Broken Ground

The latest season of Broken Ground, featuring women in the South on the frontlines of fighting for environmental justice, launches this Earth Day, Thursday, April 22. 

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Find out what we learned about sea level rise in the South. Who will be hit the hardest? What can we do? How can we navigate a path forward?

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In Norfolk, Virginia scientists battling sea level rise enlist residents to help collect data that could help the city better understand its rising tides and flooding problems.

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In Charleston, South Carolina and its suburbs questions of environmental justice and wetland protections arise as development encroaches.

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In Norfolk, Virginia homeowners like Karen Speights are struggling with the hard decision of staying put in rising waters or finding a way to start over. Meanwhile, the city is hoping it can buy people time.

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With waters rising in Charleston, South Carolina we explore what, if any, breaking point there is for people living and working in this city. And we talk to city officials about making the big decisions of what, and what not, to build when trying to keep a flooding city livable.

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Norfolk, Virginia's waters are rising fast, and its land is sinking. The city's plans to meet this climate change challenge could be a blueprint for other coastal communities. Among other plans, Norfolk has set it sights on revamping its aging public housing complexes. We'll talk to folks living in one of these communities about what adaptation will mean for them. 

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Earl Swift is author of Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island. He talks about the slow disappearance of this unique Virginia island to climate change.

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Author and New York Times contributing opinion writer Margaret Renkl talks about her book Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss. Renkl's essays reflect on the intersection of family life, grief and her natural surroundings.

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Dr. Robert Bullard, widely considered the father of environmental justice, talks about the inequality of pollution and climate change.

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