New Hampshire Fights PFAS Pollution / Youth Climate Suit Plea / Beyond the Headlines / Recomposing the Departed / Global Warming Clues from Henry David Thoreau / Solid Seasons: The Friendship of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson / BirdNote®: Henry David Thoreau and the Wood Thrush New Hampshire may be one of the smallest states in the US, but it's taking on some of the largest chemical companies in the world. The state wants DowDuPont, 3M and six other companies to take financial responsibility for allegedly knowingly polluting the environment with the persistent toxic class of chemicals called PFAS and PFOA while failing to disclose the risks to public health.

Also, for most of recent human history, we've laid our dearly departed to rest through burial and cremation. But these can bear an environmental burden linked to land use and greenhouse gas emissions. Now, Washington State residents have a new green option: human composting.

And the Nineteenth Century writings of naturalist and transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau are treasured not only by students of environmental literature, but also scientists today using his observations to track how a warming world is affecting trees and flowers. We dive into that research, then sit down with the author of a new book that traces the "Walden" author's rich and fulfilling friendship with fellow transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The legacy of Henry David Thoreau and more, in this episode of Living on Earth from PRI.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices