Island nations are facing a flooded future and running out of time for the world to get its climate act together. So, they turned to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and in May 2024, a court found that countries do have legal obligations to stop greenhouse gases from polluting the world’s oceans. Katie Surma is a reporter with Inside Climate News and joins Host Jenni Doering to explain what the decision could mean for global climate action.

Black residents of Cancer Alley who live next door to polluting industrial plants say they are the victims of environmental discrimination. But their attempts to seek justice through a key provision of the Civil Rights Act are being met with racist pushback. Monique Harden of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice joins Host Jenni Doering to discuss the ongoing attacks against environmental justice.

This week, Living on Earth Contributor Peter Dykstra joins Host Aynsley O’Neill to celebrate the July 12, 1817, birth of nature writer Henry David Thoreau. They also mark the July 1850 invention of icemaking using compressed air.

Thirteen young plaintiffs who took the Hawaii Department of Transportation to court over its role in the climate crisis have won a settlement that requires the agency to fast-track public transit, new bike lanes, and electric vehicles. Attorney Joanna Zeigler represented the plaintiffs for Our Children’s Trust and joins Host Aynsley O’Neill to discuss the new and cleaner future of transportation in Hawaii.

New technology reveals startling levels of cancer-causing ethylene oxide gas wafting from industrial sources in Cancer Alley, Louisiana. Peter DeCarlo of Johns Hopkins University led the research and joins Host Jenni Doering to explain the findings and the health risks for residents.

Snakes and lizards have independently evolved horns or spikes on their heads at least 69 times, and recent research finds evidence that horns may provide camouflage for predators that ambush their prey rather than actively chasing it. Living on Earth’s Don Lyman has this note on emerging science.