A new patent-free COVID vaccine called CORBEVAX has been developed to expand vaccine access to people in low- and middle-income countries. Peter Hotez, Co-Director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, spoke with Living on Earth's Aynsley O'Neill about how the low cost and easy production of this vaccine could help close the gap in vaccine equity worldwide.

Millions of white Ukrainian refugees have been welcomed by neighboring countries, while many black and brown refugees from the Global South are routinely turned away. Climate change is expected to displace as many as 200 million people, many of them people of color, by the year 2050. Kayly Ober, Program Manager for the Climate Displacement Program at Refugees International, joins Host Bobby Bascomb to talk about the intersections between the refugee crisis, racism, and climate change.

Bald eagles were nearly driven to extinction in the 20th century but are now making a big comeback. These majestic creatures are becoming so common that people including Living on Earth's Sophia Pandelidis are spotting them in the most unexpected places, even the heart of Manhattan.

On this week's trip beyond the headlines, Environmental Health News Weekend Editor Peter Dykstra joins Host Bobby Bascomb first to discuss a former coal mining region that now boasts green tourism. Then the two take a look at a program to feed lettuce to starving manatees. Finally, they mark what would have been the 100th birthday of Hiroo Onoda, an Imperial Japanese intelligence officer best known for living 29 years in the mountains of the Philippines after the end of World War II.

Amid the war in Ukraine, Europe has vowed to quickly wean itself off Russian gas. Climate activist and writer Bill McKibben joins Host Bobby Bascomb to explain his idea to invoke the Defense Production Act to rapidly manufacture electric heat pumps and send them to European homes as a way to permanently weaken Vladimir Putin’s oil and gas fueled war machine while fighting climate change.

The population of Western Monarch butterflies has increased by more than 100-fold this year after reaching an all-time low last year of just 2,000 individuals. Executive Director of The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Scott Hoffman Black joins Host Bobby Bascomb to talk about the potential explanations for the comeback.