The World from PRX

Peter ThomsonPT

Peter Thomson

Livable Planet Editor
Peter Thomson has been covering the broad swath of issues related to the environment and global sustainability for more than 25 years and signed on as The World’s environment editor in 2008. In 2017 he initiated the transition of the program's Environment desk to the Livable Planet desk. (Meet our new Livable Planet desk. It’s about what we need to have a future.) Peter's a public radio "lifer" who got hooked on radio journalism in high school, while listening to and then interning with Danny Schechter the News Dissector at Boston's legendary WBCN. From college radio at WYSO and WMUA and detours through such promising alternate career paths as bike messenger, oyster shucker, DJ, substitute teacher and housepainter, he worked his way into his first reporting position at WFCR in Amherst, Massachusetts and  soon became a regular stringer for NPR. After stints at WBUR and Monitor Radio in Boston he signed on as the founding editor and producer of NPR’s groundbreaking new environmental news program Living on Earth, in 1991. In nearly 10 years at the program, Peter helped establish Living on Earth as the preeminent broadcast source for environmental news and helped the program earn numerous awards and honors. He also reported for the program on issues from oil and natives on Alaska’s North Slope to solar power development in rural Morocco. In 2000 Peter left Living on Earth to travel around the world by surface with his brother via Siberia, from which he was lucky to escape with enough material to turn into his acclaimed 2007 book Sacred Sea: A Journey to Lake Baikal, about the world's largest, deepest, oldest and most ecologically unique lake. Sacred Sea was dubbed “superb” and “compelling” by the New York Times. His favorite work to date, though, is his radio documentary about a hot dog stand in Oakland, California, Original Kasper's: The Hot Dog Stand that Saved a Neighborhood. Peter's work has received more than two dozen awards, including a 2016 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Gold Award for audio. He’s been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Italy, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the Marine Biological Laboratory, the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources, and the International Reporting Project, with whom he traveled to China in 2010, and in 2014 received a fellowship from the Heinrich Boell Foundation to report on advances in renewable energy storage technology in Germany. He served 15 years on the board of Directors of the Society of Environmental Journalists, 10 years on the advisory board of the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting, and five years on the advisory board of the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources. Peter lives in a super-efficient, Deep-Energy-Retrofitted 100 year-old Boston triple-decker with his wife, Edith and his very curious young daughter, Eleanor. He is often found nursing one basketball injury or another but doesn't have the sense to stay off the court.
A beluga whale surfaces out of the water near a yellow net
Environment
Russia agrees to free whales held in ‘whale jail’
Two adults sit at the front of an elementary school classroom as children's heads fill the bottom of the frame.
These fourth graders penned climate change poetry inspired by our coverage
A man walks in the snow next to the Houses of Parliament in London on March 1. Brtain and much of the rest of Europe have been hit with a late winter blast linked to extreme warming in the Arctic.
Environment
Europe’s cold blast, Arctic’s heat wave are ‘two sides of the same coin’
Sneakers hang from downed wires in the wake of Hurricane Maria
Technology
With the lights still dark in Puerto Rico, solar companies see an opportunity to help
Saturn has been Cassini's home for 13 years.
Science
Farewell, Cassini
Hurricane Irma, a record Category 5 storm, is seen approaching Puerto Rico in this NOAA National Weather Service National Hurricane Center satellite
Science
Is the 1-2 punch of Harvey and Irma due to nature — or climate change? Yes.
"So much rain has fallen," the National Weather Service tweeted about Harvey on Monday, "we've had to update the color charts on our graphics in order to effectively map it."
Science
Harvey may have caught Texas by surprise, but other places have been getting ready for more extreme weather
A firefighter works to put out a forest fire during a June heatwave in Southern Spain. Fires have plagued much of southern Europe this summer as the region has been hit by intense heat and drought.
Environment
Federal scientists’ report says climate change is dangerously real
A sign for an electric car charging station at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
Economics
The UK joins a move to ban gas and diesel cars by 2040
French President Emmanuel Macron with U.S. President Donald Trump in Paris in July. After Trump's decision to pull the US out of the global Paris Climate Agreement, Macron invited scientists and others from the US and elsewhere to come to France to help s
Global Politics
US scientists answer France’s call to come ‘make our planet great again’
There are curious parallels between "love" between two particles and two people.
Arts
Love, quantum physics and ‘entanglement’
A map of Antarctica shows where the Larsen C ice shelf has broken, creating one of the largest icebergs ever since observation began. The iceberg is roughly the size of Delaware.
Environment
A Delaware-sized iceberg has broken off of the Antarctic Peninsula
The Polar jet stream carries weather systems around the northern hemisphere. It's powered by the temperature differential between the Arctic and areas farther south, but new research finds that it's being disrupted as rapid warming in the Arctic reduces t
Global Politics
Here’s a new climate change reality that Trump’s new policies ignore
Scott Pruitt
Environment
Here’s why new EPA chief Pruitt is ‘absolutely wrong’ about CO2 and climate change
China says it will invest another $361 dollars in renewable energy over the next four years and create 13 million new jobs in the sector, building on previous massive investments. The country already has the largest capacity of solar p
Environment
Donald Trump sees the future in coal. China sees the future in renewables. Who’s making the safer bet?
Former U.S. Representative Bob Inglis was awarded the 2015 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for changing his position on climate change at big political cost.
Environment
This Republican holds out hope for a Trump conversion on climate change
Attorney General Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma (c) at the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Pruitt, who Donald Trump has nominated to run the Environmental Protection Agency, is a fierce critic of the EPA in general and its efforts to cut c
Environment
With Trump’s EPA pick, the prospects for stopping dangerous global warming just got a lot cooler
Former Maldives deputy UN ambassador Thilmeeza Hussain at the global climate conference in Paris in December, 2015, just before the adoption of the landmark Paris Agreement. With a suddenly very different political environment in the US, Hussain says clim
Environment
World climate activists to US: Please don’t be a ‘rogue state’ under Trump
Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe is one of the US's leading figures on communicating about climate change with skeptical audiences. She says she'd only talk to president-elect Donald Trump if she were asked, but if she were, she'd do what she
Environment
Can Trump be reached on climate by talking with him about other things? Maybe …
Youth supporters of Hillary Clinton mourn the election of Donald Trump during the World Climate Change Conference 2016 in Marrakech, Morocco.
Environment
Will Trump bring a U-turn on climate policy? Probably, but …
Air conditioners being loaded onto a truck for delivery. Most of the world's AC units cool air with chemicals that are big contributors to global warming. A new agreement forged in Kigali, Rwanda, will phase those coolants out over then next 30 years.
Environment
Keeping our planet cooler just got a little easier
Leaders
Environment
After quick action, the Paris climate deal is set to go into effect way earlier than expected
Technology
Was that extreme weather event influenced by climate change?
An engraving by William Miller of Newcastle in 1832
Environment
Newcastle University cuts its ties to coal
Former South Carolina congressman Bob Inglis says Donald Trump and his Republican party are "shrinking in science denial" on climate change because they don't like the solutions proposed by Democrats. But he says there's a simple conservative solution his
Environment
This Republican says his party’s denial of climate science is ‘courting disaster’ with voters
A false-color image showing ozone concentrations above Antarctica on Oct. 2, 2015.
Environment
The ozone layer is bouncing back. And our hairstyles will be OK too.
Women
Environment
30 years after Chernobyl, these Ukrainian babushkas are still living on toxic land
Haze in China symbolizes air pollution issues
Environment
Hope for the climate? Countries are lining up to sign the Paris deal, and it could go into effect early.
A "Water Pickup" sign points to a bottled water distribution center in Flint, Michigan in January. In an effort to save money, state officials running Flint's affairs implemented changes to the city's water system that resulted in widespread lead contamin
Environment
This is your brain on lead, and lots of other nasty pollutants
A baby born with microcephaly reacts to stimulus during an evaluation session with a physiotherapist at the Altino Ventura rehabilitation center in Recife, Brazil on January 28, 2016.
Health
We’re not sure if Zika is causing all those microcephaly cases. But there’s no evidence it’s pesticides.
Brazilian soldiers distribute educational flyers about the Zika virus in São Paulo, the country's largest city.
Environment
Zika is a window into a much bigger story in Brazil
The Obama administration's plan to clamp down on climate pollution from coal-fired power plants like this one in Wyoming hit a potentially big speed bump at the Supreme Court this week.
Environment
A Supreme Court speed bump could signal big trouble for Obama’s signature climate plan
World leaders gather for a group photo at the Nov. 30 opening of the UN's global climate summit in Paris. The conference was supposed to adjourn today but with key parts of the text still to be nailed down, negotiations have been extended into the weekend
Environment
In Paris, the push for a global climate deal goes into overtime
More than 30,000 people traveled to the UN's COP21 climate summit in Paris last month from aroudn the world. The UN set up a website where attendees could offset the carbon footprint of their travel.
Environment
People who traveled to the Paris climate summit can offset their carbon emissions — but it isn’t easy
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (C), president-designate of the UN climate summit, and Christiana Figueres (L), executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, celebrate during the final session of the World Climate Change Con
Environment
The Paris climate deal won’t save the world, but it does give us a chance
Constance Okollet, Thilmeeza Hussain and Ursula Rakova have observer status at the UN climate change summit this week in Paris as part of the organization Climate Wise Women. They are appealing to national leaders here to listen to the voices of the peopl
Environment
From climate change victims, a message to UN negotiators: ‘They’ve been talking, talking, talking. Why don’t they act?’
Participants view a world map with climate anomalies during the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) at Le Bourget, near Paris. The conference is charged with producing a consensus agreement between 195 countries to limit the dangerous warming of
Environment
With France still on edge, climate negotiators search for consensus
Environmental activists hold placards reading "Climatic emergency state" during a demonstration as part of the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) in Paris.
Environment
After years of stalled talks, a veteran journalist has high hopes for this year’s climate summit
Climate activists formed a 2-mile human chain Sunday along Parisian sidewalks after authorities banned a full-fledged climate march following the Nov. 13 attacks in the French capital. Demonstrators said they were determined to find ways to express their
Environment
France bans marches, but climate activists make their voices heard
John Holdren, President Obama's chief science advisor, says he's optimistic about the world's nations striking a strong climate deal next month in Paris, in part because both the motivation and the means to fight the climate crisis are "growing all the ti
Environment
For Obama’s top science guy, the climate outlook is partly sunny
Opponents of the Keystone XL oil pipeline planned to run from the Alberta tas sands to refineries in the US finally got their wish on Friday when president Obama pulled the plug on the project.
Environment
With Keystone down and Exxon under investigation, it’s been a tough week for the oil business
Climate conditions in much of the Persion Gulf/Arabian Peninsula area will often push past the limits of human adaptability by the end of this century under current greenhouse gas pollution trends, according to a new report in Nature Climate Change. These
Environment
Climate change may soon make much of the Persian Gulf region too hot for humans
Both outgoing Canadian prime minister Steven Harper and his newly-elected successor Justin Trudeau hope these sections of pipe will eventually get put into place as part of the planned Keystone XL oil pipeline from Alberta to Texas. But politics and econo
Environment
In Canada, Harper’s out, but the Keystone pipeline may not be
Marine biologist Alice Lawrence assesses coral bleaching at Airport Reef in American Samoa.
Environment
‘Global bleaching event’ threatens corals around the world
A US National Weather Service map shows precipitation levels across the southeastern US on October 4, 2015. White splotches in South Carolina indicate areas with more than 10 inches of rain.
Environment
The Carolinas’ ‘thousand-year’ flood follows a big rainfall trend across the US
Demonstrators protest against Royal Dutch Shell near the Polar Pioneer oil drilling rig on May 16, 2015, in Seattle.
Environment
$7 billion later, a dry well sends Shell home from the Arctic
A US Volkswagen executive has admitted that his company ‘totally screwed up’ by rigging the emission test results of around 11 million of its vehicles worldwide (REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann).
Environment
Being ‘endlessly sorry’ may not put an end to VW’s emissions scam troubles
Icebergs in Sermilik Fjord, SE Greenland, viewed from a helicopter.
Science
Here’s what climate change looks like from the edge of the Greenland icecap
After taking off from Abu Dhabi on March 9, the Solar Impulse 2 has flown across Asia and now more than halfway across the Pacific, with a goal of circumnavigating the world powered only by the 17,000 solar panels on its 236 foot-wide wings.
Technology
Will Solar Impulse 2 inspire a whole fleet of solar-powered planes?
The clock in Grand Central Station in New York.
Science
How do you explain the leap second to a 6-year-old?
A sea surface temperature anomaly in the tropical Pacific Ocean during the peak of the 2009-10 El Niño.
Environment
El Niño is back, and global temperature records are in danger
Attendees take pictures of the new Tesla Energy Powerwall Home Battery during an event at Tesla Motors in Hawthorne, California, on April 30, 2015.
Environment
If Tesla’s new solar power batteries are as good as its cars, they could be a game changer
A Nepalese army personnel stands in front of a collapsed temple in Bhaktapur, Nepal a day after the April 25 earthquake rocked the country. The quake devastated the heavily crowded Kathmandu valley, killing thousands and triggering a deadly avalanche on M
Environment
Earthquakes create as well as destroy
Eight nations share the territory of the Arctic, which is experiencing the fastest changes of any part of the earth as global temperatures rise. The United States will emphasize addressing the causes and impacts of climate change in the region when it tak
Environment
As new leader of the Arctic Council, the US will focus on the region’s Big Thaw
Lutz Wiese of Vattenfall power company refuels a hydrogen-powered Mercedes at a filling station in Berlin. Vatenfall is a partner in the world's first direct wind-hydrogen power plant, in northern Germany. Using wind-generated electricity to create hydrog
Technology
The car of the future — the very near future — might be driven by the wind
A surge in wind turbines like these have helped Germany generate more than 25% of its electricity from renewable sources. Since Germany's electricity system is interconnected with most of the rest of western Europe, the overall percentage of this kind of
Environment
When the grid says ‘no’ to wind and solar power, this company’s technology helps it say ‘yes’ again
Solar power production has grown more than 25 times over the last decade in Germany, spurred largely by big incentives for small producers to get into the market. But sunshine and wind power are intermittent, so engineers and others are looking for ways t
Environment
How do you catch the sun to make electricity at night? This German inventor has an answer.
Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance dam on the Blue Nile, shown under construction in March of 2014. Egypt claims most of the water in the 4,000 mile-long river that it shares with 10 other countries, and fears the $4.7 billion Renaissance dam will reduce the wa
Environment
A deal on Africa’s biggest dam eases tensions on the Nile
Danny Schechter—journalist, author, activist, social critic, Emmy-winning TV producer and "News Dissector" at Boston's WBCN-FM in the early 1970s—died March 19 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 72.
Media
A goodbye…and thanks…to the ‘News Dissector’
Opponents of the Keystone XL oil pipeline rally in front of the White House on February 24, 2015, the day President Barack Obama vetoed a bill circumventing administration review of the project and mandating its construction.
Environment
President Obama’s veto isn’t the end of the Keystone XL story