The explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia may have been preventable. Massey Energy, the mine’s owner, has a long history of safety and environmental violations. Michael Shnayerson wrote a book “Coal River” about the powerful coal company. He tells host Jeff Young about Massey’s history and its CEO Don Blankenship.

In the 1800’s, a man named Harry Curtiss Mills started a collection. The Connecticut resident amassed and traded thousands of bird eggs, representing 840 species. His egg collection was donated to a local library where for decades it was neglected, stored away in a cabinet. Now, Harry Curtiss Mill’s eggs have found a new home in the University of Connecticut’s Biodiversity Research Collections. As producer Laurie Sanders reports, the egg collection provides a unique record of bird life in 19th century Connecticut.

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.

Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington has a plan for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and reforming our energy sector. Senator Cantwell and Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine are pushing for the CLEAR Act that calls for a cap and dividend method. This approach makes polluters pay for their emissions and gives the revenues to consumers. Senator Cantwell tells host Jeff Young and why she thinks a cap and dividend system is superior to cap and trade.

Melting glaciers and sea-level rise are no laughing matter, but author Ian McEwan finds plenty of humor in the global effort to tackle climate change. Host Jeff Young speaks with McEwan about his new novel "Solar", in which human nature is the biggest obstacle to saving the planet.

Cutting prison energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions is a breeze with wind power. Living on Earth's Emily Guerin reports.

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.

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.

In honor of National Poetry Month, Living on Earth presents the work of some of our nation’s outstanding poets. This week, we’ll hear from 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner, Natasha Trethewey, professor of English at Emory University. She reads her poem “Monument” and talks about what inspires her to write verse.

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.

The Obama administration recently made two decisions to reduce our dependence on foreign oil - expanding offshore oil drilling and tightening the fuel efficiency standards of cars. But taking action on climate change by capping our greenhouse gas emissions is still a big political challenge. Economist Robert Stavins talks with host Jeff Young about the administration's energy goals and about two bills in Congress that promise to slow climate change without slowing the economy.

They’re short, stout, and reclusive. But when it comes to attracting a mate, the male American woodcock pulls out all the stops. Bob Speare, a naturalist with the Massachusetts Audubon Society, takes us to the woodcock’s singing grounds in Ipswich, Massachusetts to watch its unusual mating ritual.