Environment & Climate Change

With both the cost of and demand for oil rising, nations with large energy reserves are redrawing political and military alliances, and oil-rich countries like Russia and Venezuela are enjoying greater influence. Michael Klare, author of Rising Power, Shrinking Planet, calls it the "new international energy order."

Tim Fitzgerald, a marine scientist with the Oceans Program at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), shares tips for selecting fish that are good for you — and for the environment. The EDF's "Seafood Selector To-Go" is available online and in a pocket-size guide.

Al Gore made waves for his work raising awareness on climate-change issues. Another poisonous environment has captured his attention as well: a climate that threatens reasonable public discourse.

Thomas Friedman is a man bent on revolution. In his new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, the three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist writes about the need for a green revolution — and calls upon Americans to lead the charge.

Beliefnet.com founder and Editor-in-Chief Steven Waldman discusses the role of religion and the state of the religious right in post-election politics. Will the coalition of religious groups that united in support of Barack Obama fracture over specific issues?

Transportation expert Daniel Sperling estimates that the world's car population — which currently stands at 1 billion vehicles — is likely to double in the next 20 years. Sperling is the co-author (with Deborah Gordon) of Two Billion Cars: Driving Toward Sustainability.

Intent on documenting the effects of climate change, nature photographer James Balog ventured into ice-bound regions with 26 time-lapse cameras, which he programmed to shoot a frame every daylight hour for three years.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith details widespread pollution of America's waterways in the PBS Frontline documentary Poisoned Waters.

Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield are the directors behind the hit nature documentary series Planet Earth. Their new movie, Earth, uses some of the same footage but is "character-based" rather than "habitat based."

Journalist Charles Siebert and wildlife biologist Dr. Toni Frohoff explain the uncharacteristically friendly behavior of gray whales off the coast of California.

Director Louie Psihoyos talks about his new documentary film The Cove, an expose of dolphin abuse in Japan. Former Flipper trainer Ric O'Barry joins the conversation.

Colin Beavan, the protagonist of the documentary No Impact Man, spends a year living "eco-effectively" — eating only locally grown foods and, eventually, forgoing electricity and toilet paper. Critic David Edelstein calls the film a "21st-century climate-change comedy of manners."

An estimated one in 10 Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains dangerous chemicals, parasites, bacteria or viruses, or fails to meet federal health standards. Part of the problem, says journalist Charles Duhigg, is that water-pollution laws are not being enforced.

Author Timothy Egan argues in The Big Burn that the forest fire of 1910 — the largest in American history — actually saved the forests, even as its flames charred the trees. It helped rally public support, Egan explains, behind Theodore Roosevelt's push to protect national lands.

Daniel Pauly, a professor at the Fisheries Centre of the University of British Columbia, warns that the global fishing industry has drastically depleted the number of fish in the oceans.

This is the second segment of Fresh Air's two-part interview with Daniel Pauly, a professor at the Fisheries Centre of the University of British Columbia. Pauly warns that the global fishing industry has drastically depleted the number of fish in the oceans.

China expert Orville Schell explains to host Terry Gross how the gates of United States and China are connected, and how the protectionist policies of the past are no longer viable.

New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg has reported that human excrement and dangerous chemicals are making their way into our waterways and then into our drinking water. Duhigg returns to Fresh Air to talk the problems with our nation's sewer system.

Writer George Prochnik says there's plenty of evidence that noise can be harmful as well as annoying, with studies pointing to hearing loss — and even risks of higher blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. His new book, In Pursuit of Silence, is a study of noise in the modern world.

Ideas that writer Jeff Goodell used to regard as bad science fiction — like launching particles into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight — are now being taken seriously because of global warming concerns. Goodell examines the science behind tinkering with the Earth's climate in his new book, How to Cool the Planet.