The Meaning of Green: The Podcast About Solving Environmental Problems
With host Dr. Vivian Thomson. Listeners come from 48 US states and 68 countries. Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pandora
With host Dr. Vivian Thomson. Listeners come from 48 US states and 68 countries. Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pandora
With help from others, podcast host Dr. Vivian Thomson analyzed in Season 1 why some environmental problems have been solved and others have not. At the end Season 1, we applied these policy lessons to the biggest environmental challenge of our time, climate change.
In Season 2 Dr. Thomson and her guests examined how power, freedom, and e
With help from others, podcast host Dr. Vivian Thomson analyzed in Season 1 why some environmental problems have been solved and others have not. At the end Season 1, we applied these policy lessons to the biggest environmental challenge of our time, climate change.
In Season 2 Dr. Thomson and her guests examined how power, freedom, and environmental problems are intertwined and what that means for COVID-19's emergence and spread.
Season 3's over-arching theme is place and the environment.
Season 4 is about protecting public health and the environment during challenging economic times.
Each season provides insights and contributions from citizen activists, ecologists, political scientists, infectious disease experts, lawyers, public health researchers, anthropologists, economists, energy experts, and policy practitioners.
Audio clip from the film Waste Land used by permission from Almega Projects Ltd. Excerpt of Ubi Caritas, as sung by Vox Clamantis, used by permission.
Background and theme music recorded by Vivian Thomson (piano), James C. Thomson (violin, viola, and harpsichord), Ken Landis, (organ), and Fred Hyde (harpsichord), and composed by Anonymous (Oh Shenandoah, arr. Keith Jarrett), Harold Arlen/Yip Harburg (Somewhere Over the Rainbow, arr. Keith Jarrett), J. S. Bach (Violin sonatas in e minor and G major, Prelude and Fugue XXII in b flat minor), William Bolcom (Graceful Ghost), Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley (Pure Imagination), Hoagy Carmichael (I Get Along Without You Very Well, arr. Claus Ogerman), François Couperin (Les Barricades Mistérieuses), Duke Ellington (Things Ain't What They Used to Be, arr. Keith Jarrett), Percy Grainger (Irish Tune, My Robin is to the Greenwood Gone, Shepherd's Hey), Edvard Grieg (Little Bird, Volksweise), Georg Frideric Handel (Sonata in D Major), Scott Joplin (Solace), Jerome Kern (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes), Joseph Kosma and Johnny Mercer (Autumn Leaves), and Maurice Ravel (Pavane pour une Infante Défunte), Antonio Vivaldi (Sonata in d minor)
The Meaning of Green is an independent production of Cedar Closet Studios, Silver Spring, Maryland.
Professor Thomson taught environmental policy for 20 years at the University of Virginia, from 1997 to 2017. She retired early so she could devote herself to speaking out in public about environmental issues, which have been her life's work. Her academic background is in ecology and political science.
Professor Thomson taught environmental policy for 20 years at the University of Virginia, from 1997 to 2017. She retired early so she could devote herself to speaking out in public about environmental issues, which have been her life's work. Her academic background is in ecology and political science.
Dr. Thomson offers policy insider scoops from her work as an air pollution official at the state and national levels. She has published articles, editorials, and three books, on garbage transport, climate change politics, and how power is wielded in the air pollution policy arena. In 2018 she and a U. Va. student team published research on who might suffer the most from the Trump Administration's air pollution rollbacks.
For botany buffs: the striking tree above is a 70-year-old fig tree (Ficus drupacea var. pubescens (Roth)) that was one of the first plants landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx added to his incredible tropical preserve in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Season 1
Acid rain
Leaded gasoline
Environmental justice
Trash
Endangered species
Renewable energy
Climate change
Partisanship
Social movements
Nuclear power
Dams in the US and Brazil
The Panama Canal
Season 2
Fine particle pollution and COVID-19
White privilege
Community trust
Denmark and the coronavirus
Power's many disguises
Why GDP fails to measure we
Season 1
Acid rain
Leaded gasoline
Environmental justice
Trash
Endangered species
Renewable energy
Climate change
Partisanship
Social movements
Nuclear power
Dams in the US and Brazil
The Panama Canal
Season 2
Fine particle pollution and COVID-19
White privilege
Community trust
Denmark and the coronavirus
Power's many disguises
Why GDP fails to measure well-being
Affluence, pollution, and water use
Biodiversity and virus spillover
Bats
Agriculture
Wildfires
Citizen power
Party polarization in the US
Season 3
Coal dust pollution in Appalachia and in coastal Virginia
The Amazon forest and flying rivers
Carbon taxes
The Panama Canal
Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains
Biodiversity and community based management
Germany's energy transition
Intergenerational climate justice
Garbage and race in Brazil
Circular economy thinking in Italy and Maine
Garbage transport in Virginia
Elephants and colonialism in Kenya
August surprise: Why the US climate and renewable energy policy window slammed open now.
Stories of abundance that fall short, and the disconnect between well being and economic growth
The US's messy political system, the states, and a butterfly that affected the course of US climate politics
Water wars in the American West, US Supreme Court cases on climate change, and state-level renewable energy achievements.
An historic African American school and a proposed mega-landfill, what happens when landfill protections fail, and a clean air battle
The most polluted city on earth, seeing Brazil's forests, the US government and Brazil's military coup, and George Santos's shoes
An unforgettable journey into Brazilian Amazon forest and on the Cristalino River, with history and politics ever present
The Taj Mahal, forests in the US and Austria, an ecologist's lunch with coal executives, and a speech by Margaret Thatcher
Smoky skies, hiking the Oregon desert, wolves, tightening an air pollution standard, Aristotle, and the gospel of GDP
Scotland and the rest of the UK leave coal behind, Net Zero, modern struggles between the unicorn and the lion, and my Scottish grandfather
Magical water delivery systems in Brazil and in the US, and what happens when they fail
The fight for clean air in Appalachia and in Norfolk, Virginia. Part 1 of a two-part episode.
Rail cars spewing coal dust for decades in an African American neighborhood, and, the faces of power. Part 2 of 2 parts.
Germany's energy transition, a pathbreaking court decision about intergenerational climate justice, and a coffee mug. Part 1 of 2 parts.
The Berlin Wall fall effect, German citizens as investors in renewable energy, and a soy field. Part 2 of a two-part series.
Charlottesville and race, garbage transport and power at work, a circular economy, and why a Brazilian recycler says "99 is not 100"
The Panama Canal's dependence on forests, a red phone, toucans, and US imperialism
Community based management and biodiversity in Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains
Elephant talk, ivory poaching, the Maasai, and Waza (Pt. 1). Wildlife as government cattle in Kenya, colonialism, and conservation (Pt. 2).
Season 3's finale highlights common themes from places visited in the US, Ukraine, Panama, Kenya, and Brazil
Carbon taxes around the world, and why people don't believe economists' claims
Earth Day's 50th birthday, Pogo, and Dr. Jane Goodall.
Danish meatballs, Harry Potter, community trust, race, and fine particle pollution
How power's various disguises shaped efforts to reduce coal pollution in the US state of Virginia; implications for the coronavirus.
Nobel economists on why GDP fails to measure well-being; affluence and pollution; water use in Arizona; and, a memorable page turner.
Rachel Carson on mastery, ecosystem degradation and its impacts, bats, donuts, and, viruses that cross from animals to humans.
Bats and the fountain of youth, virus spillover, and human disruption of natural areas
Joel Salatin's diaper grass, wildfires on the Pacific coast, farming, the Lorax, and all of the biomass on Earth
Wendell Berry on affection for the land, Prof. Delia Grace Randolph on virus spillover, racism and the USDA, and the "Vietnam of entomology"
How citizens get control of their government in an age of party polarization, fall leaves and freedom, and moderates in America
Reimagining stories of Thanksgiving and progress, how we achieve the good life, COVID-19 and air pollution in India, and "stuff"
Season finale, Parts 1 and 2: Unequal burdens, democracy in America, Earth rules, spillovers, rebel farmers, and the singing revolution
Prof. Thomson introduces Season 1, which asks: what forces aid or constrain environmental policy success?
Twists and turns in the US's dependence on coal, ripple effects of oil crises, and a coal miner's daughter speaks her mind.
Energy efficiency and renewables are unquestionably the waves of the present and future. But we must watch out for collateral effects.
Disappearing birds and oaks, the US Endangered Species Act, Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep rebound, and climate change vs. coral reefs.
Bad housemates, the global commons, policy reversals at the national level in the US, counteracted by policy action in the states.
A memorable landlord and summing up the season's lessons.
These graphs are from the United Nations' latest synthesis report on climate change, which was published in 2014. The next report is due in 2022.
This curve is from the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA), at climate.gov.
This curve shows the anomalous, sharp spike in temperatures that started in the early 20th century.
This National Climate Assessment curve shows that, without human influence on greenhouse gas levels, temperatures might have cooled slightly in the late 20th century.
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