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New scientific research is revealing just how smart bees really are. Dr. Felicity Muth, Associate Professor of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior at the University of California, Davis, studies animal behavior and cognition. Her research challenges what we think we know about the cognitive abilities of bees. Melanie Kirby is the co-founder of Zia Queenbees Farm & Field Institute, an organization that has spent the past 50 years breeding regionally adaptive bees. Her work highlights how resilient and adaptable bees can be, even in a rapidly changing environment. Terra Verde co-host Alice Harrison speaks with Muth and Kirby about bee behavior, what we can learn from them, and how we as humans can best help bees thrive. The post Learning from Bees appeared first on KPFA.

Every year, the Brower Youth Awards recognizes six outstanding leaders ages 13-22 for their achievements to transform the environmental movement in North America and beyond. Maritza Sanchez (21) received the 2026 Brower Youth Award last week in recognition of her work to develop microbial fuel cells from recycled materials to provide rural and low-income communities in Puebla, Mexico with access to clean energy and water. On this episode of Terra Verde, host and producer Fiona McLeod speaks with Maritza about her journey in STEM, her innovative microbial fuel cell prototypes, and what winning the Brower Youth Award means for her work moving forward.  Growing up in the central Mexican town of Cuautlancingo, Maritza Sanchez was surrounded by pollution. As a high schooler, she developed a concept for microbial fuel cells that could reutilize materials from discarded local waste to generate electricity for energy-poor households and improve water quality along the heavily-contaminated Atoyac River. In 2025, Sanchez founded Aquayac Energy, where she designs, constructs, and tests microbial fuel cell prototypes; tests water quality after treatment; and measures energy generation. While she’s still refining the design, Sanchez expects to scale the project over the coming year and produce 50 functional fuel cells by 2027. Learn more about her work at www.broweryouthawards.org.  The post Youth Scientist Turns Waste into Energy appeared first on KPFA.

Lifelong trade unionist, environmental activist, and musician Joe Uehlein realized pretty early on how climate change was going to be, what he calls, a “jobs killer.” Founding president of Labor Network for Sustainability, an organization dedicated to driving urgent, science-based climate action by building a powerful labor-climate movement, Uehlein’s new memoir — Three Roads, Labor, Music, Ecology — offers us a blueprint for how we can build bridges across movements. In this episode of Terra Verde, Earth Island Journal editor-in-chief and cohost Maureen Nandini Mitra talks with Uehlein about his life learnings and about critical role of music in movement building. The post On Movement Music and Building Bridges [Encore] appeared first on KPFA.

A balcony solar installation at a home in a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Photo by Triplec85 / Wikimedia Commons. A new law allows California residents to use plug-in solar, or what’s better known as “balcony solar,” setups that can power home devices such as fridges, computers, and air conditioners for several hours. The idea of balcony solar is catching on fast — bills to legalize it have been introduced in more than half of US states, and 10 states, including California, have already adopted them. Earth Island Journal editor-in-chief and Terra Verde co-host Maureen Nandini Mitra talks with two veteran solar advocates — Bernadette Del Chiaro, the California head of the Environmental Working Group, which co-sponsored the state’s new bill, and Dave Rosenfeld, executive director of Solar Rights Alliance, a statewide network of solar power users that champions the right to generate solar energy without utility interference. They share how California residents can plug in and reap the benefits of this technology, and discuss the larger political landscape in which the push for balcony solar is playing out.   The post Balcony Solar Comes to California appeared first on KPFA.

Lifelong trade unionist, environmental activist, and musician Joe Uehlein realized pretty early on how climate change was going to be, what he calls, a “jobs killer.” Founding president of Labor Network for Sustainability, an organization dedicated to driving urgent, science-based climate action by building a powerful labor-climate movement, Uehlein’s new memoir — Three Roads, Labor, Music, Ecology — offers us a blueprint for how we can build bridges across movements. In this episode of Terra Verde, Earth Island Journal editor-in-chief and cohost Maureen Nandini Mitra talks with Uehlein about his life learnings and about critical role of music in movement building. The post On Movement Music and Building Bridges appeared first on KPFA.

Indigenous activist and education Melissa K. Nelson. As the climate crisis deepens, our educational systems have a foundational role to play in developing an informed citizenry and charting a path forward. Yet traditional Indigenous knowledge often remains marginalized in these spaces. On this episode of Terra Verde, co-host and Earth Island Journal Managing Editor Zoe Loftus-Farren speaks with Indigenous ecologist and scholar-activist Melissa K. Nelson about the importance of integrating Indigenous learning models in our educational system and engaging the mind, body, heart, and spirit in learning. Melissa has spent her career advocating for Indigenous Peoples rights and advancing Indigenous ecological knowledge, including through her decades at the helm of The Cultural Conservancy, her time as a professor at San Francisco State University, and now her work at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability. The post Whole Body Learning on a Warming Planet appeared first on KPFA.

A weekly public affairs show that delivers news and views about the most important environmental issues in California and globally. The post Terra Verde – September 4, 2026 appeared first on KPFA.

A gray whale mother-calf pair migrating along the central California coast from the wintering grounds in Mexico to the summer feeding grounds in the Arctic. Long term ocean warming and changes in sea ice have affected supplies of the high-fat prey that these cetaceans, researchers say. Photo Courtesy of NOAA Fisheries.Photo Courtesy of NOAA. Since the start of this year, at least 187 gray whales have washed up dead or dying up and down the Pacific coast, making 2026 one of the deadliest years for the species in recent history. Marine conservationists are calling this a “catastrophic mortality event.” And on Tuesday, August 25, three conservation groups — Oasis Earth, the International Marine Mammal Project, and the Center for Biological Diversity — sent the Trump administration an intent to sue notice for failing to protect the species. In this episode of Terra Verde, Earth Island Journal editor-in-chief and cohost Maureen Nandini Mitra talks with conservation biologists Mark Palmer, associate director of the International Marine Mammal Project, a Berkeley-based environmental group that works to protect dolphins, whales, and their ocean environment (and an Earth Island project), and Rick Steiner founder of Oasis Earth, a global consultancy that focuses on policy solutions to the environmental crisis, to understand what is causing this spike in whale mortalities and what can be done to prevent it. The post Why Are So Many Gray Whales Dying Along the Pacific Coast? appeared first on KPFA.

The Trump administration advances a plan to rescind the federal “Roadless Rule,” which protects millions of acres of national forest lands from new roads and timber harvesting. Photo by Mick Haupt / Pexels. For more than two decades, the federal Roadless Area Conservation Rule has limited new road construction and certain forms of development across millions of acres of undeveloped national forest lands. Now, the US Forest Service is proposing to rescind the rule, potentially opening up more than 4 million acres of roadless forest in California to new roads, logging, mining, and other development. In this episode of Terra Verde, host and producer Hannah Wilton speaks with Wendy Schneider, executive director of Friends of the Inyo, and Benjamin Pitterle, director of advocacy and field operations at Los Padres ForestWatch, about what’s at stake for California’s public lands. The US Forest Service is accepting public comments on the proposal through September 21. Californians can learn more about the proposed rule on the federal registrar, and can submit comments by visiting Roadless.org. The post Protecting the Roadless Rule appeared first on KPFA.

The West faces extremely high fire potential this season, with a number of major wildfires already burning across the region. No single fire is the same as any other, yet public information about wildfires often lacks geographic specificity and historical context — which are critical to understanding both specific fires and our broader fire reality. Zeke Lunder started The Lookout during the Dixie Fire in 2021 to communicate more nuanced information about wildfires to the general public in real time. He has worked in wildfire for almost 30 years, including two decades as a wildfire mapping specialist and analyst on many of the largest fires in California history. Zeke has also designed and managed wildfire fuels reduction projects, and worked as a prescribed fire instructor and burn boss. He joins Terra Verde host Fiona McLeod to discuss our current fire reality and what we can all do to improve fire literacy and preparedness. The post How to Talk About Wildfire appeared first on KPFA.

Author and speaker Jeremy Lent suggests that as climate change, inequality, and social fragmentation intensify, humanity faces an imminent choice. We can either continue with the same system of extraction, exploitation, and endless growth that created the polycrisis we now face—which will almost certainly lead to collapse—or, we can reimagine civilization itself.  In his new book, Ecocivilization: Making a World that Works for All, Jeremy Lent presents that reimagination. Guided by proven design principles of ecosystems, the book provides a practical framework that shows how every major sector of society could be redesigned to achieve ecocivilization. Terra Verde co-host Fiona McLeod speaks with Jeremy Lent about this vision for deep, system-wide transformation. They discuss some of the important work already in motion that shows how another world is entirely possible—even against the tremendous odds we collectively face.  The post Imagining an Ecological Civilization [Encore] appeared first on KPFA.

In his new documentary Fog Eaters, filmmaker Kyle Baker follows environmental toxicologist Peter Weiss-Penzias and a team of researchers investigating unusually high levels of methylmercury in mountain lions along California’s central coast. Tracing mercury pollution through the food web, the researchers ultimately tie it back to an unlikely source: coastal fog. In this episode of Terra Verde, host Hannah Wilton speaks Baker about the scientific discoveries at the center of film. They explore the legacy of mercury mining and pollution across the Bay Area and the enduring presence of fog in the region’s ecology and cultural imagination. Baker also reflects on his creative process, multispecies storytelling, and the interconnectedness of our ecologies. The post Following the Fog [Encore] appeared first on KPFA.

Organizers are keeping up the fight against a proposed coal export terminal in West Oakland, where residents already face a high burden from environmental pollutants. Photo of Port of Oakland by Ronan Furuta. More than a decade ago, residents of Oakland, California, first got wind of a plan to export coal from their city through a proposed bulk commodity export terminal. Initially, developers reassured residents that the facility wouldn’t export coal. But it soon became clear that wasn’t the case. Community members and environmental groups have been organizing against the plan ever since. Then, in June, the project got a major boost: President Trump announced that he would provide $75 million to support its construction, part of a larger influx of cash for the United States’ dying coal industry. The announcement injected new life into the terminal, and also into the opposition. Margaret Rossoff, coordinating committee member of No Coal in Oakland, and Veronica Eady, executive director of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, talk with Terra Verde Co-host and Earth Island Journal Managing Editor Zoe Loftus-Farren about where things stand. The post Keeping Coal Out of Oakland appeared first on KPFA.

In his new documentary Fog Eaters, filmmaker Kyle Baker follows environmental toxicologist Peter Weiss-Penzias and a team of researchers investigating unusually high levels of methylmercury in mountain lions along California’s central coast. Tracing mercury pollution through the food web, the researchers ultimately tie it back to an unlikely source: coastal fog. In this episode of Terra Verde, host Hannah Wilton speaks Baker about the scientific discoveries at the center of film. They explore the legacy of mercury mining and pollution across the Bay Area and the enduring presence of fog in the region’s ecology and cultural imagination. Baker also reflects on his creative process, multispecies storytelling, and the interconnectedness of our ecologies. The post Following the Fog [Encore] appeared first on KPFA.

Veteran environmental activists André Carothers and Annie Leonard have spent decades protesting for climate action, environmental protection, and human rights. Photo by Brooke Anderson. The right to speak freely, to organize and protest injustice is under threat across much of the world right now. In the United States, in particular, protesters — especially those focused on environmental justice and immigrant rights — are facing targeted violence from state forces. Yet, peaceful protest— which is a protected right in this country — is a cornerstone of participatory democracy. In this episode of Terra Verde, Earth Island Journal editor-in-chief Maureen Nandini Mitra speaks with two veteran Berkeley activists, Annie Leonard and André Carothers, about their new book Protest: Respect It Defend It Use It, which showcases the role peaceful activism has played over centuries in advancing the public good. Both Carothers and Leonard have been watching the increasing vilification of protest with growing concern, but they say, we must continue exercise this fundamental right even when it might feel unsafe to do so. The post A Call to Exercise Our Right to Protest [Encore] appeared first on KPFA.