Latest Environmentalissues Podcast Episodes

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Series Finale

Trump on Earth - January 15, 2021 22:25 - 38 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
When he first ran for President, Donald Trump was called the “chaos candidate”. And to bitter end, that has been borne out. But another kind of radical change has happened over the last four years, often out of the headlines.  So, for our last episode, we take stock of the past four years. 

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"Sound science is not leading the decisions made by this nation."

Trump on Earth - December 24, 2020 00:54 - 29 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
There have been a number of changes in how the EPA, under President Trump, uses science. It has come with much criticism, including from former EPA officials. On this episode, we hear from a veteran EPA scientist on what drove him to leave the Trump Administration. Chris Zarba worked at the EPA ...

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Trump’s Last Act: Drilling in the Arctic Refuge

Trump on Earth - December 03, 2020 20:07 - 17 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
The outgoing president has a few orders of business he’d like to take care of before January 20.  Among them is a controversial plan to drill for oil in the country’s largest stretch of untouched wilderness. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is 20 million acres of mountains, tundra and coast...

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What does Biden's win mean for the environment and the fight to rein in climate change?

Trump on Earth - November 11, 2020 22:16 - 19 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
President-Elect Biden ran as a moderate Democrat, but he also campaigned on an aggressive climate platform. How much of that agenda he can pursue could rest on who controls the US Senate, pending results of two runoff elections in Georgia.  We unpack what's coming next with Jody Freeman, law p...

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How the Environment is Playing in Swing States

Trump on Earth - October 29, 2020 23:13 - 31 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
On this episode, we're looking at what role climate change and other environmental issues could play in deciding the election. We check in with reporters in three major battleground states--Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida--to find out. Our guests are Alex Harris, a climate reporter with the...

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Will 2020 be the Year of the Climate Voter?

Trump on Earth - October 22, 2020 14:05 - 37 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
As Election Day nears, a majority of registered voters in the United States say climate change will be an important issue in making their choice for president. That’s according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted over the summer. And it’s a sharp contrast to the 2016 race when only 2% of l...

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Trump vs the Courts

Trump on Earth - October 08, 2020 04:03 - 28 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
Many of President Trump's environmental actions have faced court challenges. So how’s the administration doing? First we hear from Ann Carlson, professor of environmental law at UCLA about a climate change case just added to the Supreme Court docket. And then we take a look at how the Trump admi...

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Losing RBG

Trump on Earth - September 24, 2020 04:06 - 33 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a feminist icon in the U.S., as one of the first women in many of the roles and rooms she found herself in over her life. Her death and the subsequent race by the Trump administration to confirm her successor will remake American law for decades, most notably by putting R...

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Labor Unions and Environmentalists Join Forces to Defeat Trump

Trump on Earth - September 16, 2020 18:33 - 22 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
President Trump calls himself a "great environmentalist” while at the same time gutting environmental protections and questioning the science around climate change. He often explains his actions by claiming regulations are job killers that hurt the economy. But even with the rollbacks, traditi...

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Why the Trump Administration is Rolling Back a Climate Rule that Big Oil Actually Likes

Trump on Earth - September 03, 2020 00:24 - 24 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
Trump's EPA recently announced that it was rolling back yet another big Obama-era climate rule. This time, the target was a rule on oil and gas emissions of methane, the powerful greenhouse gas that is the main component of natural gas. The Obama administration created the rule in 2016 and some ...

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@ Interior: Victories and Defeats for Oil Industry

Trump on Earth - August 20, 2020 02:10 - 23 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
It took 40 years but this week the Trump administration announced that it would open up 1.5 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. The administration argues the decision will lead to jobs and generate billions of dollars in revenue, but opponents warn that opening the ...

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2020: Our last chance to save the planet?

Trump on Earth - August 05, 2020 21:38 - 29 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
We are now three months away from an election that could determine A LOT, including what our future climate looks like. On this episode, we discuss the 2020 election through the prism of climate change. We talk with Marianne Levelle, a reporter with Inside Climate News, about Joe Biden's evolvin...

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Major defeats for pipelines…and Trump.

Trump on Earth - July 22, 2020 17:08 - 42 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
Federal courts recently handed down major decisions against big pipelines that would transmit oil and gas around the country. And other big pipelines are facing legal challenges that may put them out of business. What do these decisions mean for America's continued oil and gas buildout and the T...

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Trump issues final rules to weaken NEPA

Trump on Earth - July 17, 2020 21:50 - 15 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
This week, President Trump announced he was issuing final rules to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The new rules will limit public review of federal infrastructure projects to speed up the permitting of highways, power plants & pipelines.  Since its passage in 1970, NEPA ...

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Living on Earth: Bill McKibben on the Divestment Movement

Trump on Earth - July 03, 2020 01:43 - 23 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
Harvard is one of the latest in a series of wealthy institutions around the world announcing steps towards pulling their investments in the fossil fuel industry. But Harvard’s announcement has been called too little, too late. Bill McKibben, author of “The End of Nature” and cofounder of 350.org...

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Tracking Trump’s Environmental Rollbacks

Trump on Earth - June 17, 2020 15:13 - 20 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
Harvard Law School is keeping tabs on the regulatory changes of the Trump Administration. What’s the lasting legacy of the nearly 100 environmental rollbacks?

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Can the environmental movement address American racism?

Trump on Earth - June 04, 2020 19:15 - 25 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
There’s a growing understanding that racial disparities in the U.S. extend beyond policing, to public health and the environment. Communities of color are more likely to breathe polluted air, live near polluting industries and be exposed to toxic chemicals. And now COVID-19 is disproportionate...

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Can Joe Biden Convince Climate Voters He Is One of Them?

Trump on Earth - May 21, 2020 02:23 - 38 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
Joe Biden ran considerably to the right of his top rivals on climate policy. But now that he is the nominee, the Biden campaign is trying to convince climate activists that his campaign is taking the issue seriously.

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Trump's Executive Order to Keep Meat Plants Open Could Be Risky. Here's Why.

Trump on Earth - May 06, 2020 21:50 - 20 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
President Trump ordered meat processing plants to stay open despite workers getting sick with the coronavirus. On this episode, Jacob Bunge, agriculture reporter for the Wall Street Journal, talks about the meat industry, worker safety, farmers' fears, euthanizing pigs and other issues with the ...

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If it Ain't Broke What Are We Fixing, Exactly?

Trump on Earth - April 23, 2020 18:29 - 30 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
Last week the EPA announced a major change to a landmark regulation that has reduced toxic air pollution like mercury from coal-fired power plants. The vast majority of these plants have already complied with the rule. So why did the EPA roll it back now?

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Coronavirus is like Climate Change on Steroids

Trump on Earth - April 09, 2020 03:14 - 30 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
If you've been following climate change, the coronavirus pandemic might feel oddly familiar these days. Many countries have implemented radical policies that would have been unthinkable a few weeks ago to slow the spread of the virus. Is this what it will take to solve the climate crisis? On thi...

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How Dark Money Fuels Mistrust of Science

Trump on Earth - April 01, 2020 23:31 - 17 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
How does doubt about science play out in a moment like we’re experiencing now where public health and millions of lives depend on good science and trusting scientists? Our guest is David Michaels, an epidemiologist and author of “The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception.”

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EPA to Polluters: Monitor Yourselves

Trump on Earth - March 28, 2020 00:58 - 19 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
Industry is struggling during the coronavirus crisis and one way the Trump administration has responded is by suspending enforcement of some environmental regulations. The EPA made the announcement on Thursday. Companies are usually required to report when they discharge certain levels of poll...

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A Dark History

Trump on Earth - March 05, 2020 19:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
Yes, Trump has cozied up to oil companies. He’s said we should have taken the oil from Iraq. And it does seem like we are cozying up to petro-state strongmen in Russia and Saudi Arabia. But is this any different from how the United States and other western powers have operated over the last 150 ...

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Trump Administration Ending Long-Standing Protections for Migratory Birds

Trump on Earth - February 20, 2020 03:07 - 17 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
At more than 100 years old, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act was among the first environmental laws in the United States. Until recently, power companies and other industries could be prosecuted by the federal government for causing egregious bird deaths, even accidentally. Not anymore.  The Trum...

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Manipulating Data to Exploit a Disaster

Trump on Earth - February 06, 2020 02:23 - 13 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
Did the Trump administration manipulate wildfire science to promote the logging industry? An investigation in the Guardian newspaper says yes.

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Manipulating Data to Exploit a Disaster

Trump on Earth - February 06, 2020 02:23 - 13 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
Did the Trump administration manipulate wildfire science to promote the logging industry? An investigation in the Guardian newspaper says yes.

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Is this Trump's Biggest Environmental Rollback?

Trump on Earth - January 23, 2020 03:25 - 18 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is often called the Magna Carta of environmental law. President Nixon signed it into law 50 years ago this month. And President Trump honored the anniversary by announcing plans to drastically scale back the law.  On this episode, we dig into what m...

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Strengthening Transparency or Silencing Science?

Trump on Earth - December 12, 2019 19:32 - 29 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
Word leaked a few weeks ago that the EPA is poised to finalize a rule to limit the types of scientific studies that can be used to create new regulations. The proposal -- named “Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science” -- would require public health researchers to release their raw sci...

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What’s the Future of Global Climate Policies?

Trump on Earth - November 28, 2019 14:33 - 18 minutes ★★★★ - 96 ratings
The Paris Climate Agreement was put in place to prevent catastrophic and runaway global warming. And since taking office, President Trump has been threatening to pull the U.S. out of it. Earlier this month, he made it official.  On this episode we hear from the man who helped put the U.S. in t...

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