Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff recently vetoed portions of a controversial forest code and, in effect, postponed any final decisions until after Brazil hosts the Rio +20 environmental summit in June. Host Steve Curwood talks with Professor William Moomaw of The Fletcher School at Tufts University about how to make this conference more productive than previous environmental summits.

The Brazilian Congress recently passed a controversial new forest code that many scientists believe could cause more deforestation in the Amazon. Living on Earth’s Bobby Bascomb reports on the rules but says Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff still has the power to veto the changes.

Some researchers, including Bruce Blumberg of the University of California, Irvine, believe chemicals we’re unwittingly exposed to could be making us fat. Blumberg tells host Steve Curwood if the timing is right, chemicals may be instructing stem cells to become fat cells.

The federal government is pushing new efforts to deal with an old problem – abandoned oil and gas wells. In Pennsylvania, there may be as many as 100,000 orphan wells. If the wells were not sealed properly, they could explode. As The Allegheny Front’s Kate Malongowski reports, the government is using high-tech helicopters to find out where these wells are located.

The Greater Anglewing is an insect that’s a master of disguise – it looks just like a leaf.

William Temple Hornaday was an early environmental crusader. Biographer Stefen Bechtel tells host Steve Curwood how the 19th century taxidermist and hunter transitioned into an outspoken defender of the natural world.

When it comes to the plant world, one person’s stinky, misshapen flower is another one’s charismatic bliss. Ari Daniel Shapiro reports on a botanist who went to Madagascar and returned with a new species of the smelly corpse flower.

We continue the Living on Earth – Orion Magazine feature “The Place Where You Live” with an essay about the prairie. Linda Hasselstrom of Hermosa, South Dakota describes the wildlife that frequents her ranch pastures.

The rapid decline of the moose population in the northern Midwest has biologists worried. Host Steve Curwood talks to Seth Moore, the director of Biology and Environment for the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa. Moore says the warmer winters associated with our changing climate are probably related to moose survival rates.