Nature Breaking

In this episode of Nature Breaking , host Seth Larson sits down with Linda Walker, WWF's senior director of corporate engagement for forests, to explore the urgent threats to global forests and the role of business in helping reverse current trends.  Last month, alarming new data were released showing record-breaking tropical forest loss in 2024—an 80% increase over the previous year. Forests are...

As the school year ends and the summer season begins, it's time to think about how to integrate nature into your summer plans. In this edition of Nature Breaking's "Headlines & Trendlines" series, hosts Seth Larson and Hayley Lawton share personal stories and practical tips for weaving nature into your everyday life. From backyard camping and local wildlife refuges to dream destinations like Yosem...

Ahead of World Oceans Day and the UN Ocean Conference, this episode of Nature Breaking explores how local communities are leading the charge in ocean conservation. Join host Seth Larson and WWF's Shauna Mahajan as they dive into the challenges and opportunities facing the Western Indian Ocean seascape—from climate change and overfishing to innovative community-led solutions. Shauna shares inspirin...

Accelerating the use of clean energy technologies like solar panels and electric vehicles is essential to meet global climate goals. But doing so will require dramatically increasing the global supply of copper, cobalt, lithium and graphite that play critical roles in the production of solar cells, magnets for turbines, and EV batteries. And a significant way to get those materials is through mini...

This episode explores the critical issue of food waste and its impact on our planet. Join host Seth Larson as he speaks with Pete Pearson, vice president for food loss and waste at the World Wildlife Fund, about the staggering amount of food wasted globally and its connection to environmental degradation. Discover innovative solutions and initiatives aimed at reducing food waste, including the Foo...

Join hosts Seth Larson and Hayley Lawton in this special Earth Day episode of Nature Breaking. Discover how simple actions can make a big impact on our planet. Seth and Hayley share their personal experiences participating in WWF's "Give an Hour for Earth" campaign, offering practical ideas for how you can get involved. From jogging in nature to reducing food waste, learn how you can contribute to...

Today's episode highlights a new initiative that aims to reduce the environmental footprint of leather production. Leather, as we all know, is sourced from cattle. And right now, cattle ranching for both beef and leather production is a major driver of deforestation, particularly in biomes such as the Amazon, Cerrado and Gran Chaco. In Brazil, for example, cattle ranching drives twice as much defo...

Each year, millions of migratory eastern monarch butterflies embark on a breathtaking 3,000-mile migration from North America to the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico, where they hibernate in the towering Oyamel fir forests. But this iconic species is in trouble.   WWF's research conducted with conservation partners since the early 2000s shows that the eastern monarch population has be...

In this special World Wildlife Day episode of Nature Breaking's "Headlines & Trendlines" series, hosts Seth Larson and Hayley Lawton share uplifting conservation success stories that prove we can make a difference for endangered species. Discover how mountain gorillas have rebounded from critically endangered to endangered status with populations now exceeding 1,000 in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Demo...

Last fall, the United Nations convened a major bi-annual conference focused on protecting the world's biodiversity – that's the vast array of animals, plants, waters, and other natural systems that sustain our planet and our very existence. The conference, known formally as the 16 th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, or COP16 for short, succeeded o...

Last month a series of wildfires spread across communities in Los Angeles and left a trail of destruction in their wake. Tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate their neighborhoods. Over 15,000 homes and other structures were burned. And at least two dozen people were killed. It's well documented that climate change contributes to making fires like these worse. And it also exacerbates...

We're kicking off the new year with another edition of Nature Breaking's "Headlines & Trendlines." Seth is joined once again by Hayley Lawton as they count down four of their favorite conservation wins from 2024: major progress for bison restoration, a commitment to raise $1 billion to save wild tigers, innovations in "environmental DNA" that could change the way we approach conservation, and the...

A major UN conference to negotiate a global treaty on plastic pollution just ended without an agreement. But efforts may resume in 2025 to get a treaty over the finish line. In this two-part episode, you'll hear first from Erin Simon, WWF's vice president for plastic waste and business, about what happened at that conference in Korea (known as INC-5) and what comes next for the global fight agains...

Ahead of this year's Thanksgiving holiday, today's episode revisits a conversation we originally recorded in 2022 about avoiding food waste when you get together to cook those turkeys and side dishes. This topic matters because some 316 million pounds of food is expected to go to waste this Thanksgiving alone. And when we waste food, we also waste all the water, land, and energy that went into pro...

This week marks the start of the annual UN climate conference, known as COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan. COP29 is being dubbed the "finance COP" because one of the main focuses of this year's conference will be to set a new goal for global climate finance and to lay out a plan for achieving it. The last time countries set a climate finance goal was 2009, at COP15 in Copenhagen, where wealthy nations co...

Today, rather than interviewing a WWF expert in-dept on a specific topic, we're trying something new. Seth will be joined by Hayley Lawton from WWF's social media team for something we're calling: Headlines & Trendlines. You'll hear Seth and Hayley briefly summarize some recent news articles and talk about what they mean for climate and nature. This week they discuss two big issues that are drivin...

Next week global leaders will convene in Cali, Colombia for an important meeting: the 16 th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP16). You're probably more familiar with the climate COP that happens every year, but the biodiversity COP is a critical forum for addressing the loss of nature. Two years ago, at COP15 in Montreal, the nations of...

In today's special bonus episode of Nature Breaking you'll hear all about WWF's 2024 Living Planet Report. This bi-annual report functions as a check-up on the health of the Earth. Underpinning the report is the Living Planet Index, which monitors populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish around the world. This year the report found that monitored wildlife populations declined...

Global food production is a key driver behind both climate change and the loss of species and ecosystems. In fact, it's responsible for roughly one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions and over two-thirds of global habitat and biodiversity losses. That's because unsustainable food production too often leads to the destruction of forests, grasslands, and other ecosystems in order to produce mor...

Note: This interview was originally published on September 5, 2023. It's being re-released with a new intro for Amazon Day 2024. To our new subscribers: thanks and welcome! September 5 is World Amazon Day, and we're celebrating with an episode about the many things that make the Amazon rain forest so special. For example, did you know that the Amazon is the largest rain forest in the world? It cov...

Today's episode revisits the climate catastrophe that hit Pakistan two years ago this month in the form of historic floods. In July and August of 2022, Pakistan received nearly double its typical rainfall nationwide, with some localized areas receiving over four times the usual amount. Simply put, the water had nowhere to go. A third of the country was submerged underwater. Two million homes were...

In this episode of WWF's Breaking Waves podcast, Johan speaks with US Representative Jimmy Panetta of California's 19th Congressional district. The Congressman discusses the beauty and bounty of his district, emphasizing the balance needed between economic growth and environmental preservation. The conversation covers stressors such as fishing regulations, renewable energy projects like offshore w...

Ahead of World Elephant Day on August 12, today's episode is all about Asian elephants. Did you know that there are actually three different kinds of elephants? Our planet is home to Asian elephants, African savanna elephants, and African forest elephants. You'll learn more about the difference between these species today, but for starters, Asian elephants and African forest elephants are slightly...

Diplomacy and business have a big impact on our environment, particularly our oceans. On this episode of Breaking Waves, Johan speaks with Sanda Ojiambo, the CEO of the United Nations Global Compact, on the challenges and opportunities of sustainable ocean business practices. They touch on how the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) influence the ocean industry (1:23), how marine renewable e...

This has been a year of record temperatures across the globe. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), June 2024 was the warmest June on record and the 13th consecutive month of record-high temperatures. This follows news from the Copernicus Climate Change Service that we recently experienced a 12-month period in which every month was at least 1.5 degrees Celsius...