Prepping for 2022: We’ve been through a year of climate emergencies. It's been terrifying to witness the Earth’s reaction to the destruction we have wrought upon her. We’re often ill prepared to cope with the resulting chaos and dislocation. When a storm takes out the power lines, or an earthquake ruptures the water pipes, or a mudslide blocks the road leaving your town, or a wildfire is moving towards your house, what the hell do you do?  Alexander Black is an urban prepper living in the...

Art is fundamental to understanding who we are in context to the world. Artists translate and blend physical worlds with emotional landscapes, threading magic into our lives. No one embodies this journey more than Alex Nichols. She works with explosive vision and unparalleled focus to express her artistic voice. Alex's art focuses on translating the world inside her, the world around her, and the world between us all. Great art transcends the everyday, showing us who we are and who we aspire...

Nalleli Cobo grew up in South Central Los Angeles just 30 feet away from a polluting oil well. When Nalleli was nine she and her community started getting nose bleeds, nausea, headaches and asthma. Nalleli began a crusade to shutdown oil drilling in her neighborhood by focusing on the power of storytelling - shining a bright light on what was happening to her community. Nalleli fought a smart, tough campaign that eventually triumphed in getting the oil facility across from her permanently...

As world leaders descended on Glasgow to agree on a plan to curb climate pollution, most of the obstacles to inking a deal centered on who pays for what. Not being discussed is the underlying financial framework of capitalism which has played an outsized role in getting us into this mess. Because capitalism focuses nearly exclusively on maximizing profits, the exploitation of both human and natural resources has never been part of the balance sheet. Dr Carolina Alves studies and teaches...

Talking about the rain, wind, sun, humidity, snow, hail, storms, heat, flooding and everything in between is one of our favorite topics of conversation. That’s now being amped up to a whole new level because of climate change. Today’s extreme weather is causing droughts, wildfires, mega hurricanes, atmospheric rivers and temperatures both so cold and hot that people are dying. Extreme weather cost U.S. taxpayers $99 billion last year, and it is getting worse. Weather is getting a lot more...

Our nation is becoming more diverse thanks to growth among Latinx, Asian and multiracial Americans. Diversity is our nation’s single greatest strength. Nowhere is this more true than in California where the Latinx community is now the largest racial or ethnic group in the Golden State - representing 39% of the population. And yet, if you go to a national park or recreation area, the vast majority of visitors are white. Rather than get derailed by ridiculous racist tropes, like people of color...

In England, climate protesters walked onto the M25 - the country’s busiest motorway - sat down and glued themselves to the asphalt. Traffic ground to a halt while the police unstuck them. Their demands: insulate all of Britain's public housing to stop more than 8,000 people from dying each year from the cold. The insulation would also help reduce climate pollution and create thousands of jobs. But, in a country known for their stiff upper lip, the public went bonkers over commute times...

We embark on an environmental justice tour of Richmond, CA with two Laotian community organizers.  Before Torm Nompraseurt managed to escape Laos, 13 members of his family had been killed, the U.S. had dropped 50 million tons of bombs on his country, defoliated the forests with agent orange, and he had been displaced 6 times. Torm moved to Richmond, CA to pursue the American Dream only to discover more than 350 toxic hotspots. Torm’s journey mirrors the creation of the Asian Pacific...

Saumya Roy is a journalist and activist from Mumbai India who spent eight years writing:  Castaway Mountain: Love and Loss Among the Waste Pickers of Mumbai. The book is so beautifully written, weaving together stories of how we can create something out of nothing with an examination of what it means to be human. The story centers on a family that lives on the slopes of Deonar waste mountain, the largest pile of trash in India. What emerges from talking to Ms Roy are stories of a shared...

I grew up in this English village just outside the university town of Cambridge. Grantchester is surrounded by flat farmland. Along the narrow river Camb which connects Cambridge to Grantchester are the Meadows which for 800 years have been home to herds of cows and crowds of revelers. Just like the rest of the world Grantchester has changed.  The village has had to withstand the loss of the school, the village shop and the Green Man pub. And yet, the glue that holds the community together...

Earthseed - is a religion created by Octavia Butler in Parable of the Sower, a sci-fi novel about a California ravaged by climate change and social dislocation in 2024.Last year, with the pandemic raging, the pain of George Floyd’s murder boiling, Pandora Thomas founded her own Earthseed commuity. With the help of many, Pandora purchased Gabriel farm, a 14-acre, organic, solar-powered orchard, with a 75-year history and turned it into the first Afro-Indigenous, all Black owned education...

In the 1900’s, there were one million Black farmers in America and former slaves and their descendants had amassed 14 million acres of land. In the last 100 years, 90 percent of that land has been lost. Today only 45,000 of the nation’s 3.4 million farmers are Black. Jared Blumenfeld travels to the Central Valley to meet with Will Scott Jr who is the President of the African American Farmers of California, and with Shirley Rowe a lifelong teacher who now farms Alfalfa in Lemoore California....

Salty captain and environmental champion Jo Royle grew up sailing, raced boats between continents, skippered the Plastiki - a boat made from 12,500 plastic bottles and then founded the groundbreaking organization Common Seas to rid the oceans of plastic. The race to save the oceans and prevent big oil from investing $2.3 trillion into new plastic production is something we all need to work with Jo to accomplish. In doing so, we will also help battle climate change and reinforce our intimate...

After a year we’ve all lived through it's clear we’re emotionally spent. Our collective exhaustion is real and the truth is we can only create a healthy planet if we ourselves are healthy. Luckily help is here! Marianna Sousa is a mental health first aid responder who works to heal leaders, activists and artists who are seeking to create lasting social change. Marianna’s personal journey went from performing artist to styling hair to journalism to teaching personal development.

A long time ago, when very few people had heard the words “climate change,” Steve Curwood, a Pulitzer prize winning journalist began his first broadcast of Living on Earth - a groundbreaking, inspiring and information-packed environmental radio show.  That was in 1991.  Through more than 1500 episodes, Steve has been our collective environmental chronicler and conscience.

Climate Communications Now!  If we are to have a chance of combating climate change it won’t be through publishing more reports or having yet another meeting - what we need is clear actionable mass communications that galvanizes the public and compels bold systemic climate action. If there is one person who can help us create an impactful national climate communications strategy, it’s David Fenton who has been called the Robin Hood of public relations. David explains that the truth doesn't...

Kaua’i is the oldest Hawaiian island, has the most endemic species and is the wettest place in the US. At this island’s northern edge is Hanalei Bay, where  Barbara “Maka‘ala” Ka‘aumoana has run the Hanalei River Hui for the past three decades. We talk about indegenous views of nature’s magic, cesspools, how navigating beyond the horizon requires believing in the strength of your inner vision, and how the sound of planks on a bridge helped save a town.

Our definitions of nature help define us. Lisa Wayne has been on the cutting edge of mediating differing views about nature. Lisa supports a network of natural areas within one of the most urban cities in America. These protected areas represent an incredible success story from bringing back species from the brink of extinction, to educating kids, to empowering volunteers. But this program also represents a complex story about the challenges of helping a city remain wild

In Uganda air pollution is a big problem. Luckily, Michael Wanyama isn’t taking this fight sitting down. When Michael’s 6 year old son came down with asthma, he wanted it to go away. Little did Mr Wanyama realize the journey it would bring him on. Michael adopted an innovative approach: work with mechanics to give them the training needed to reduce auto pollution at its source.

Lamar Thorpe was born in prison. Days later he was adopted into a Mexican family and christened Martin Hernandez. It was only when joining the Navy that he acknowledged his black identity.  Last November, Lamar became Antioch’s mayor. Soon afterwards Angelo Quinto died while in Antioch police custody.  Lamar has been at the center of reforming both the police department and the way we think about equity.

What happens when one person no longer has use for an object, and yet that product still has a lot of life left in it? The possibilities are endless: from building materials, to amazing furniture, to a used Hello Kitty clock, to second hand vinyl. We go to Urban Ore, a reuse mecca in Berkeley to meet Ida Belisle and Max Wechsle, then travel to Building Resources, a treasure trove of deconstructed home parts, where I meet Ed Dunn and Kevin Drew.

We talk with “Jesús Garcia” who at 19 left his home and family to escape violence in Mexico. He crossed into the U.S. by swimming at night into the Pacific ocean for eight hours - first west, then north - with just a wetsuit and change of clothes.  Jesús is now three years into his life in California, showing both the challenges and the power of making a dream come alive.

Carl Safina explores non-human feelings. Dr. Safina an ecologist and author of many best selling books. Safina’s Book, Beyond Words; What Animals Think and Feel, has according to the New York Times Review of Books, “the potential to change our relationship with the natural world.” As Carl so eloquently says, only through achieving dignity for all life will we be able to maintain a planet capable of supporting life for all.

I meet up with Amelia Gonzalez to find out where our love of chocolate comes from? After a career in radio, Amelia took her savings and founded Casa de Chocolates in Berkeley. By infusing her chocolates with love and culture and the flavors and history of the Americas, taking one small bite becomes a transformative experience.