Health, Science, Environment

Earlier this month, Governor Jerry Brown stepped up to a podium in a dry, grassy field in Eastern California. He took a deep breath, and made a landmark statement.

"We’re in a historic drought, and that demands unprecedented action. It’s for that reason that I’m issuing an executive order demanding substantial water reduction across our state."

On a Friday evening in the summer of 2011, Los Angeles resident Brent Green was driving home from work and took a route he doesn’t usually take to get to his neighborhood. As he neared his home, he saw a work crew of about 25 guys in orange uniforms doing landscaping in a freeway berm.

He thought it all seemed a little odd.

For starters, it was 7pm on a Friday—late in the day for a city work crew. It was also piece of land that never got much attention; most of it was scrubby overgrowth. To Brent, this meant one thing.

They were stealing trees!

What is the cost of burning coal? On the April 22nd edition of Your Call, we’ll have a conversation with Richard Martin, author of Coal Wars: The Future of Energy and the Fate of the Planet. Coal has become a battleground in the fight against climate change. Martin traveled to Wyoming, West Virginia, and China to meet people on the front lines of the war on coal. He asks: Can we shut down Big Coal in time to save the planet – and ourselves? It’s Your Call with Rose Aguilar, and you.

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On the April 20th edition of Your Call, we’ll have a conversation with Jean Wiener, Haitian environmentalist and founder of the Foundation for the Protection of Marine Biodiversity. He’s in town to receive the Goldman Environmental Prize. Haiti’s fragile environment has been severely threatened by pollution and deforestation. Haiti's reefs are the most overfished in the world. What’s being done to protect Haiti’s natural resources? And who’s being impacted by its biodiversity loss? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar.

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Five years after the BP oil spill, what do we know about the long-term effects? On the April 16th edition of Your Call, we’ll have a conversation about the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.  Oil and methane gas spewed into the ocean for 87 straight days. The U.S. government estimates over 4 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf. Recovery teams collected only 17 percent. Where is all of that oil? Five years later, what do we know and what don’t we know? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar, and you.

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