Nearly 8,000 oil and gas wells have been drilled into the Eagle Ford shale in Texas in the last 5+ years. Area residents say their health has suffered as the air has become polluted with toxic chemicals. Inside Climate News, the Weather Channel and the Center for Public Integrity conducted a 8 month investigation that found Texas regulators are largely ignoring these air pollution problems. Jim Morris is a senior reporter for the Center and co-author of the story. He tells host Steve Curwood that Eagle Ford is twice the size of Massachusetts but has just 5 permanent air quality monitoring locations.

A camera on Berry College’s campus in Mt. Berry, Georgia provides a real-time view of a hatched bald eagle and its parents. Biologist Dr. Renee Carleton tells host Steve Curwood about the eaglet.

In this week’s trip beyond the headlines, Daily Climate publisher Peter Dykstra and LOE host Steve Curwood discuss fracking controversy surrounding the Head of Exxon Mobil, and the degradation of a biblical river’s ecosystem.

The fracking boom has boosted emissions of toxic chemicals as well as releases of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. State regulator Garry Kaufman tells host Steve Curwood that Colorado has become the first state to respond with tighter regulations of methane and toxic emissions from natural gas and oil production.

When a pair of eagles set up house between a parking lot and the athletic center of Berry College in Georgia, school officials set up an eagle cam to keep watch on the nest. Host Steve Curwood talks eagles with Berry College biology professor Renee Carlton.

Arvia’juaq, is a small island in Hudson Bay, and a good place to find polar bears. But as Mark Seth Lender finds out on his journey North, when you are out hunting for bear the bear might be hunting, too.

A tiny minnow called the Oregon Chub was put on the Endangered Species List more than 20 years ago. But the Chub has rebounded, and now officials want to make it the first fish ever taken off the Endangered Species List because of population recovery.

A Fish & Wildlife Service report would justify dropping federal protection of the gray wolf on the basis of reclassification of the Eastern population. Geneticist Bob Wayne and Steve Curwood discuss the scientific shortcomings of this report and its repercussions on one of America’s top predators.

Para state in Brazil is ground zero for deforestation and dam construction. It’s also home to indigenous tribes like the Kayapo. Recently featured on the cover of National Geographic, the Kayapo are adopting modern technology like cell phones and Facebook while continuing to maintain their cultural traditions and protect the forest. A chief of the tribe, Megaron Ti, talks with Living on Earth’s Bobby Bascomb.

Straight from Yellowstone National Park, Jennifer Jarrett brings us a harmonious chorus of howling wolves.