Peter Dykstra and Host Steve Curwood discuss the UPS company’s new electric bike delivery system before they examine China’s decision to reverse a ban on the trade of rhinoceros horn and tiger bone. Later, they venture back in time to 1995, when a mass migration of waterfowl closed airports in some prairie states of the US.

In the arid American West, water resources tend to determine where animals and plants can thrive. And while many species need lots of water, others are fine even in the driest desert. BirdNote®’s Michael Stein tells a tale of two phoebes that evolved to occupy different habitats within the same expansive country.

The Brazilian people have chosen Jair Bolsonaro, a conservative candidate, as their next president. President-Elect Bolsonaro supports more development in the Amazon for mining and agribusiness interests and seeks to reduce indigenous peoples' rights, all at the expense of rainforest protections. Gustavo Faleiros, a former Knight International Journalism Fellow and the founder of InfoAmazonia, spoke with host Steve Curwood about the outlook for the world's largest rainforest.

After three years of investigation, the New York state Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil for allegedly defrauding its shareholders. The lawsuit alleges that Exxon used different numbers publicly and internally to calculate the impact that climate change regulations could have on its business. Michael Burger of the Sabin Center for Environmental Law at Columbia University explains the nuances of this lawsuit with Host Steve Curwood.

At a wastewater treatment plant, sophisticated filtration and sanitization methods aim to remove pharmaceuticals, microplastics and chemicals. Human waste also contains various hormones, which can stick around in the environment and harm other creatures, and now there are new ways to get hormones out of the water. Ari Daniel reports from a wastewater treatment plant in Salem, Oregon on how this works.

Two-thirds of Americans have tap water with added fluoride, thought to help prevent tooth decay, but research has raised questions about the additive’s safety. Host Steve Curwood examines the science around fluoride’s health effects and hears from eco-activist Laura Turner Seydel about potential, under-reported risks and measures the public can take for protection.

Investigative reporter Ken Ward has spent decades doggedly unveiling corruption within the coal industry. A West Virginia native, Ward has worked with the Charleston Gazette-Mail since 1991 and was selected for the prestigious 2018 MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of his outstanding reporting. Ken Ward and Host Steve Curwood discuss what he’s learned and still learning from bringing injustices in the coal and natural gas industries to light.

Almost nothing disrupts the hunt of a red-tailed hawk. Living on Earth’s Explorer-in-Residence Mark Seth Lender glimpses a hawk’s omniscience, and her fearsome impact on her prey, as she circles from above.

Most public water supplies in the United States add fluoride to reduce tooth decay, and the CDC calls water fluoridation one of the greatest public health achievements in the modern era. But recent studies show a correlation between drinking water containing fluoride and health problems such ADHD and hypothyroidism, which is linked to weight gain and fatigue. Brian Bienkowski, Editor of Environmental Health News, joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss these studies and their health implications.