Forty years ago, the U.S. government began to take climate change seriously and for a short time period, politicians from both parties endorsed taking actions to avert what was by then understood to be an existential problem for humanity. So what happened? And what can we learn from the decade we almost stopped climate change but didn’t? Our guest is Nathanial Rich, a writer at large for the New York Times magazine. He wrote about this history in the new book, Losing Earth. 

President Trump's push to have oil and gas drilling on public lands has hit some snags lately. A federal court recently halted leasing on 300,000 acres of public land in Wyoming after the court ruled the administration hadn't adequately considered climate change on its decision to lease the land. And late last week, a federal judge ruled Trump's efforts to lift an Obama era ban on drilling in the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans was unlawful. But despite all this, companies are still racing to drill on America's public land with the administration's blessing. So what does this look like on the ground? On this episode we find out.

Our guest is Rachel Leven, a reporter for the Center for Public Integrity. She’s been spending time in one of the hottest drilling spots in North America and wrote an expose about what happens when drilling overwhelms the agency tasked with protecting America’s lands.