Earth Day is celebrated annually at the end of April. Use these Listenwise podcasts to expand your students’ knowledge of environmental issues around the globe and encourage their support for environmental protection.
Documentaries are highlighting young people working to protect the planet. They are inspiring other youth to take action and stand up for change. Listen to learn more about these documentaries and the efforts they have inspired.
Energy
Calculating a Local Carbon Footprint
New software is providing data for calculating carbon footprints on the level of a city, neighborhood, block, and even household. Listen to learn how scientists are letting us track and understand emissions.
In 2010 there was an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Over 3 million barrels of oil were spilled and a judge found the company BP responsible. Listen to hear more about the environmental and economic damage.
The hottest year on record was 2014, and the changing climate caused extreme storms, droughts and floods around the world. Listen to hear more about how President Obama’s Clean Power Plan will slow climate change.
Supreme Court Backs Coal Industry
The Clean Power Plan includes standards on carbon pollution from U.S. power plants. The U.S. Supreme Court put a hold on the Clean Power Plan. Listen to hear what this may mean for regulating coal and global warming.
To lower dependence on fossil fuels some Americans have installed solar panels on their homes to produce their own clean energy. Listen to learn how one family has dealt with this shifting energy landscape.
Nature
It may seem like planting a billion trees would help global warming because they absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. Listen to this story to find out the results of a global tree census.
Places without any human-made sound are rapidly disappearing. The “One Square Inch of Silence” project aims to preserve one such place in the Hoh River Valley, located in Washington’s Olympic National Park. Listen to a sound specialist guide a trek into the rainforest to experience natural silence.
Design Inspiration from Nature
What can nature teach us? A lot. Biomimicry is the design and production of materials based on nature. Listen to hear about scientists who are working to figure out nature’s secrets.
What does corn sound like when it grows? How does a cactus respond when you touch its spines? A new exhibit at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden allows visitors to hear the sounds plants make and answer those questions for themselves. Listen to find out what we can learn by paying attention to what plants are saying.
Forest Service Budget Goes Up in Flames
With the combination of climate change, an extended fire season, and drought, catastrophic fires are becoming normal. Listen to this story about the cost of fighting these fires.
Climate Change
Climate Change Makes Food Grow Fewer Nutrients
Scientists have found that areas with more carbon dioxide, caused by climate change, create less healthy crops. Although these crops are much larger in size, they lack nutrients such as zinc and iron.
A United Nations report in 2014 shows that human activities are changing the planet. Listen to hear what humans can do to reverse the trend of global warming.
Scientists say it’s nearly certain that human activity and fossil fuels are warming the planet. Listen to learn about the strategies geoengineers are exploring to prevent further global warming.
Listen to hear about a scientist who has found that CO2 in the ocean is making the ocean warmer and dissolving the coral reef system.
