At two and a half minutes in length and a cost of tens of millions of dollars, Chevron’s new television spot aims to show the company’s human face and good intentions. Boston University Communications Professor John Carroll listens to the ad with host Steve Curwood about talks about big oil’s big push to look green.

The Clean Water Act turns 35 years old this month. American rivers, lakes, and wetlands are a lot healthier than they were before the law’s inception. But the act’s goal of “fishable, swimmable” waterways has still not been realized. Jeff Young reports on the success and shortcomings of the Clean Water Act.

A California listener shares two ways she and her husband are saving energy.

Some states and local governments are calling on developers to calculate the climate impact of their development projects. As Living on Earth’s Ashley Ahearn reports, measuring the greenhouse gas emissions from the loss of trees or new construction may be the first step to limiting the emissions.

Amy Fish reports that the ingredient that gives vinegar potato chips their tangy taste may prove to be a powerful waterproof sealant for concrete.

In our continuing series on language of the American landscape from the book “Home Ground” edited by Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney, poet Pattiann Rogers of Colorado defines the term “drumlin.”

Dean Cycon believes coffee farmers should receive a living wage and has traveled the world to help build the fair trade movement. Cycon imports and sells coffee under the name “Dean’s Beans” and recently wrote a book about his adventures in the coffee trade called “Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee.” He joins host Steve Curwood.

A unique research project dubbed "The moon shot of anthropology" promises to answer one of humankind’s most profound philosophical questions: where do we come from? Living on Earth's Bruce Gellerman tests his own DNA and learns about The Genographic Project.

While overall death rates from cancer are dropping, the number of new cancer diagnoses is on the rise, especially among children, African Americans and Native Americans. Dr. Devra Lee Davis is the director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh. She tells host Steve Curwood about her new book “The Secret History of the War on Cancer” and about why cancer rates are increasing.