The US Department of the Interior’s new four year strategic plan calls for maximizing fossil fuel extraction from public lands, according to a version leaked to The Nation reporter Adam Federman. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is part of the plan. That document also has no mention of climate change or climate science. Adam Federman tells host Steve Curwood that the strategic plan is part of the Trump Administration’s larger effort to secure America’s “energy dominance”, and reveals a new agency objective: policing the US-Mexico border.

Since 1991, scientists have been measuring carbon loss from soils heated to temperatures expected by 2100 if fossil fuel burning continues unabated. The test sites are in the Harvard Forest, a field laboratory in Central Massachusetts. The concern is that as global warming releases soil carbon it will stimulate even more warming, and the study attempts to quantify the risk. Host Steve Curwood spoke with the study’s lead author, Jerry Melillo, Distinguished Scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole.

Delegates from more than 190 nations begin meeting in Bonn, Germany November 6th to work on implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement during the 23rd annual meeting of the UN Climate Convention. The nation of Fiji is president of this meeting called COP23, which also includes a major civil society and business gathering focused on fighting global warming. With the US stepping back, Living on Earth Host Steve Curwood discusses the new leadership role for China and the objectives for COP23 with UMass Boston global governance expert Maria Ivanova.

The sun may be setting on a familiar fall tradition in much of Europe and America. The end of Daylight Saving Time sends clocks back an hour, and a Massachusetts legislative commission has found the earlier sunset ushers in more energy use and crime, with an uptick in accidents and illness when clocks “spring forward” in March. The Mass commission recommends effectively sticking with daylight saving year round, if the rest of the region agrees. Commission member Peter Shattuck and host Steve Curwood unpack the surprising benefits of springing forward - and staying there.

Massachusetts’ Mount Auburn Cemetery is renowned as the final resting place for American luminaries including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Fannie Farmer, and Charles Sumner. But as America’s first garden cemetery, it’s also a rest stop for migrating birds every spring and fall. John Harrison and Kim Nagy, co-authors of the book Dead in Good Company: A Celebration of Mount Auburn Cemetery walk through the cemetery with host Steve Curwood, observe the wildlife and visit the deceased.