Green Frequency | Environmental Science & Earth Radio

Some environmental wonders resist the camera. Environmental filmmaker and cinematographer Dr. Isabelle Carbonell takes listeners to Bio Bay in Vieques, Puerto Rico, where dense concentrations of dinoflagellates create brilliant bioluminescence that cameras struggle to capture. That technical failure becomes a question about visibility, wonder, embodiment, and whether an imperfect image can open other ways of knowing nature. Carbone...

Most of Earth's species remain unknown to science. Marine biologist and taxonomist Dr. Manuel Caballero Gutierrez explains how scientists estimate global biodiversity and why humanity may currently know only about 25 percent of the species that exist. He walks through taxonomy as scientific detective work, from deep-sea expeditions and specimen collection to anatomical study, DNA analysis, museum archives, formal naming, and public...

Colonial law helped build modern deforestation. Legal historian Dr. Mariana Dias Paes traces how nineteenth-century property law created mechanisms for land dispossession and environmental destruction in Brazil's Atlantic Forest. Her research connects that history to the Amazon and Congo rainforests, where colonial legal systems continue to shape land disputes, court decisions, Indigenous rights, and conservation. Rather than treat...

Science alone does not make environmental change. Amanda Harding and Sarah Glavan of Convene explore the missing space between research, environmental policy, and the decisions people make inside real systems. Using food systems and the EAT-Lancet Commission as a case study, they explain deliberate dialogue and science-policy-society interfaces: structured spaces where researchers, farmers, fishers, Indigenous communities, health p...

Drinking water reveals sustainability's complexity. Environmental scientist and water sommelier Dr. Elena Berg uses bottled water to show why environmental choices rarely divide neatly into good and bad. She traces how geology and mineral content create differences among waters, contrasts multinational bottlers with smaller single-source producers, and examines plastic waste, freshwater access, infrastructure, and environmental jus...

Climate change is never socially neutral. Political scientist Dr. Rebecca Marwege explains climate justice by examining who caused the crisis, who experiences the greatest harm, and who has the resources and power to respond. Cases involving the Lebu fishing community in Senegal and Far Rockaway after Hurricane Sandy show how climate adaptation, displacement, rebuilding, and even the ability to remain at home are shaped by inequali...

Climate progress is real, but nowhere near enough. In the first episode of Green Frequency, climate scientist Dr. Claudio Piani joins student activist Averie Gannon to assess climate change in 2026 through evidence rather than denial or catastrophe. They examine global and per-capita emissions, areas of progress in the United States and Europe, the falling cost of renewable energy, and what current national commitments mean for the...

Green Frequency: Earth Radio is an environmental science podcast exploring the research, stories, and decisions shaping our planet.

Each week, we unpack emerging environmental research, hear stories from civil society and the frontlines of conservation, and follow developments in global environmental policy and climate action.

From forests and oceans to courtrooms and conference halls, Green Frequency connects science to the real-wor...