Climate Change

Youth climate activists have criticized the COP26 pact for being "vague" and failing to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. For one activist, the disappointment with negotiations at the global level inspired him to focus his work more locally in Southern California.

Nations addressing climate change took on gasoline and diesel vehicles in pledges that mirror California’s mandates and plans — and in some cases, go even further.

UN nations have pledged to reduce climate-changing methane and forest destruction within 10 years. California has been trying to handle both problems, with limited success.

“I’ve fallen in love with working with my community and working for social justice and environmental rights,” says Bii Gallardo. Those are the reasons why the Apache and Yaqui activist works so hard to recognize Indigenous voices and fight for environmental justice.

For Michael Preston of the Winnemem Wintu tribe, salmon are important. An artist, activist, filmmaker and dancer, his tribe's goal is to bring the salmon back to California's McCloud River. But it's more than just about the fish, he said. With the lack of salmon, which is a keystone species, other animals, such as bears, eagles and mountain lions are being starved.

Kai Anderson’s eye-catching, multi-colored, hand-drawn thematic maps have developed a cult following in conservation circles in the American West. He walks us through a map he created of Sen. Harry Reid's major environmental campaigns.

"The New West and the Politics of the Environment," a feature-length documentary for the public television environmental news magazine “Earth Focus,” makes the case for placing former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and Nevada at the center of a green new deal.

As an advocate for public lands, Jocelyn Torres is shaping the future of conservation by protecting wide-open landscapes of the American West from destructive industries.