Podcast #53: US power plants, Farm in a box + Great Barrier Reef

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. US Environmental Protection Agency's bid to curb emissions from power plants
2. Inventor in Kenya wants everyone to become farmers
3. My web picks
4. UNESCO and Leonardo DiCaprio warn Australia over Great Barrier Reef

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The Smallest Farm in the World
Satao - A Legend (Mark Deeble)
Armadillo of the World cup (BBC - Science in Action)

Podcast #52: Japan whaling ban, Selling human waste + YearsOfLivingDangerously

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. What does the ban on Japan's Antarctic whaling mean?
2. Selling sewage to help boost sanitation in Kenya
3. My web picks
4. Deal to start mining the sea bed in Papua New Guinea
5. Reviews of the US documentary series Years of Living Dangerously

Listen to more CoolGreen episodes here

The Goldman Prize
Goldman Prize on YouTube
Costing The Earth debate on IPCC report (BBC)
Dan Charles' report on fish farming for All Things Considered (NPR)
Years of Living Dangerously on YouTube

Podcast #50: What Warsaw achieved, chilling effect of the Arctic 30 arrests + the most anti-environment ad ever?

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. Typhoon Haiyan fails to whip up a frenzy of action in Warsaw
2. My top environmental web picks
3. Could the Arctic 30 arrests have a chilling effect on direct action?
4. Marine reserves in the Antarctic stymied
5. Is this the most anti-environment ad ever?

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Dispatch from Kiribati (Business Week)
Surveying deforestation since 2000 (Google/USGS/University of Maryland/Living on Earth)

90 emitters responsible for climate change (Guardian)

Podcast #49: Peru's dolphin cull, making airlines pay for emissions + trees that point to gold

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. World's 'largest illegal dolphin slaughter'
2. Battle for control of airline emissions
3. My top environmental web picks
4. Banning damaging PIB dumping at sea
5. Australian bushfires: No climate change link, says PM
6. Trees that point to gold

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Undercover dolphin slaughter footage (Jim Wickens/Mundo Azul/ITV News)

Jim Wickens' account of being shipwrecked

CSI Landfill (BBC Costing the Earth)

Podcast #48: Global reaction to the IPCC report, the latest on detained Greenpeace activists + turbine rock

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. Reaction around the world to the IPCC's fifth climate report
2. My top environmental web picks
3. Latest on 30 Greenpeace activists detained in Russia
4. Using goats at green mowers
5. The great gig in the sky (actually on a wind turbine)

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Crowdsourcing climate data from smart phones (BBC Inside Science)
Interactive: How hot will it get in your lifetime? (Guardian)
Bill McKibben on his latest book (PRI Living On Earth)

Can we really divest fossil fuels?

There is a student movement sweeping college campuses in the US. It calls for colleges to pull their investments - or to divest - from fossil fuel companies.

At least 300 schools have active campaigns - some bigger than others, and some further along than others, but still 300 is impressive.

Their manifesto is an article by the journalist-turned-activist Bill McKibben which appeared in Rolling Stone magazine almost a year ago. It argues that divestment on college campuses helped bring about the end of Apartheid, so why not climate change?

Podcast #46: Astronaut Chris Hadfield bows out, Why we should eat more insects + Our vocal ancestors

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. Astronaut Chris Hadfield returns to Earth a celebrity
2. Timetable agreed for ending EU fish discards
3. Eat insects, says UN
4. Top picks in environmental news
5. Peugeot pioneers air-powered car
6. Report: 97% of scientists agree on man-made global warming
7. Baboons reveal clues about our vocal ancestors 

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The road ahead: More extreme weather?

Photo by Les Dunford

Extreme weather increasingly prompts talk of climate change and the link between the two.

We saw that recently with Hurricane Sandy in the US, and before that with the spate of droughts and wildfires. Australians pondered whether the record temperatures seen at the start of the year will become a more regular occurrence.

Now it is the turn of Britons. The British Isles, which are normally basking in spring sunshine at this time of year, are instead lying under several feet of snow. Thousands went without power, lambs are dying in the fields and there was the usual 'travel chaos'.

It was all timed nicely to coincide with the departure of the government's chief scientist, who drew the link with climate change as his farewell message.

Episode #44: The battle to stop ivory poaching, Fish fraud in the US + The electric Grand Prix

This podcast includes the following stories:

1. Efforts to stop the deepening crisis over ivory poaching
2. Fish fraud: A third of US products mislabelled
3. More than 7,500 dead pigs found in Chinese river
4. Keystone XL passes environmental impact report
5. Mars Rover finds evidence that life could have existed
6. 2012 saw second steepest CO2 rise since records began
7. President Obama appoints environment champions
8. Should weather forecasters talk about climate change
9. Formula One to go electric 

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Is Climate Change back on Obama's agenda?

We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. 

Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.

An excerpt of President Obama's inaugural address today. It has been widely remarked upon that the address was both more specific on policies than expected, and that climate change was given a prominent mention.

1.5 of the 18 minutes of the speech was devoted to the issue. That may not sound like a lot, but given the deafening silence on the campaign trail, and for much of his first term, it is significant.