Inside Climate News Audio

Go behind the scenes with managing editor Jamie Smith Hopkins and ICN reporters Katie Surma and Kiley Price as they explain what sloth deaths in Florida reveal about the global wildlife trade and risks to public health.

Billions of live animals move through the legal and illegal wildlife trade, a massive industry a former CDC epidemiologist described as “pandemic roulette.”

Traded animals move to places they never would ...

Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and North Carolina reporter Lisa Sorg as they explain how a new N.C. ratepayer bill would put the brakes on data centers while incentivizing the use of fossil fuels.

The Ratepayer Protection Act, making its way through the North Carolina legislature, conjoins two opposing ideas.

On one side, the bill would rein in data centers and their ravenous power consumption, and shield Nor...

Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and ICN contributor Ryan Krugman as they discuss the Okefenokee’s bid for recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

A vast swamp in southeast Georgia, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is an environmental wonderland: a protected wilderness of blackwater channels, peat, and dense wetland forests, supporting a rich array of wildlife and plant life.

By July, the Okef...

Go behind the scenes with senior editor Michael Kodas, ICN reporter Wyatt Myskow and Columbia Journalism Investigations reporter Johanna Hansel as they discuss the complicated push to build up lithium mining in the United States.

Today, just one lithium mine operates in the U.S. By 2030, at least six new projects are expected on American soil, with 13 more close behind, mostly in the dry Southwest.

That’s only a sliver of what...

Go behind the scenes with senior editor Corey Mitchell, reporter Phil McKenna, and data journalist Peter Aldhous as they discuss a new Senate probe over lucrative and questionable tax credits to the country’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.

Liquefied natural gas vessels are fueled by their cargo—they’re built specifically to make use of the gas boiling off from their tanks.

But Cheniere Energy, the larges...

Go behind the scenes with senior editor Corey Mitchell and reporter Bob Berwyn as they break down what to expect from the looming El Niño.

Scientists said this week that a developing El Niño is likely to amplify heatwaves, droughts and floods this year. But it’s not the biggest culprit of climate extremes.

The consequences of a moderate or strong El Niño today are more damaging than those of similar events just a few decades a...

Animals roam the Earth to mate, to hunt, to spread seeds and to participate in myriad processes that help sustain life. But what happens when their migration routes are impeded?

Science journalist Hillary Rosner examines this question in her book Roam: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World, and shares her insights in today’s interview with senior editor Michael Kodas.

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What is it like to experience the pain and joy of being human at a moment when the richness of the planet’s life is deeply threatened?

Author Lydia Millet explores this theme, and more, in her memoir We Loved It All, the jumping off point for today’s conversation with reporter Kiley Bense.

Lydia’s memoir, her first nonfiction book, follows a prolific and acclaimed body of fiction that grapples with themes of nature...

Go behind the scenes with managing editor Jamie Smith Hopkins and investigative reporter Katie Surma as they discuss how the Shuar people in Ecuador are combining ancestral knowledge and modern science to protect their forest from a Canadian mining giant.

In the copper-rich mountains of southeastern Ecuador, residents working as “paraecologists” are documenting the biodiversity of their territory – home to endanger...

Go behind the scenes with senior editor Corey Mitchell and reporter Bob Berwyn as they discuss critical measures of the planet’s health.

“Earth is being pushed beyond its limits while every key climate indicator is flashing red,” warned U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres after the release of the latest State of the Global Climate report from the World Meteorological Organization.

The report highlights the sign...

Go behind the scenes with managing editor Jamie Smith Hopkins, data journalist Peter Aldhous and reporter Jake Bolster as they discuss an exclusive ICN analysis of workforce chaos at the Department of the Interior.

One year into President Donald Trump’s second term, the Department of the Interior is in turmoil, hobbling many of the agencies overseeing the country’s public lands and waters.

Not only has Interior lost some...

Go behind the scenes with managing editor Jamie Smith Hopkins and reporter Nick Kusnetz as they discuss how a recent visit by an FBI agent to a climate activist hints at a broadening Trump administration effort to target political opponents.

An FBI agent arrived at the door of a former member of Extinction Rebellion NYC last month, saying she had questions about the environmental advocacy group.

It wasn’t the first time climat...

Go behind the scenes with reporters Kiley Bense and Georgina Gustin as they discuss how agriculture is devouring the world’s grasslands, savannas and wetlands.

Agriculture is the biggest driver of forest destruction around the world, especially in well-known places like the Amazon rainforest.

But new research finds that other ecosystems—the world’s grasslands, savannas and wetlands—are being gobbled up for ag...

Go behind the scenes with reporter Kiley Bense and oceans correspondent Teresa Tomassoni as they discuss how climate change is transforming the oceans for whale populations.

Whaling was once a major engine of the global economy. Millions of whales were killed for their blubber until commercial whaling was banned in the 1980s. Since then, some whale populations have rebounded, but from the coast of California to the Antarctic Ocean, ...

Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and reporter Kiley Bense as they discuss the push and pull of climate action in Pennsylvania.

As the Trump administration moves to dismantle the federal government’s ability to act against climate change, the real fight to curb carbon emissions is shifting to the state level. Case in point: Pennsylvania.

Kiley, who reports on the Keystone State for ICN, describes the mixed ...

As the Trump administration moves to dismantle the federal government’s ability to act against climate change, the real fight to curb carbon emissions is shifting to the state level. Case in point: Pennsylvania.

Kiley, who reports on the Keystone State for ICN, describes the mixed bag of climate issues in Pennsylvania, from cap and trade programs, to uniquely vulnerable cultural treasures and the energy policies of “all-...

Go behind the scenes with managing editor Jamie Smith Hopkins, Texas reporter Dylan Baddour and data journalist Peter Aldhous as they discuss ICN’s new investigation into how the fracking boom put an oil field in the Guadalupe River floodplain.

An epic flood a generation ago drenched areas around Texas’ Guadalupe River, showing how quickly and dangerously the region could be submerged.

Since then, Texas — with no st...

Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and fisheries and aquaculture reporter Johnny Sturgeon as they discuss heat, health and opportunity in the world’s oceans.

Oceans cover 70% of the earth’s surface, absorb 90% of excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases, and help prevent dramatic temperature spikes on land. Yet they’re often overlooked in conversations about climate change.

The consequences are s...