The Dirt

This episode features award-winning environmental journalist Lisa Sorg, who discussed a dangerous industrial compound in the Haw River basin -- and what the state and environmental groups are doing to combat the polluters.

Plus, Duplin County resident Elsie Herring traveled to Washington, DC to testify before the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, which held a hearing on environmental justice concerns around the country. Herring provided moving testimony about the harms her community has experienced at the hands of industrial pork producers in North Carolina.

Finally, we spoke with Lewis Dozier, a farmer and community leader in Brunswick County, who shared insight on his fight against landfill construction, the impacts of development and climate change on his community's water supply, and the systemic racism that has plagued black farmers in the South.

The North Carolina Environmental Justice Network hosted their 21st annual NC Environmental Justice Summit in Whitakers, NC last week. We spoke with members of communities impacted by environmental justice concerns, including Community Resilience Award winner David Hairston and two former Alcoa employees with disturbing insight into the company's safety and discrimination policies while it operated in West Badin, NC -- and the toxic mess the company left behind when it moved operations overseas.

Plus -- Rev. Elly Mendez Angulo talks about the storied history -- and future -- of the Franklinton Center at Bricks, where the summit took place.

We talk to investigative freelance journalist Barry Yeoman and Sam Fromartz, editor-in-chief of the Food & Environment Reporting Network, about why the state of North Carolina is way behind other states when it comes to keeping tabs on the factory farm pollution that is devastating our state’s rural communities of color. Plus, we’ll check in on the youth-led global climate strike and speak with attendees of the strike in Raleigh on September 20th.

Environmental justice expert and community organizer Sherri White-Williamson grew up in the small towns of Sampson County, North Carolina, an area hit hard by Hurricane Florence. As Sampson County residents continue to grapple with storm recovery efforts, along with a high density of polluting industries and waste disposal sites, White-Williamson shares insight into how state and federal governments can do a better job of coordinating with community members and ensuring that all people are protected and helped in the storms to come.

Plus, Upper Neuse Riverkeeper Matthew Starr discusses a major new legal victory for environmentalists fighting to save several endangered species threatened by a massive highway project.

50 Years After The River Burned by NC Conservation Network

A tree older than Christianity has been discovered in a remote swamp in North Carolina. We spoke with Dr. David Stayle, the scientist behind the discovery, about how to protect the ancient grove and what the tree can teach us about climate history.

Plus, NC Policy Watch journalist Lisa Sorg walks us through an investigation shining a light on dangerous chemical contamination of compost that may have been applied to playgrounds and other sensitive locations.

Finally, we revisit an interview with Dollie Burwell, the mother of environmental justice, about what it takes for social justice movements to take hold.

NC Conservation Network has released the 2019 State of the Environment -- a report that tracks and analyzes the well-being of North Carolinians across a variety of social, economic and ecological factors.

Brian Powell hosts experts to discuss some of the notable themes emerging from the report: North Carolina’s storm resiliency, the climate impacts of transportation and development, and the racial disparities impacting the health of our children.

Guests include Grady McCallie with NCCN, The Nature Conservancy’s Dr. Julie DeMeester, Southern Environmental Law Center’s Kym Hunter and Whitney Tucker with NC Child.

Al Gore's Climate Reality Project convened a leadership training in Atlanta this month with a new focus on faith and social justice. Over 300 attendees were leaders and activists from North Carolina, including several from the Poor People's Campaign. A few of them spoke with us about what moved them at the workshop and where the climate justice fight goes next.

Plus, an interview with Jamie Cole - a North Carolina attorney and environmental justice advocate named to Grist's Top 50 green innovators and influencers to watch in 2019. She's making a difference as a voice for communities traditionally left out of the lawmaking process.

Finally, Kacy Cook, a land conservation biologist with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, tells us how a new program is giving developers and municipalities the tools and information they need to protect wildlife ecosystems while planning new roads and development projects.

Sixteen-year-old Swedish student Greta Thunberg's acts of civil disobedience have sparked a global movement to fight climate change -- and now it has reached North Carolina. On March 15th, students around the world and across the state will walk out of school to demand leaders take radical and immediate action to stem the tide of climate change. We spoke with two of the North Carolina organizers - Lily Levin and Mary Giuffrida - about what to expect and what they hope to come out of the strikes.

Trains, Pigs and PFAS by NC Conservation Network