As the world remembers the legacy of Pope Francis we return to his groundbreaking writings on climate and environment that called for a fundamental shift in our economic system, and a rethinking of our relationship with God's creation: the natural world. Also, a 2025 Goldman Environmental Prize recipient was repeatedly told there was nothing to worry about when it came to PFAS “forever chemicals” linked to illnesses in her community. But she did not back down, and her persistence paid off. And as Poetry Month ends, we turn to poet Dorianne Laux, whose latest collection is titled Life on Earth. Her poem “Evening” from a few years ago simultaneously expresses her grief at her recent loss of her mother and the waning of the whole biosphere in the face of climate disruption. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Living on Earth is celebrating 55 years of Earth Day with a solution-based broadcast. Grammy nominated singer and Earth Day ambassador Antonique Smith uses the art of storytelling and music to promote environmental justice and climate action in communities of faith and color. Nalleli Cobo is a young activist who was awarded the 2022 Goldman Prize for North America after fighting an oil company whose wells were making her community sick. Also, how shallow geothermal energy networks are presenting signs of hope for the climate crisis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump has issued an executive order that directs the U.S. attorney general to identify and block state laws that deal with climate change, environmental justice, and carbon emissions. A study from Johns Hopkins researchers found that residents near or on the fence line of polluting enterprises are at higher risk for multiple health problems because of the toxic mix of air they breathe. The lead researcher explains the study. In terms of physics, global warming comes down to an energy imbalance as Earth is taking in more energy than it is releasing. An atmospheric scientist explains how a shrinking cloud cover is contributing to climate change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Experts are still trying to piece together how tornado patterns have changed in the last century and are likely to keep changing as the world gets hotter. A meteorologist explains the eastward shift of tornadoes in the US and how newly vulnerable populations can stay safe. Also, the Trump administration is slashing personnel and research grants at two dozen federal agencies, including those conducting critical science. Science has long played a key role in the federal government, and government research catalyzed major innovations that led to the Internet and the space program, laying the groundwork for the private sector to move in. And, for Poetry Month -- the songbirds called vireos have increased in number by more than 50 percent in recent decades, while birds overall are struggling. That was the inspiration for Catherine Pierce’s poem, “What I Want to Believe About the Vireos.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A North Dakota jury found in favor of pipeline company Energy Transfer and ordered Greenpeace to pay more than $600 million in damages over its role in helping protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. Some legal experts call the case a classic SLAPP or Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation suit and a threat to free speech. Also, a program funded by the 2021 bipartisan Infrastructure Law sought to install many more electric vehicle chargers. But now the Trump administration has stalled this funding. And the world can be an awfully noisy place. Ed Jahn of Oregon Public Broadcasting took a journey in search of silence and found what could be the quietest place in Oregon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As President Trump and the Republican-led Congress aim to shrink the federal government and renew major tax cuts, hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy tax credits could be on the chopping board. Twenty-one House Republicans whose districts are benefiting from the tax credits are petitioning GOP leadership to keep them intact. Also, under President Biden the Department of Justice and EPA sued petrochemical manufacturer Denka, alleging that its Reserve, Louisiana plant posed unacceptable cancer risks. But the Trump administration abruptly dropped the case just weeks before the scheduled start of a trial. And the expansion of fracking or hydraulic fracturing for natural gas is generating large amounts of waste contaminated with heavy metals and radiation. Some of it gets sent to landfills like one in the small town of Yukon, Pennsylvania – where EPA has documented unacceptable levels of pollution draining from the landfill into a local creek. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Trump administration announced plans to roll back multiple environmental regulations, cut EPA spending and push back environmental justice programs. We cover how recent federal actions impact environmental policy as well as the role our guest Christine Todd Whitman played as the former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Bush administration. Also, plastics can contain thousands of chemicals like phthalates and PFAS which are harmful to human and animal health. A new study published in the journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, found that higher exposure to disposable takeout containers, was linked to a higher risk of congestive heart failure in both humans and animals. We discuss this study, and others related to plastics and health. And 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. Tiya Miles shares their stories in her book Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To help cover the rising costs of climate impacts like extreme floods and sea level rise, New York State has enacted a climate superfund law that asks major fossil fuel companies to pay up, based on their historic sales of coal, gas and oil. We discuss how the revenues would fund climate adaptation and resilience. Also, the Trump Administration barred government scientists from attending a key UN climate science meeting in February 2025. What’s more, it seems the customary US task force including officials from the State, Energy, Commerce and Transportation departments has not attended any meetings for the underlying UN climate treaty since the beginning of the Trump Administration. And a new study shows that crevasses or cracks on the Greenland Ice Sheet are widening more rapidly than expected due to climate change, which may accelerate ice loss and global sea level rise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The thousands of homes that burned in Los Angeles this January included the home of Marketplace Morning Report Host David Brancaccio. He shares what he’s learning about the challenges of rebuilding with a limited supply and huge demand for contractors. David says there’s an opportunity to rebuild a more wildfire-resistant Altadena, and to heal the community itself. Also, 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. How reintroducing sea otters can help revive the kelp ecosystem and restore a vital cultural connection for Native people. And major fossil fuel projects like LNG terminals could become harder to oppose on environmental grounds because of a Trump executive order that tries to weaken agency compliance with NEPA, the National Environmental Policy Act. Environmental concerns may take a backseat under the new project review process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Trump EPA is trying to cancel $20 billion dollars of funding in what’s known as the “Green Bank”, which provides loans for local clean energy, energy efficiency upgrades and more. Without providing evidence, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin accused the program of being rife with fraud and waste. Also, as costly climate disasters multiply around the planet, some financial experts are raising alarms that proceeding with business as usual without sharply reducing emissions could cut global GDP in half as soon as 2070. How human civilization can steer towards a more stable future. And for Black History Month, civil rights leader Rev. Benjamin Chavis connects the dots between the civil rights and environmental justice movements. He reflects on the first EJ battle, how he coined the term “environmental racism,” and the path forward for the EJ movement during a Trump administration that refuses to acknowledge environmental injustice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices