Halfway To The Moon

Traditional funerals have a big environmental impact... and with 55 million of us dying every year the outcomes can be massive. Recently the green burial movement has sprung up to look at alternatives - you can become part of a forest, a reef, a giant urban compost bin or help solve crimes from beyond the grave. How do you want to spend eternity?

China is currently the world's largest carbon emitter, and what happens there over the next generation will literally shape the globes future. The ruling Central Party has committed that their carbon emissions will peak by 2030 and then start to go backwards - but will they make it? Will, in fact, they do way way better... and what does that mean for the fate of the world?

The world is in the grip of a costly, destructive and quite often deadly environmental crime of which most people have never heard. Communities around the world are waking up to find their local beach, riverbank or lake have been stolen by a very 21st century branch of organised crime: the sand mafia. These criminal gangs control governments and may be raking in over $70bn globally each year. And those who try and stop them are being killed in their hundreds. 

Everyone agrees that humans have impacted this planet and the space that surrounds more than any other species in the history of this solar system. But to be able to understand that impact we need to describe it. Enter the environmental humanities and their quest for the anthropomeme: the perfect way to encapsulate this new era of humans.

This week, the magnificent Jess Panegyres tells us all about Australia's deforestation crisis - one of the worst in the world - what we can do about it. We also talk about home, landscapes and get treated to an impromptu cover of 1980s west australian salinity songs.

It's the only question that *always* starts an argument at a party: how can we eat ethically? Vegan vs meat? Low emission vs high animal welfare? And how much slavery is in our prawn cocktails? This week we talk ethical eating in all its controversial glory, and try to find our way through the swirling mass of contradictory and confusing information to pull together a simple rubric that helps us select our food. 

Suzanne and Lucy share some of their most personal stories that led them to care about all things nature and climate, and their coping mechanisms for the anthropocene (not including drinking [not that there's anything wrong with that]). This week we also reveal which one of them has a recurring nightmare about John Howard selling them lipstick in an abandoned shopping centre.

DUN-DUN-DUUUUNNNN!!! It's time to talk about Landscape of Fear. More specifically, it's time to talk about predators, and all they do for us. Do predators have the power to shape landscapes and the health of the world around them? Or is that just science myth?

Recycling has become a hot topic in Australia. Local councils across the country are threatening to shut down their kerbside recycling service because of China, and no-one's really sure why. This week we explain the whole China snafu, how Australia's recycling system works and why we can no longer sort, set and forget our waste.

This week we're joined by author and environmentalist, Bill McKibben. Bill is a giant in the climate movement and founded 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement. We talk divestment, activism, the effect of Trump on US climate politics and keeping hope alive in the age of humans.

The modern world is a scary place. The climate is changing, animals are dying, we don't seem to be able to stop it - and it's taking a toll on our mental health. This week we ask: can we stay sane in an age of ecocide?

Nuclear tests in the 1950s and '60s spewed radioactive material all around the globe. The fallout can be found on nearly every part of the globe, from the Siberian tundras to the Loneliest Tree in the World down in waters of the Antarctic. But could it also be the sign we've reached a new geological era - the age of humans?

Every dark cloud has a silver lining. While humans have caused a lot of destruction to the natural world, some non-human creatures have found a way to use that to their advantage. This week we look at the animals, plants and other living things that thrive in a human-dominated world.

The politics of climate change seem to be endlessly toxic, but has it always been this way? This week, Lucy dives into the murky business of seeding doubt about climate reality and science.

It's Bioapocalypse time! Sick of climate change bogarting all the good apocalypse stories, this week Suzanne takes us through some all natural end-of-the-world scenarios. From biodiversity holocausts to snails that make you bleed out your eyes, the natural world shows it's perfectly capable of wiping us out on its own, regardless of what we do to the climate.

This week we're joined by Neha Madhok, Digital Director at Democracy in Colour, Australia's first national racial justice organisation lead by people of colour. We talk about the organisation and why it's so very needed, as well diving into the inner workings of the Marriage Equality campaign.

For a while, scientists have been worried about how climate change will affect animals that have adapted to live in only one or two places on the globe. Where will they go when the snow melts or the waters rise? And how far will we go to save them?

Darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close to hand and out of the Yamalo-Nenets region of Russia zombie viruses crawl in search of blood. This week Lucy takes us to the frozen darkness of the Arctic to look at some of climate changes most crazy (and horror-movie worthy) impacts.

Is a river a person? Can nature have the same rights to protection and safety as a human? The campaign for rights for nature is gathering steam all around the world. Ecuador has recognised the rights of nature in their constitution, and in 2017, three of the world's great rivers were gained the rights of people under the law.  This week, we dive into this fascinating topic to find out what exactly 'legal rights for nature' are, and what they mean for efforts to protect these amazing places.  

Space race 2.0 is on, as private and public companies compete to find a viable Planet B for humans to settle once we've finished fully trashing the Earth. Lucy takes us through some of the most viable plans and what we'd need to do to really start living among the stars.