Trump on Earth

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

President Trump calls himself a "great environmentalist” while at the same time gutting environmental protections and questioning the science around …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Federal courts recently handed down major decisions against big pipelines that would transmit oil and gas around the country. And other big pipelines …

This week, President Trump announced he was issuing final rules to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The new rules will limit …

Harvard is one of the latest in a series of wealthy institutions around the world announcing steps towards pulling their investments in the fossil …

Harvard Law School is keeping tabs on the regulatory changes of the Trump Administration. What’s the lasting legacy of the nearly 100 environmental …

There’s a growing understanding that racial disparities in the U.S. extend beyond policing, to public health and the environment. Communities of …

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 …

President Trump ordered meat processing plants to stay open despite workers getting sick with the coronavirus. On this episode, Jacob Bunge, …

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. …

If you've been following climate change, the coronavirus pandemic might feel oddly familiar these days. Many countries have implemented radical …

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 …

Industry is struggling during the coronavirus crisis and one way the Trump administration has responded is by suspending enforcement of some …

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 …

At more than 100 years old, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act was among the first environmental laws in the United States. Until recently, power …

Did the Trump administration manipulate wildfire science to promote the logging industry? An investigation in the Guardian newspaper says yes.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is often called the Magna Carta of environmental law. President Nixon signed it into law 50 years ago …

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 …

The Paris Climate Agreement was put in place to prevent catastrophic and runaway global warming. And since taking office, President Trump has been …

President Trump came into office promising to save coal and coal jobs. Instead, the industry has continued to slide. The question now is--how far will it go?

The coal industry once employed hundreds of thousands of …

Wildfires have once again spread across California...and millions of residents have been living without power for weeks. The deliberate blackouts by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, or PG&E, are an attempt to …

President Trump says a key phone call at the center of the Ukraine scandal was Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s idea. But Perry asserts that in his conversations with Trump, “not once, as God as my witness, not once was a …

Last month, the USDA quietly issued a new rule changing meat inspection standards for pork. Not only would the new rule mean slaughter houses could …

How do you change the minds of climate deniers and people -- say the President -- who doubt the scientific process in general? We ask a philosopher of science for some answers.

Lee McIntyre is a Research Fellow at the …

Last time round, climate change got a measly five minutes and 27 seconds of airtime in the debates. During this primary season, it got seven hours in one night alone. CNN’s recent town hall provided each of the 10 …

A top climate scientist resigned from the Agriculture Department this month. Lewis Ziska says the USDA buried his research. He's one in a line of …

Today, nuclear plants provide 20% of US power generation. But according to a report last year by the non-profit Union of Concerned Scientists, of the 99 nuclear reactors nationwide, owners have shut down six in recent …

The Trump administration has rolled back more than 80 environmental regulations but some states are fighting back. No state has been more active in …

Surrounding by several members of his cabinet, President Trump recently gave a speech at the White House touting his own environmental record. Even …

The Trump administration recently rolled out the affordable clean energy (ACE) rule. Critics say it basically does nothing to prevent climate change …

There wasn't a single question about global warming in the 2016 presidential debates. Will 2020 be different?

There are 23 Democrats vying for their party's nomination. Who has a plan to fight climate change (and who …

Recent reports stress the urgency of reducing carbon emissions to check the worst effects of climate change. On this episode we listen in as some very knowledgable experts wade into the possibilities, obstacles and …

Forty years ago, the U.S. government began to take climate change seriously and for a short time period, politicians from both parties endorsed …

President Trump's push to have oil and gas drilling on public lands has hit some snags lately. A federal court recently halted leasing on 300,000 …

Now that a proposal is on the table, some see it as a chance to create jobs and equalize the economy. But critics say it should laser focus on …

What happens when environmental laws and rules aren't enforced? When the environmental cops just aren't on the beat?

Under Trump, EPA inspections …

This week we're bringing you a interview with NPR's Howard Berkes about the proliferation of black lung disease among coal miners in Appalachia. It …

If there were a billboard top 100 for policy ideas, the Green New Deal would be at the top of the charts for several weeks running. It’s not a …

The federal government is the nation's largest landowner, managing 500 million acres under the Department of the Interior. And while some expect that America's public lands are managed for the benefit and enjoyment of …

Three years ago, most of the world’s nations signed onto the Paris Climate Agreement, which committed countries to do their best to avert a climate catastrophe. Well, things are different now. President Donald Trump has …

When President Trump started his tenure he promised to repeal something called the ‘Waters of the U.S.’ rule. And this week he made good on that …

President Donald Trump’s performance and policies were front and center in many races across the country--whether candidates were for or against …

Historically, polls have shown that environmentalists are terrible at voting. In the 2014 midterm election, more than 15 million environmentalists …

President Trump says he'll look into a recent UN Climate Change report that predicted we have 12 years to drastically lower our carbon footprint or else the world will witness catastrophic impacts of climate change. He …

You’ve probably heard by now that, according to a new UN report, the world has just over a decade to get climate change under control before it’s too …

Today we're bring you an episode of a podcast we've been enjoying lately. Democracy Works, produced by Penn State's McCourtney Institute for Democracy, aims to rise above the daily news grind and take a broader look at …

This administration is hell bent on dismantling environmental and human health protections, but judges are pushing back on Trump's deregulatory …

People of faith are joining the ranks of the People Climate Movement, which takes to the streets this weekend demanding action. One religious leader tells us why climate change is becoming a top priority.

Fletcher …

Coal was the engine of the Industrial Revolution and employed nearly 1.2 million people in Britain at its height. But the UK has gone more than 1,000 …

Less than a week after the announcement that Justice Anthony Kennedy would retire, President Trump nominated DC Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh as …

For months on end, Pruitt seemed to defy the laws of gravity at the EPA, maintaining his job through more than a dozen scandals. But Pruitt’s term has ended after it was reported that President Trump’s Chief of Staff …

When Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act on December 28, 1973, it made the United States the only nation on Earth to declare a basic right of existence for species other than our own. Currently, the Act …

Earlier this month, Scott Pruitt gave a big gift to the chemical industry in the form of narrowing how the EPA will determine the health risks posed …

Before he was EPA administrator, before he was Oklahoma's attorney general, before he was even a state senator, Scott Pruitt was an unknown attorney …

From its inception, science has been at the core of the EPA’s mission. It’s used science about the health effects of industrial pollution to make our …

First class flights, pricey office furniture, a soundproof booth and a security detail the size of a small police department. And don’t forget a …

The Trump administration says it wants to open up nearly all of the country’s oceans to oil and gas drilling. So what will this mean for communities around the country that depend on our coasts for their livelihood? …

More than 60 percent of Alaska is owned by the federal government. That's 225 million acres; a plot of land bigger than Texas. So if any state is going to be impacted by environmental decisions made in Washington D.C., …

There have been lots of presidential orders and proclamations, and many proposals are in the works. But just how effective has Trump been in changing …

Rolling back regulations is fundamental to the philosophy of the Trump administration. And a lot of the action has been directed towards …

The Trump administration has rolled back 60 environmental policies at last count. ProPublica reporter Talia Buford dug into the overturning of one of …

The whole concept of "clean coal" is wonky. Real technical, real complicated. Not as simple as President Trump would have you believe. But what does …

We all remember the financial and auto bailouts during the Great Recession. They arguably saved significant parts of the economy from even further damage. The Trump administration says the federal government now needs …

A few weeks ago, President Trump approved the largest rollback of federal land protection in our country’s history. Trump’s announcement to …

Can scientists who get grant money from the Environmental protection agency be objective enough to serve on its advisory boards? According to Administrator Scott Pruitt, the answer is “no.” Today’s episode examines one …

The Trump administration has been pulling back federal environmental regulations as fast as it can. The legal argument is that states should be the …

In October, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt ordered scientists who receive EPA grants to either end their grants or get off EPA scientific advisory boards.  What about industry-backed …

About three quarters of the 640 million acres of land that the federal government owns is managed by the Department of the Interior. And under the leadership of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, the Department of Interior …

As Congress pays out more than 36 billion dollars in disaster relief, the General Accounting Office recommends that the federal government find ways …

The NY Magazine article "The Uninhabitable Earth" presents a portrait of a worst case scenario of climate change in which the planet gets so hot, humans can no longer live there. It imagines a future so grim, it spawned …

On Tuesday, administrator Scott Pruitt signed the paperwork to revoke the Clean Power Plan. But what is the case for its repeal? And what happens …

Sam Clovis is Trump's pick for head scientist at the USDA. He has been many things --  Air Force fighter pilot, conservative talk show host, defeated U.S. Senate candidate, co-chair of Trump’s presidential campaign. But …

While the world has been paying attention to President Trump's action on immigration and health care, his administration has been steadily reshaping …

Increasingly sophisticated climate science is able to tell us a lot more about the role climate change is playing in extreme weather events. But …

Arlie Russell Hochschild spent five years in some of the most polluted parishes of Louisiana trying to find out why some of the people whose lives …

What is the future of renewable energy under Donald Trump? Are recent gains made by solar and wind in jeopardy? Or is the momentum these industries …

Only 11 percent of conservative Republicans say climate scientists understand the causes of climate change very well. So, can anything change their …

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funds projects that protect and restore the largest system of fresh surface water in the world. Can it be saved? 

In this episode of Trump on Earth, we talk with environmental justice lawyer Lisa Garcia, who was senior adviser to the administrator for Environmental Justice at the EPA during the Obama Administration. Garcia explains …

In this episode, we talk with Ann Carlson who for years has been watching the UN climate negotiations that led to the Paris agreement. She’s a professor of Environmental Law and the director of the Emmett Institute on …

President Trump’s proposed 2,000-mile long, 30-foot high border wall would obstruct more than just a pretty landscape. It could bring an end to the …

About one-third of the country is federally-owned. That means it belongs to all of us -- the public. But that also gives the President a lot of power over these places. Today on Trump on Earth, we’re taking a closer …

Somewhere between 97 and 99 percent of scientists are convinced by the evidence that climate change is real, human caused, and a problem. But at a recent hearing held by the House Committee on Science, Space and …

This weekend, thousands of scientists will be marching to protest the Trump administration. On this episode we hear from three of them. 

Last week — to the surprise of no one — Donald Trump issued an executive order to begin dismantling the Clean Power Plan. But the country's keystone …

Trump’s first months in office have left us with more questions than answers. But on environmental policy, some themes are emerging that will likely …

Trump’s big push to rollback federal regulations could impact everything from the price of healthcare to the size and scope of the EPA. It might …

Trumpism may not be the most coherent of political philosophies. But when White House strategist Steve Bannon recently told a crowd of conservative …

On everything from healthcare to immigration, President Trump has been busy doing 180s on Obama-era policy. This week, he set his sights on a …

There are still chapters to be written in the larger fight over the Dakota Access pipeline. But as of Thursday, the months-long protest encampment at …