California’s car culture, trucking industry, and weather contribute to chronically bad air that it’s been gradually improving with its own laws and regulations and the blessing of the US Environmental Protection Agency. But now under President Trump, the EPA and Republican Congress are taking away California’s ability to clean up its air. Ann Carlson is a Professor of Environmental Law at UCLA and joins Host Jenni Doering to discuss the legal questions and public health impact.

The "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that passed through the House of Representatives on party lines guts multiple provisions from the Inflation Reduction Act, terminating or reducing tax credits for electric vehicles, clean hydrogen and advanced manufacturing. Dan Gearino, a clean energy reporter with Inside Climate News, talks with Host Paloma Beltran about why over a dozen House Republicans who had voiced support for clean energy tax credits ultimately voted to cut them, and what could happen as the legislation moves to the Senate.

Living on Earth’s Explorer-in-Residence Mark Seth Lender is keenly aware of the risks of living right on the Connecticut coast as sea levels rise and hurricanes strengthen. But being that close to Nature, in all her ferociousness, sure does inspire.

Emerging research predicts that with rising global temperatures, climate change may increase clear-air turbulence by as much as four times along some of the most heavily traveled routes. Clear air turbulence as the name suggests is the kind of turbulence you can’t see on most radar. It can toss around large airplanes, damage aircraft and injure passengers and crew. Reporter Bob Berwyn of Inside Climate News joins Host Jenni Doering to explain how these changes tie into the jet stream.

At a former gravel mine in northwestern Pennsylvania, nonprofits are working to plant 70,000 trees as part of a larger project to reforest thousands of acres of degraded mine land in the region. The Allegheny Front’s Kara Holsopple reports on how they’re experimenting with fungi and biochar to help restore degraded soil and give the saplings a head start.

This week, sounds sent in by Living on Earth listeners include the crashing waves at Point Lobos near Monterey Bay on the California coast, and a crow in downtown San Francisco.