We are just entering summer and already some parts of the country are under heat advisories. The first heat wave of the season started last Friday, literally, on the first official day of summer and has been impacting about 128 million Americans from Louisiana to Maine. The US West, including California, hasn’t been impacted by this particular heatwave. But it’s only a matter of time. In fact, what you might not know is, extreme heat is now the leading climate-related health hazard in California. It claims more lives annually than any other climate threat.

To understand what this growing climate threat means, who is at most risk, and to learn about some actions we can take to protect ourselves, Earth Island Journal editor-in-chief and Terra Verde cohost Maureen Nandini Mitra talks with Bibiana Martinez, a public health researcher with Heluna Health, a California-based public health research organization that works to improve health equity, and Walker Wieland, manager of the California’s new CalHeatScore program, a pilot project that ranks risk from extreme heat by ZIP code and seeks to protect vulnerable populations from heatwaves.

Resources:

Use the CalHeatScore tool to check out heat conditions in your region and also join the program’s listserv to get notices of upcoming webinars and workshops on the issue.

Read this Heluna post to lear learn more about staying safe in the heat and identifying signs of heat illness.

The post Coping with Extreme Heat 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 – June 20, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Last year, an estimated 330 million people visited our national parks here in the United States. Tens of millions more visited national wildlife refuges, national forests, and Bureau of Land Management lands, connecting with our wild places, our shared history, and the wildlife these lands protect.

Despite broad public engagement with our protected places, public lands have been in the Trump Administration’s crosshairs since Day 1 of his second term. The administration has announced far-reaching layoffs at the federal agencies that manage our public lands. It has proposed massive budget cuts to the National Park Service. It has taken action to open protected places to increased drilling, mining, and logging, and has embraced the idea of outright selling public lands.

Luke Basulto, the Ruth Hammett California Desert Program Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, and Josh Hicks, Conservation Campaigns Director for The Wilderness Society, join Terra Verde host and Earth Island Journal managing editor Zoe Loftus-Farren to discuss the state of our public lands amid this onslaught.

The post Trump’s Public Lands Grab 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 – June 6, 2025 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 – May 30, 2025 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 – May 23, 2025 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 – May 16, 2025 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 – May 9, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Hummingbird Farm is a community-led urban agriculture project in the Excelsior neighborhood of Southeast San Francisco, stewarded by PODER’s (People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights) Urban Compesinx. Since its inception in 2017, the community has transformed nearly seven acres of underutilized public land into a vibrant space for growing food, culture and resilience.

Producer Hannah Wilton speaks with two organizers from PODER—longtime Environmental Justice Organizer Tere Almaguer and Youth Organizer Alondra Aragón—about how they are weaving ancestral connection, intergenerational healing and translocal solidarity at Hummingbird Farm. We also hear from 5 Elements Co-Founder & Youth Engagement Coordinator Violeta Vasquez on the rising generation of urban compesinx and cultural workers who are reshaping the future of their neighborhoods.

The post Urban Compesinx on Youth Power and Land Reclamation appeared first on KPFA.

Water for Life tells the story of three Indigenous activists in Central and South America, who have fought to protect their communities’ water rights and ancestral lands from mining, hydroelectric projects, and large scale agriculture. The three individuals profiled in the film are Berta Cáceres, a leader of the Lenca people in Honduras; Francisco Pineda, a subsistence farmer in El Salvador; and Alberto Curamil, an Indigenous Mapuche leader in Chile — all of whom were previous recipients of the Goldman Environmental Prize. 

The 2025 Goldman Environmental Prize ceremony took place this week on Monday, April 21 in San Francisco, California.

On this episode of Terra Verde, filmmakers Will Parrinello and María José Calderón join host Fiona McLeod to discuss the stories shared in the film, which is airing on PBS this month after 12 years of production.

Featured Image Photo Credit: Courtesy of Goldman Environmental Prize

The post ‘Water for Life’ brings Indigenous water issues to the big screen  appeared first on KPFA.