This Green Earth

The Utah legislature goes into General Session Monday January 27th. Hundreds of resolutions and bills will be offered by both the state house of representatives and the state senate. Some of those address water, natural resources, energy and the environment. KPCW's Emily Means will be covering this session and she discusses some of the environmental bills and resolutions proposed by the state house and senate.

During the second half of the show, local resident Mike Stevens joined Chris and Nell to further discuss his recent Park Record letter to the editor. He wrote about retail stores on Main Street and their practice of leaving their doors open even during very cold weather, a practice which he sees as wasteful - and unnecessary. Mike and Chris also explored other locations that have implemented education and regulation on this practice.

During the first half of the show, Celia Peterson from Park City's Sustainability Department joined Chris and Nell to discuss the City's efforts to bolster the number of Electric Vehicle Charging stations and locations in town, as well as preview the plans to update the vehicle anti-idling ordinance in the community.

An article published last month in the Journal of Applied Ecology found evidence that plan and invertebrate diversity declines - and pest species increase - when lawns are mowed more intensely. The authors propose that, "in addition to known advantages such as carbon emission reductions, we propose that a reduction in mowing intensity in urban lawns is likely to promote urban invertebrate and plant diversity, and associated ecosystem services." James Wolfin of Metro Blooms joined Chris and Nell

Walt Meier from the National Snow and Ice Data Center talks about Arctic Sea Ice and how the year 2019 will be one of the lowest for sea ice extent on record.

Today on This Green Earth, Brian McInerney from the National Weather Service stops by to provide a summary of the weather and climate this past fall. How did Summit County and northern Utah fare with respect to average temperatures and precipitation and, what's the conditions of our watersheds and reservoirs.

On this episode of This Green Earth , host Chris Cherniak speaks with two individuals who attended the recent Climate Conference in Madrid, Spain: Carole Straughn with the League of Women Voters and Kathryn Horvat with the United Nations Association of Utah . They share their experiences of the COP25 event which occurred earlier this month.

On this episode of This Green Earth , host Chris Cherniak speaks with Jonah Kurman-Faber a Senior Research Associate with the non-profit group, Climate-XChange . The group's mission is to provide research and education for a low-carbon economy using market-based mechanisms.

On Monday, Goldman Sachs announced that it will not finance new oil drilling or exploration projects in the Arctic, becoming the first US bank to make such a commitment. The bank’s environmental policy framework now includes a ban on financing for new thermal coal mines worldwide. Here to explain the details is Ben Cushing from the Sierra Club. We also asked Ben what impact this will have on other major financiers and who might follow suit.

The United Nations just completed their 25th Conference of Parties on Climate Change, or COP 25, in Madrid. Who's leading the way and who is lagging behind? What is required of major countries in order to adequately address climate change? Jake Schmidt, Managing Director of International Programs for the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined Chris and Nell to cover the key take-aways.