The Meaning of Green: Recent Episodes
Dr. Vivian Thomson
Panama's unprecedented elections, massive demonstrations over the environment and foreign influence, toucans, and a tragedy with echoes of the US's colonial presence in Panama
Why politicians have (at times) taken strong environmental action in the US, the UK, Brazil, Germany, and Japan, and why those who were killed at Bhopal "were the lucky ones"
Greens in Europe and in Australia, Lake Pedder, "Iron Pants" Muskie, the Clean Water Act, and excerpts from Nixon's secret Oval Office tapes
2024 and elections worldwide, the states in the US's national elections, and carbon inequality (or, the rich vs. everyone else)
Grass, leaf blowers, and environmental justice, with stops across the US and in Canada, Brazil, and the EU
Scotland and the rest of the UK leave coal behind, modern struggles between the unicorn and the lion, and my Scottish grandfather
Smoky skies, hiking the high desert, wolves, tightening an air pollution standard, Aristotle, and the gospel of GDP
The Taj Mahal, forests in the US and Austria, an ecologist's lunch with coal executives, and a speech by Margaret Thatcher
The Brazilian Amazon forest and the Cristalino River take us on an unforgettable journey, while the violence of history and politics of the present shadow our steps
The most polluted city on earth, seeing Brazil's forests from many angles, the US government and Brazil's military coup, and George Santos's shoes
An historic African American school and a proposed mega-landfill, what happens when landfill protections fail, the proximity principle, and a fierce battle over clean air in Los Angeles
Water wars in the American West, US Supreme Court cases on climate change, and state-level renewable energy achievements
The US's messy political system, the states, and a butterfly that affected the course of US climate politics
Stories of abundance that fall short, and the disconnect between well being and economic growth
August surprise: Why the US climate and renewable energy policy window slammed open now
Season 3's finale highlights common themes from places visited in the US, Ukraine, Panama, Kenya, and Brazil
Wildlife as government cattle in Kenya, colonialism and conservation, experts Dr. Cynthia Moss, Dr. Winnie Kiiru, Dr. David Western, Dr. Paula Kahumbu, Nobel Laureate Dr. Elinor Ostrom, and Kenyan musicians Winyo and Suzanna Owiyo
Elephant talk, populations decimated from ivory poaching, the Maasai as ecologists, and Waza
The Berlin Wall fall effect, German citizens as renewable energy investors, and a soy field
Germany's energy transition, a pathbreaking court decision on intergenerational climate justice, and a coffee mug
Season finale, part 1: unequal burdens, democracy in America, Earth rules, and global connections
Reimagining Thanksgiving and progress, achieving the good life, COVID-19 and air pollution in India, and "stuff"
How citizens get control of their government in an age of polarization and over-promising, fall leaves and freedom, and moderates in America
Wendell Berry on affection for the land, industrialized farming, Prof. Delia Grace Randolph on virus spillover, racism and the USDA, and the "Vietnam of entomology"
Joel Salatin's diaper grass, wildfires on the Pacific coast, farming, the Lorax, and all of the biomass on Earth
S2 Ep6 Sneak Peek: Prof. Ron Milo on animals in children's puzzles by Dr. Vivian Thomson
S2 Ep 5 Sneak Peek: Prof. Emma Teeling on bats and the fountain of youth by Dr. Vivian Thomson
Rachel Carson on the concept of mastery, ecosystem degradation and its multiple impacts, bats, donuts, and, viruses that cross from animals to humans.
Nobel Prize winning economists on why GDP fails to measure well-being and power, how affluence affects pollution and resource use, water use in Arizona, and one pianist's tale of a memorable page turner.
How power's various disguises shaped efforts to reduce coal pollution in the US state of Virginia, and the implications of those lessons for the coronavirus.
A memorable landlord, a summary of lessons from previous episodes, and how the ideological rifts in the US could affect the climate change policy window.
Bad housemates, the global commons, national policy reversals in the US, what the public is thinking, and bipartisan action at the state level.
Disappearing birds and oaks, disputes over the Endangered Species Act, the comeback of the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, and climate change's threats to coral reefs and tropical forests.
Energy efficiency and renewables are unquestionably the waves of the present and future. But we must keep our eyes wide open to collateral impacts.
Twists and turns in the US's dependence on coal, the ripple effects of oil crises, and a coal miner's daughter describes the devastation in her community.
Forests, the Panama Canal, hydropower in Brazil, and the US's dam building frenzy in the 20th century.
A stop sign with bullet holes, garbage wars, environmental justice, and Japan's proximity principle.
Acid rain was front and center on our nation's environmental agenda, but that issue seems to have dropped from sight. What's the story?
Why and how environmental issues rose on the national political agenda in the 1960s and 70s.
In this preview episode, Dr. Thomson introduces The Meaning of Green's Season 1, which asks: what forces aid or constrain environmental policy success?