To help cover the rising costs of climate impacts like extreme floods and sea level rise, New York State has enacted a law that asks major fossil fuel companies to pay up, based on their historic sales of coal, gas and oil. Anne Louise Rabe is the former Environmental Policy Director at NY-PIRG, The New York Public Interest Research Group, and joins Host Aynsley O’Neill to explain how the revenues would fund climate adaptation and resilience.

To kick off Women’s History Month, we look back at the remarkable story of Lois Gibbs and her fight against industrial waste at Love Canal in New York. Lois Gibbs, who learned her neighborhood had been built on top of a toxic waste dump, joined Host Steve Curwood to recall how she organized her community and led a precedent-setting effort to get all the families relocated.

The Trump Administration barred government scientists from attending a key UN climate science meeting in February 2025. What’s more, it seems the customary US task force including officials from the State, Energy, Commerce and Transportation departments has not attended any meetings for the underlying UN climate treaty since the beginning of the Trump Administration. Ben Stockton of the Center for Climate Reporting joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss what this could mean for global climate diplomacy.

A new study shows that crevasses or cracks on the Greenland Ice Sheet are widening more rapidly than expected due to climate change, which may accelerate ice loss and global sea level rise. Lead author Dr. Thomas Chudley, glaciologist and associate professor at Durham University, talks with Host Aynsley O’Neill about the findings of this study and the implications for the future.

With its staggering volume of ice, the Greenland ice sheet is surely a sight to behold, and Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence Mark Seth Lender brought back this memory from a visit to that otherworldly place.