Science Matters Colorado

Ben Goldfarb on Beavers, Roads, and the Hidden Costs of Modernity

For today’s episode, I am thrilled to share an interview with Colorado-based author Ben Goldfarb.  Ben has written for pretty much every publication you can think of, including the Atlantic, Science, the New York Times, National Geographic, and Outside, to name a few. Today’s conversation focuses on Ben’s book Eager:The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, which received the PEN/E.O. Wilson award in 2019. If you aren’t familiar with Ben’s writing, I recommend picking up Eager for your next read as a great introduction to his work. For anyone living in North America, it will completely change how you think about the history of our continent and what it looked like 300 years ago. We also talk about Ben’s new book, Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet. In addition to being named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times; it also won the Sierra Club’s Rachel Carson Award for Excellence in Environmental Writing. Crossings, like Eager, paints a historical narrative of the ecology of our continent by focusing its lens on one particular topic: roads and their environmental impact. Road ecology is a term that most people probably aren’t familiar with, but once you dive in, it will likely ride shotgun on your morning commute.  A few topics that we address in this conversation include: * The Impacts of Beavers on River Ecosystems * Grassroots Solutions to Environmental Challenges * Wolves in Yellowstone * The History of the Term “Road Ecology” * The Importance of Culverts * Fish Migrations * And Much More Ben is a great speaker, with an incredible vocabulary, who distills complex science into compelling narratives. He also connects the dots between the history of our relationship with the environment and environmental movements taking place at various scales around the globe. One thing that I appreciate about Ben is that he does not sugarcoat these issues, but he also is a pragmatic optimist, always tuning into scalable, community-based solutions to tackle these environmental challenges. Whether or not you are familiar with Ben’s work, I think you will enjoy this conversation. — If you enjoyed today’s episode, the best thing you can do is like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Also, recommending it to a friend goes a long way. You can purchase Eager [https://bookshop.org/p/books/eager-the-surprising-secret-life-of-beavers-and-why-they-matter-ben-goldfarb/5bbabe01bfc91318?ean=9781603589086&next=t] and Crossings [https://bookshop.org/p/books/crossings-how-road-ecology-is-shaping-the-future-of-our-planet-ben-goldfarb/5bea35d3460b7759?ean=9781324086314&next=t] from a locally-owned bookstore near you. The music for this podcast is Siesta by Ikson, part of the “Tell Your Story” project—a library of free music for content creators. Visit ikson.com [https://www.ikson.com] to explore the full catalog.

Here Comes the Sun - Bill McKibben on Renewable Energy Adoption

For today’s episode, I’m excited to share a talk from renowned environmentalist and author Bill McKibben. On Tuesday this week, McKibben visited Boulder, CO to discuss current trends in renewable energy adoption as well as his new book, Here Comes the Sun, about the rise of solar and wind energy.  Personally, I was not familiar with McKibben’s work before the presentation, which is probably why I was so moved by his erudition on the topic. As someone who has been writing about these issues since the 80’s, McKibben has a remarkable ability to contextualize geopolitics and energy trends to paint a picture of where the country - and the rest of the globe, is headed. For me, the talk both affirmed some of my biggest fears regarding the Trump administration’s aggressive attack on renewable energy projects and research, while also providing a great deal of hope in terms of global renewable energy adoption, innovations, and the potential impact of grassroots campaigns.  In this talk, Bill covers  * The acceleration of global solar energy development and installations,  * China’s recent, exponential scaling of solar deployment and its impacts, * Comparisons between the environmental impact of fossil fuels vs. renewables, * How oil execs and the Trump administration are irredeemably setting the U.S. back on energy policy and climate change, * The Vatican becoming the first country in the world to go 100% renewable, * And why every tenth of degree in global warming attenuation is critical. In this incredibly strange and frightening moment, where the president of the United States has stood in front of the rest of world at the UN assembly, calling climate change a “hoax” when the past ten years are the hottest on record [https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature], when natural disasters are happening with increased frequency and intensity across the globe [https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-what-the-new-ipcc-report-says-about-extreme-weather-and-climate-change/?utm_source=chatgpt.com], and when the scientific consensus overwhelmingly supports anthropogenic climate change [https://www.ipcc.ch/2021/08/09/ar6-wg1-20210809-pr/], it has never been more important to educate ourselves and resolutely move in the direction of the future that we want to create. McKibben is a beacon of hope in these dark times, inspiring us to move towards the light through resilience and collective action in the face of a government abandoning our right to a future. ----- If you liked today’s episode, please share it with someone else you know will enjoy it. Also, like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Purchase Here Comes the Sun [https://bookshop.org/p/books/here-comes-the-sun-a-last-chance-for-the-climate-and-a-fresh-chance-for-civilization-bill-mckibben/0e161349b252f687?ean=9781324106234&next=t] from a locally-owned bookstore near you. Thank you to Martin Voelker, Chair of the Jefferson County chapter of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society [https://www.cres-energy.org/], for allowing me to share his recording of the event, to Boulder Bookstore [https://boulderbookstore.net/] for organizing the talk, and Unity Center Boulder [https://unityofboulder.com/] for hosting the event. The music for this podcast is Siesta by Ikson, part of the “Tell Your Story” project—a library of free music for content creators. Visit ikson.com [https://www.ikson.com] to explore the full catalog.

Sacred Water Mountain Society: Dustin Freyta on Water Planting

Welcome to Science Matters Colorado. The podcast that explores the environmental issues shaping our beautiful state. I am your host, Alex Hippenhammer. Today I’m honored to share a deeply candid and illuminating conversation with Dustin Freyta, an Indigenous American and one of the leading voices at Sacred Water Mountain Society, based in Taos, New Mexico. Sacred Water Mountain Society is centered on the revitalization of an ancient Indigenous practice known as water planting—a sophisticated method of land and water stewardship that has largely disappeared from public awareness, though its physical traces remain hidden in plain sight across the landscape. Dustin brings not only extraordinary knowledge of Indigenous histories—including the often-overlooked legacy of slavery and oppression across the Americas—but also a personal story that is just as remarkable. From surviving the generational impacts of colonial marginalization, to a period of monastic solitude in the wilderness of Colorado, his path has been one of reclamation, resilience, and return. What emerges is a reimagining of his relationship with the natural world—one rooted in ancestral wisdom and lived through an unflinching commitment to land-based practices. This conversation is frank, sometimes unsettling, and always grounded in truth. Dustin does not claim to speak for any tribe or nation—his heritage includes Apache, Comanche, and Pueblo ancestry—but the insights he offers are the result of hard-earned experience and deep research. I’m grateful for his willingness to share them. Wherever you’re listening from, I hope this episode serves as a reminder of who the original stewards of this land are. For those of us in Colorado, that includes the Ute—specifically the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe—as well as the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Apache, Shoshone, Comanche, Kiowa, and Navajo peoples. There is much to learn—still—from those who have long held knowledge of how to live in balance with the land. I hope this conversation challenges, inspires, and calls you toward that deeper listening. Here is my conversation with Dustin Freyta. Links: Sacred Water Mountain Society [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083154467766] Outro If you enjoyed today’s episode, please like the show and follow wherever you get your podcasts. Special thanks to Ruth Massera for introducing me to Dustin and water planting. For additional features like video, you can find transcribed versions of this and future episodes at my personal Substack, Echoing Earth. The music for this podcast is Siesta by Ikson, part of the “Tell Your Story” project—a library of free music for content creators. Visit ikson.com [https://www.ikson.com] to explore the full catalog.

Beavers - Ruth Massera on Habitat Restoration

Today I am sharing a conversation with fire mitigation specialist and trained wildland firefighter Ruth Massera. Ruth works out of Crestone, Colorado for a nonprofit called E3KFM. Their work is centered around wildfire mitigation through regenerating healthy forests and restoring the watershed. A lot of Ruth’s work recently has been centered around an initiative to reintroduce beavers to the watershed. Additionally, they have been working with the Sacred Water Mountain Society out of Taos to learn the ancient indigenous practice of water planting.  This is a great episode for you if you are interested in ecological restoration, beavers and the impact of keystone species, wildfire mitigation, reciprocity, and indigenous land management practices. Regardless of what brought you here, this interview will leave you with plenty to chew on.  Links: E3KFM [https://www.e3ecologic.org/] Sacred Water Mountain Society [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083154467766] Outro If you enjoyed today’s episode, please like the show and follow wherever you get your podcasts. Special thanks to Lisa Wimberger for introducing me to Ruth for this episode. For additional features like video, you can find transcribed versions of this and future episodes at my personal Substack, Echoing Earth. The music for this podcast is Siesta by Ikson, part of the “Tell Your Story” project—a library of free music for content creators. Visit ikson.com [https://www.ikson.com] to explore the full catalog.

Solar Future - Dr. Jennifer Bousselot on Rooftop Agrivoltaics

It’s projected that by 2050, 7 out of 10 people in the world will live in urban areas, totaling 6 and half billion people. The ecological footprint of these cities will be vast, and the more we can do to make these areas self-sufficient, the more habitable the entire planet will be. Today’s guest offers a novel solution to this challenge. Inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the stratification of an old-growth forest, Dr. Jennifer Bousselot studies the benefits of combining solar panels with green roofs. This method - called agrivoltaics -  brings agriculture and photovoltaics together in a shared space. Growing food under the shade of solar panels has some surprising benefits, which are being revealed through research institutions like Colorado State University, where Dr. Bousselot serves as a professor of horticulture and landscape architecture. In her 2020 TED Talk [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pobj34HuHO8], Dr. Bousselot coined the term “rooftop agrivoltaics”, referring to an innovative approach that integrates solar panels with green roofs. I recently toured the rooftop agrivoltaics site at CSU Spur, one of several agrivoltaics projects that Dr. Bousselot oversees. Touring this site gave me a new perspective on how rooftops can be utilized to produce energy, grow food, manage stormwater, and cool our cities. This conversation is for anyone curious about renewable energy, urban agriculture, green roofs, or sustainable design. Whether you are just discovering agrivoltaics or are already invested in the intersection of energy and ecology, I think you will find this conversation illuminating. Please enjoy! ______ Episode Links: * CSU Spur Agrivoltaics [https://agsci.colostate.edu/agriculture-csu/agrivoltaics-innovation/] * NREL [https://www2.nrel.gov/solar/market-research-analysis/agrivoltaics] * Green Roofs for Healthy Cities [https://www.greenroofs.org/] * Journal of Living Architecture [https://greeninfrastructurefoundation.org/jliv] ______ If you enjoyed today’s episode, please like the show and follow wherever you get your podcasts. For additional features like video, you can find transcribed versions of this and future episodes at my personal Substack, Echoing Earth [https://substack.com/@ahippenhammer?r=1qt4mk&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page]. The music for this podcast is Siesta by Ikson, part of the “Tell Your Story” project—a library of free music for content creators. Visit ikson.com [https://www.ikson.com] to explore the full catalog.