown University Assistant Professor of History & Environment and Society, about her new book Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait. 

In fewer than 50 years, North America has lost 2.9 billion birds, nearly a third of the 1970 population. In this episode, the team explores the significance of birds, the story of one unloved variety and the ways people can work to bring back our feathered friends. Hint: a big one is birding. 2:15 - black vulture story with Katie Fallon from the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia 11:00 - interview between Janet McCabe and IU's own Ellen Ketterson 24:00 - bird loss vox pop with Jacob Einstein and Emily Miles, featuring voices from around the IU campus 29:30 - interview between Jim Shanahan and Wesley Hochachka from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology 

With rising and warming ocean waters, hurricanes are on track to intensify. This change means greater risk for people in the path and greater need for effective long- and short-term risk communication. But the story of the hurricane doesn't stop with the radar, or the rescues, or la renuncia, or the rebuild. To understand the chatter around hurricane season, the team talks this week with a meteorologist, a risk communications specialist and a podcast host whose family lived through Hurricane Maria. 2:45 - Update on "Huracán Maria changed my family's life" with Paola Marizán from ¿Qué Pasa, Midwest? 16:45 - interview between Jim Shanahan and Gina Eosco from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 27:45 - interview between Jim Shanahan and Jeff Berardelli from Columbia University and CBS News

September 20 is the first day of the Global Climate Strike. It's an event that follows the rise of youth organizations like the Sunrise Movement and Zero Hour, a full year of Fridays for Future school strikes and CNN's 7-hour climate change town hall marathon. At every level of society, people have gotten involved in the politics of the environment. In this episode, the team talks with activists, a communication scientist and journalists to find out how much of a difference any of it can make. 4:30 - Louisville, Kentucky, Global Climate Strike and Extinction Rebellion story, featuring Alice Melendez 12:15 - interview between Janet McCabe and IU environmental communications scientist Nathan Geiger 20:15 - interview between Janet McCabe, Zahra Hirji of BuzzFeed News and Nathanael Johnson of Grist

The billowing black factory smoke may be gone, but there remains much work to be done in U.S. and global air quality. As the earth warms, ozone worsens and wildfire particulate matter threatens communities. Janet, Jim and Emily delve into these issues and more with a host of seasoned air quality experts and one community group fighting for quality of life. 3:30 - Dale, Indiana coal to diesel refinery story, featuring Mary Hess, Rock Emmert, John Blair and Randy Vaal 17:00 - interview between Janet McCabe and David Hawkins of the National Resources Defense Council, with contributions from Janice Nolen of the American Lung Association 34:30 - interview between Janet McCabe and Dan Greenbaum of the Health Effects Institute, with contributions from Janice Nolen

The World Meteorological Organization labeled summer 2019's arctic and boreal wildland fires "unprecedented." In the first episode of In This Climate, Janet, Jim and Emily explore with scientists and policy experts how and why this circumpolar fire season was so significant and what we can do moving forward. 7:00 - Siberian wildfire story, featuring Mark Parrington, Angelina Davydova and Kate Birdy 13:15 - interview between Janet McCabe and Joel Clement, with contributions from Edward Alexander 28:15 - interview between Jim Shanahan and Nancy Fresco

The Amazon catches fire every year, but 2019 is different. Eduardo Brondizio, an expert on rural and urban populations and landscapes in the Amazon, knows why. In this bonus episode, he explains the political trajectory that brought a group of land-grabbers and farmers to coordinate a day of coordinated fires — the same trajectory that's now bringing indigenous groups, researchers and people across the globe to push back.