Host Nadene Ghouri talks with Alisa Reznick about her latest episode for On Spec. For "Keeping the Colorado," Reznick traveled on the Colorado River in the southwestern US, and talked to people living in the area about what the river's drying up means for them.
The Colorado River runs through seven US states and crosses into Mexico, helping sustain 40 million people living along its banks and far beyond. It’s been dammed 15 times, part of an effort to capture its waters for the people living along its banks. But the Colorado is drying up, and communities along the river will soon face cuts in their allotted shares, part of a complex treaty between Mexico and the US on how to distribute the water. Alisa Reznick, a journalist from Arizona, travels along the river and speaks with the communities, business owners, and everyday people dependent on the flow.
Some of the world’s most active climate deniers reside in the United States. Arkansas suffers from flooding and is one of the conservative red states where many farmers, who have the most to benefit from green policies, are actually voting against their best interests because of disinformation. Arkansas native and journalist Alice Driver introduces an organic farmer, who’s a climate activist, to a state senator, a climate change skeptic who also happens to be her neighbor, to see if they can find common ground.
As protesters once again take to the streets of Baghdad, we take a step back to examine whether climate change has a hand in the political crisis in Iraq. Shawn Carrié brings you a story through the eyes of activists that grounds the climate crisis — by transporting you to Iraq, where a water shortage led to massive protests in a country still reeling from war — and those protests brought down the government.
