Amtrak's ridership is up and subsidies from the government are down. Yet many in Congress and Presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, are calling to end federal funding for the national train system. Living on Earth’s Steve Curwood talks with Amtrak representative Steven Kulm.

President Obama’s call for creating new jobs through renewable energy development is a reality in Massachusetts. Alicia Barton McDevitt, the CEO of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, tells host Steve Curwood that the number of green energy jobs in the Bay State has grown by more than 11 percent.

According to two scientists at the University of California at Santa Cruz, a small animal could have a big impact on climate change. Professor Chris Wilmers explains how sea otters could be key to preserving kelp forests, one of the world’s great carbon sinks.

In Brazil’s Southwest Amazon region, an ancient tribe turns to modern technology to save their forest, culture, and perhaps the planet’s climate. The Surui people have preserved their forest for millennia. Now they’ve devised a new management plan to protect it in the future. It calls for reforesting 18,000 acres cut by loggers and planting 1 million trees. Bruce Gellerman and Bobby Bascomb travel to the Surui reserve to see the tribe’s re-forestry project in action.

We update a story about an indigenous tribe in the Amazon that’s trying to protect its forest by selling carbon credits on the voluntary carbon market. Living on Earth’s Bobby Bascomb reports.

The US southwest is typically a dry and dusty desert, yet in summer torrential rains can spawn the sudden appearance of amphibians. Sarah Bromer reports from Tucson.