California is vast, made up of forests of towering giants, miles and miles of sprawling farmland, deserts teeming with life, and our vibrant and ever-changing coastline. People have built lives here intimately tied to the land. But those lives, and that land, are changing as sea level rises, oppressive heat makes outdoor labor hazardous, and wildfires destroy entire neighborhoods and towns. Many of those who are being asked to bear the costs of climate change often receive little support.
In this hour, in collaboration with public radio newsrooms across the state, we’ve been speaking with our neighbors and friends to bring you stories of the challenges brought on by climate change. We’ll meet a lumber worker in Trinity County, a farmworker in the Coachella Valley, and an environmental scientist on the Central Coast. Together we’ll visit the largest geothermal field in the Northern hemisphere, a Native American reservation in the Eastern Sierra, a Central Coast city grappling with the loss of its coastline, and a region where acres and acres of orange groves are being replaced with warehouses that can be measured in football fields.
The show is hosted by Kerry Klein from KVPR in Fresno, with contributions from eight stations in total, including Madi Bolaños and Kathleen Schock also from KVPR, North State Public Radio (Sarah Bohannon), Northern California Public Media (Greta Mart), Mendocino County’s KZYX (Alicia Bales), KAZU on the Monterey Coast (Erika Mahoney and Jerimiah Oetting), KCBX in San Luis Obispo (Rachel Showalter), KCLU in Santa Barbara (Lance Orozco), and Jonathan Linden at KVCR in Redlands. Additional thanks to Adriana Torres, Olivia Rodriguez, and Rosa Gonzalez for their work in the Eastern Coachella Valley.
