Living Lab Radio

The Trump administration has begun the formal process of withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. It’s against that backdrop that more than 11,000 scientists from 153 countries have signed a letter declaring a climate emergency.

A new analysis finds that each great whale in the ocean is worth $2 million. Not only because they are the source of tourism revenue, but because they are an important part of enabling the ocean to produce more food and store more carbon.

Electronic cigarettes have been widely perceived as safer than conventional combustion cigarettes. But more than two thousand cases of lung injury and three dozen deaths associated with vaping have called that assessment into question.

"If I discovered that the toothpaste you're using was causing pancreatic cancer, and I just published in a journal - I didn't say anything about it - I just wouldn't be doing my duty and obligation. It's just troubling the way people feel that if you raise the alarm about climate change, well, you're no longer a scientist; you're an advocate. Well, we're also members of society. And we know we have special knowledge that not everyone has and we feel an obligation to share it. " - Bill Moomaw

Space exploration and space technology have led to improvements here on Earth. We wrap runners in space blankets at finish lines. Memory foam that once protected astronauts is now found in many of our pillows and mattresses. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 says that, “the exploration and use of outer space should be carried on for the benefit of all people, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development.” But of course, that hasn't necessarily been the reality. Danielle Wood

As greenhouse gases build up in the atmosphere, the planet gets hotter, land-based ice melts, and warming ocean water expands. The result is sea level rise. A lot of scientific effort has gone into projecting how quickly and how high ocean waters will rise. But the ocean is only half the equation when it comes to the threat of sea level rise, and an update to the land side of the equation has dramatically increased the estimated number of people at risk. “I think the whole climate science

Stephanie Spera , University of Richmond Every October, when I was growing up in Massachusetts, my parents would check out the fall foliage reports and determine where we were going to drive to see the colorful leaves. And they still do. In New England, leaf peeping, as it’s called, is a billion dollar industry and millions of people travel to the region during foliage season. In Maine’s Acadia National Park, visitation has more than doubled in September and October since the early 1990s.

The Arctic is warming faster than any other part of the planet. As the permafrost thaws and the tundra burns, it is releasing powerful greenhouse gases that further accelerate warming. Since the permafrost holds three times as much carbon as all the world’s forests combined, what’s happening in the Arctic is one of the most important aspects of climate change. It’s also one of the least understood.

“Leaves are green to begin with because they make chlorophyll, and what chlorophyll does is it turns CO2 into the oxygen that we love and the sugar that they need to survive. Once the days start getting shorter and the temperatures start to cool down, they stop that chlorophyll production. And what happens is then that green pigment breaks down, and the oranges and yellows that have been there the whole time – we can actually see them.” - Stephanie Spera

You’ve heard the old Benjamin Franklin quote that nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes. But there is actually quite a lot that’s uncertain about both death and taxes. And about everything else.