We take a peak beyond the news headlines of with Peter Dykstra, publisher of Environmental Health News. This week, he and host Steve Curwood discuss how art helps document air pollution and a threat to traditional baseball bats.

Conditions in the western Pacific Ocean point to an unusually intense El Niño weather pattern for 2014/15. Climate scientist Kevin Trenberth tells host Steve Curwood that the last extreme El Niño event in 1997/98 coincided with drought in Australia and Africa, severe ice storms in Northeastern North America, and the Pacific Ocean’s most active hurricane year on record.

ExxonMobil has responded to a shareholders’ resolution with a detailed analysis of climate risks to the company's business future. The report acknowledges the seriousness of global warming, yet Exxon VP Ken Cohen tells host Steve Curwood that he does not expect carbon regulation to disrupt the company's core businesses.

Japan has been hunting whales under the guise of science since a ban nearly thirty years ago. Now Duke university marine biologist Andy Read tells host Steve Curwood that a new ruling from the International Court of Justice could put an end to Japanese whaling.

Federal climate models predict that the Northeast U.S. will lose most of its maples by next century. But Julie Grant of the Allegheny Front reports that many maple sugar producers aren't worried; they say times are as sweet as their syrup.

The reports of the UN's Panel on Climate Change are critically important but notoriously dense. IPCC scientist Gregory Johnson tells host Steve Curwood about his personal project to write haiku poems to make the reports more understandable.

The danger from landslides was well-known in Washington state, but that didn’t stop local officials from letting people build in the danger zone. Ashley Ahearn reports on the geology and planning from Seattle and discusses why people live in harm’s way with host, Steve Curwood.