Capitol Hill’s bailout money is electrifying the Motor City. Car writer Jim Motavalli is at the Detroit Auto Show and tells host Jeff Young about the rollout of hybrids and plug-ins.

In Mexico, hundreds of people are murdered every year for simply calling things the way they see them. So much is lost when these voices are silenced. Living on Earth's Ingrid Lobet pays tribute to two recently murdered men.

Coal supporters like to point to the jobs and economic activity that coal mining brings to communities. But a new study argues the human costs of coal mining in Appalachia far outweighs its benefits. Michael Hendryx, a researcher at West Virginia University, talks with host Steve Curwood about coal's toll and policy options that would encourage richer, healthier communities in coal country.

The Environmental Protection Agency has expressed concern that mining practices routinely approved by the Bush administration may seriously damage water quality. Environmentalists hoped this would lead to a moratorium on mountaintop removal but the EPA says it is merely examining permit applications more closely. Host Bruce Gellerman talks with Ken Ward, a reporter for the Charleston Gazette in West Virginia.

Author Sy Montgomery’s latest adventure took her to Mongolia to join a scientific expedition tracking snow leopards. Sy chronicles the search in her new children’s book called “Saving the Ghost of the Mountain: An Expedition Among Snow Leopards in Mongolia.” As she tells host Steve Curwood, the elusive cat is seldom seen but that doesn’t mean the snow leopard doesn’t leave any traces.

Andrew Revkin says farewell to the environment beat at the New York Times newspaper, and hello to his new role as online communicator, author, and academic. He talks with host Jeff Young about ushering in a transformation in how the public understands climate change, and how human beings as a species might be finally learning to grow up.

The EPA has made a list and is checking it twice. The agency put a hold on 79 mountain-top removal mining sites in Appalachia to ensure they comply with Clean Water Act rules on burying streams under tons of rubble. Host Jeff Young asks Charleston Gazette coal reporter Ken Ward Jr. whether the sharper scrutiny signals the Obama administration’s commitment to shrinking the environmental impacts of coal mining.

For our series “Generating Controversy: the Changing Climate of Coal,” Living on Earth's Jeff Young visits a West Virginia community where schoolchildren get their lessons in the shadow of a coal mine - literally. Some residents say the massive mountaintop removal coal mine and its lagoon of liquid waste threaten the school's safety and they're determined to get either the school or the mine moved.

Author Erik Reece chronicles a year in the life of a mountain, destroyed by mountaintop removal strip mining. Reece tells Living on Earth host Jeff Young that the price we pay for inexpensive electricity powered by coal is offset by the cost of environmental degradation and injury to the lives of people who live and work in Appalachian coal country.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently issued a new permit for a mountaintop removal coal mine in West Virginia. The mine will strip all of the vegetation and top soil from the mountain and fill the valley below with rubble and unwanted debris. Just three days after the permit was issued, the journal Science published a paper calling for a moratorium on mountaintop removal mining. Host Jeff Young talks with Margaret Palmer, lead author of the Science article, about why she and a dozen other scientists are willing to step into a political minefield.

Living on Earth continues its series exploring features of the American landscape. It’s based on the book “Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape,” edited by Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney. In this installment, Jan DeBlieu defines the term “pocket beach.”

Oyster reefs play a critical role in protecting our shorelines from storms and pollution but they are the most threatened marine habitat on the planet. We’re literally eating the oyster out of house and home and destroying reefs in the process. Living on Earth’s Bruce Gellerman traveled to Wellfleet, Massachusetts to learn how scientists are experimenting with new ways to restore oyster reefs.