Down to Earth: an Earthjustice Podcast

Hilton Kelley is a leading environmental activist who gave up a Hollywood acting career to move to Port Arthur, Texas, a town that's known for having some of the most toxic air in the country. For more than a decade, Hilton Kelley has worked to clean up Port Arthur's air by facing off against industrial polluters that literally surround the Texas town. These facilities include numerous refineries and chemical plants, a ship yard full of diesel-fueled barges, and even an incineration plant that just received a permit to burn chemical waste from Syria.

Earthjustice Campaign Manager Kathleen Sutcliffe speaks with Helen Holden Slottje, a lawyer in upstate New York, who discusses her pioneering legal strategy to keep the controversial oil and gas development process known as "fracking" out of communities. Thanks in large part to Helen Slottje's efforts, more than 170 communities in New York have fracking bans or moratoriums on the books. In 2014, Helen’s hard work and bravery were rewarded with the Goldman Environmental Prize, often referred to as the "Green Nobel Prize."

Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles discusses the fight to stop the expansion of crude-by-rail projects, which use trains to transport crude oil to facilities that then export it across the U.S. and internationally. Crude-by-rail has been around for some time, but recently it's received increased scrutiny due to a series of train accidents that have resulted in loss of life and leveled entire towns.

Marjorie Mulhall is a legislative counsel on Earthjustice's Policy and Legislation team, located in Washington, D.C. She works with Congress and federal agencies to protect the Endangered Species Act and prevent legislative rollback of our legal victories. Marjorie spoke with National Press Secretary Kari Birdseye in November of 2013.

From the California coast to Maryland ports, Earthjustice is fighting to protect communities and special places from fracking. Deborah Goldberg is co-Managing Attorney of the Northeast regional office. She spoke with Associate Editor Jessica Knoblauch in September of 2013.

Earthjustice Attorney Greg Loarie discusses his work to get a toxic pesticide known as sulfoxaflor off the market, due to threats it poses to honeybees. Over the last few years, honeybees, which pollinate billions of dollars of U.S. crops annually, have been dying at unprecedented rates. Studies suggest that toxic pesticides like sulfoxaflor may be partly to blame. Greg works in the California regional office and spoke with Associate Editor Jessica Knoblauch in August of 2013.

Tom Murphy is a wildlife photographer who has spent countless hours documenting the beauty and wildlife of Yellowstone National Park. He shares experiences from decades of hiking, camping and skiing across Yellowstone, a place he refers to as "one of the finest wild land ecosystems in the world." During that time he's had plenty of grizzly bear encounters, but he is still waiting to cross paths with the ever-elusive wolverine. Tom spoke with Associate Editor Jessica Knoblauch in August of 2013.

Author Jon Mooallem describes the haphazard, and often inspiring, efforts of conservationists to protect endangered species. Jon Mooallem is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and author of the book "Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America." Mooallem spoke with Associate Editor Jessica Knoblauch in July of 2013.

Douglas H. Chadwick is a wildlife biologist and journalist. As a volunteer for the Glacier National Park Wolverine Project, Doug helped researchers track wolverines, fierce members of the weasel family who regularly face down grizzly bears. Climate change is threatening the wolverines' existence.

Environmental justice advocate Vernice Miller-Travis discusses why the fractured nature of green groups and the environmental justice movement undermines our overall political effectiveness.

Bill McKibben is an environmental activist and the founder of 350.org, an organization that's building a global movement to solve the climate crisis.

Dr. Alan Lockwood discusses coal's dirty characteristics, the recent Republican-led attacks on the U.S. EPA, and why cleaning up air pollutants could result in trillions of dollars of health-related benefits in the United States.

Earthjustice attorney Marianne Engelman Lado discusses confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, and their effects on people's health and the environment.

Acclaimed photographer Florian Schulz discusses his experiences in the rapidly changing Arctic.

Managing Attorney Deborah Goldberg discusses the Northeast regional office's litigation on fracking, a controversial form of industrial gas drilling that can contaminate the air and water.

Earthjustice staffer Jessica Knoblauch reports on the record-breaking ice melt that's occurring in the Arctic.

Earthjustice attorney Andrea Treece discusses her work to protect forage fish species, like anchovies and sardines, which serve as the building blocks of the ocean food web.

Earthjustice Vice President for Litigation Patti Goldman discusses efforts to protect the orca whales of Puget Sound, WA, whose existence is threatened by toxic contamination and starvation.

David Doubilet, an underwater photographer for National Geographic, discusses his first-hand experience with how ocean stressors negatively impact the aquatic environment.

Attorney Steve Roady discusses Earthjustice's decades-long effort in using federal environmental laws to protect the oceans from pollution, overfishing, habitat loss and climate change.

Earthjustice attorney David Henkin discusses his work to force the U.S Army to stop live-fire training operations at the Mākua Military Reservation on Oʻahu.

Earthjustice attorney Roger Fleming discusses his work with local fishermen to promote healthy ocean ecosystems along the East Coast.

Earthjustice attorney Paul Achitoff discusses how genetically engineered crops harm the environment by increasing pesticide use, creating superweeds and contaminating other crops.

Pesticide policy expert Charles Benbrook explains how genetically engineered crops have spawned the creation of superweeds that destroy entire crop fields.

Environmental health attorney George Kimbrell discusses the food safety implications of genetically modified crops, which aren't labeled in the U.S. and are poorly regulated.

Farmer Frank Morton discusses his battle to keep GMOs from contaminating his organic seed crops and ruining his business.

Clean Water Activist Gershon Cohen talks about stopping the cruise ship industry from dumping millions of gallons of wastewater into Alaska's pristine waters.

Earthjustice attorneys Isaac Moriwake and Kapua Sproat discuss their efforts to restore water rights to the people of Hawaii.

Earthjustice attorney Tim Preso discusses climate change impacts in one of America's last wild places, the Crown of the Continent.

Earthjustice attorney Tim Preso talks about protecting endangered species like the wolverine in the Crown of the Continent—one of the last remaining wild places in North America.

Research ecologist Dan Fagre discusses how climate change in the Crown of the Continent could result in a glacier-free Glacier National Park by 2030.

Conservation activist Gene Sentz discusses his decades-long mission to keep dirty oil and gas wells out of the Rocky Mountain Front.

International activist Rodolfo Montiel Flores discusses being tortured by his own government for helping to save forest lands in southern Mexico.

Michael Donahoe of the Tahoe Area Sierra Club discusses his efforts to keep private piers and buoys out of the publically-owned Lake Tahoe.

Acclaimed ecologist and author Sandra Steingraber discusses the need for meaningful reform of toxics regulation and why extreme energy extraction must end.