As with oil and gas, the extraction of minerals and metals from the earth has been a “necessary evil” in the industrialization of humankind. The environmental destruction and human rights abuses of the mining industry are well-documented. This week’s guest on Sea Change Radio runs a company that partners with mining corporations to make the mining itself more resource-efficient. Liz Dennett is the CEO and founder of Endolith, a Colorado-based startup company that uses microbes to improve the efficacy of copper and lithium extraction. We learn about the science behind Endolith’s technology, talk about the environmental impacts and challenges of metal and mineral mining, and discuss whether there’s a moral quandary in doing business with these big, often nefarious, companies.

Can we plant enough trees to mitigate the effects of climate change? This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Rick Lanman, a physician and historical ecologist, who believes the answer to this question lies specifically in the type of trees we plant – namely, more redwoods. We discuss the truly amazing features of these west-coast natives: They’re fire resistant, rot-proof, and a great carbon sink for greenhouse gas emissions. In our discussion, Lanman outlines what makes these trees such a vital weapon in the fight to clean up our air, and what he is doing to help restore the mighty redwood to its former glory.

You may be surprised to learn that, according to the United Nations Environment Program, buildings and construction accounts for a stunning 37% of global greenhouse emissions. Our guest today on Sea Change Radio is an innovator working to change the equation. We are speaking with entrepreneur Josh Dorfman, the co-founder of Plantd and Supercool to learn more about the green building space. We talk about the challenges of a young company making inroads into the construction industry, take a look at his company’s innovative grass building material, and examine the competitive landscape in this area.

When we think about the transition to renewable energy sources, many of us imagine rooftop solar panels and wind turbine-dotted hills. But it’s not just about capturing energy, it’s also about keeping it. This week on Sea Change Radio we speak with Matt Simon, a Grist senior staff writer, to discuss long-duration energy storage. The transition to renewables for utilities is still very much evolving — efficiency, intermittency, and storage are among the issues scientists have yet to perfect. Simon shares some ideas for how we can build upon existing technologies to store solar and wind power, with longer capacity than lithium-ion batteries, ranging from reservoirs and caverns to our existing fleet of electric vehicles.

This week on Sea Change Radio, we highlight a scenario that is constantly being played out in cities all over the world as humankind continues to encroach upon wildlife habitat. This time, however, the dynamic is a little bit unusual as large chinook salmon are finding their way into small urban creeks in downtown San Jose, California. Today we are speaking with environmental writer and fisherman Jeremy Miller as he recounts a piece he recently penned for Sierra Magazine. We try to unearth the mystery of how these fish ended up in a major metropolitan area, look at federal protections which differ based upon a fish’s origin, and discuss the role of the local water district in all of this.

This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with atmospheric scientist and Columbia University professor, Adam Sobel, about the havoc that is currently being unleashed on the scientific community by the Trump administration. We look at how these draconian measures could hamper the progress of mankind and learn more about an academic funding system that relies heavily on federal research grant money. Then we turn to the alarming arrest of recent Columbia grad Mahmoud Khalil – we discuss his plight and what it tells us about this administration’s open disdain for the U.S. Constitution.

Roman Polanski’s classic 1974 film, “Chinatown,” which laid out a fictional account of California’s north-south water wars, turned out to be quite prescient. This week on Sea Change Radio, we welcome Katie Licari of Afro LA, who breaks down the ongoing tale of Los Angeles water and the impact this never-ending thirst has had on two very rural regions of California – Inyo and Mono Counties. We learn about the colonialist history of LA water rights and look at the monopolistic grip the LA Department of Water & Power holds over these counties.

Just a few days after being inaugurated for a second time, Donald Trump expressed an interest in the United States taking over Greenland, saying “I think Greenland we’ll get because it has to do with freedom of the world.” This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to Paul Bierman, a geoscientist and Professor at the University of Vermont, whose recent book about Greenland seems more relevant than ever. We discuss Greenland’s melting ice sheet, try to intuit the President’s melting brain and obsession with the region, and talk about how the current administration has put the American scientific community as a whole in peril.

What does naming and re-naming streets, buildings, airports, and even bodies of water say about us as a people? Whether a name inspires, entertains, or haunts us, there’s power in assigning words to people, places, and things. We can see it unfolding right before our eyes with the current US administration renaming key landmarks. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to Deirdre Mask, the author of “The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power.” We learn about the history of attributing names and numbers to roads and houses, look at how important seemingly obvious innovations like zip codes are, and discuss the socio-political impact of things named after confederate leaders.

An implicit assumption within the structure of the American justice system is the notion that punishment is productive. Research shows, however, that locking people up does not address the underlying causes for most criminal behavior — in fact it actually exacerbates the likelihood of reoffending. With 95% of incarcerated people expected to reenter our communities, it seems pretty clear that our punitive practices are decidedly unproductive. This week on Sea Change Radio, we welcome back to the show Scott Hechinger, a civil rights lawyer, former public defender, and the current Executive Director of the nonprofit advocacy group, Zealous. We talk about the set of informational films that his organization has recently produced, discuss the fight that lies ahead for immigrants, and look at the measures that are being taken by the current federal administration to push for more capital punishment.