Green Frequency | Environmental Science & Earth Radio

What does it actually take to combat desertification? From satellites and sustainable land management to international negotiations, the world has a growing toolkit to address land degradation and drought. But putting those solutions into practice is another story.
In Part 2 of our coverage of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) COP17 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, we're moving from the problem to the solutions. Host Clark Marchese speaks with Dr. Tatenda Lemann of the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) at the University of Bern and WOCAT about the science of sustainable land management, the importance of local knowledge, and what makes restoration projects successful. Then, Dr. Pamela Chasek, Executive Editor of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, helps us unpack the politics of COP17, from international cooperation and financing to the negotiations that left countries divided over drought.
Along the way, we hear directly from delegates and officials at COP17 to explore how science, policy, and people come together to protect the land we depend on.
Because knowing what works is only half the battle. The other half is making it happen.

Further reading and resources:
WOCAT – Global Sustainable Land Management
Earth Negotiations Bulletin – IISD
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
Green Frequency is an Earth Radio Show from Pine Forest Media, exploring environmental science, conservation, and the global decisions shaping our planet.

Episode Guests: Dr. Tatenda Lemann and Dr. Pamela Chasek

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What is desertification, why is land degrading around the world, and what can Mongolia teach us about the causes? In Part 1 of Green Frequency’s coverage of UNCCD COP17 in Ulaanbaatar, host Clark Marchese explores the science and politics of land degradation, from the origins of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and Land Degradation Neutrality to the pressures facing Mongolia’s vast grasslands.
Featuring audio from inside COP17 and reporting from Mongolian journalist Turmunkh Gongorjav, the episode examines climate change, drought, overgrazing, mining, urbanization, coal and the growing demand for critical minerals. It also asks a deeper question: whose knowledge counts when governments decide why land is degrading?
From Fiji’s coastal farmland to Mongolia’s rangelands, this episode explores how land degradation looks different around the world, why local and Indigenous knowledge matters, and how the way we diagnose environmental problems shapes the solutions we pursue. Part 2 turns to sustainable land management, science and technology, finance, and the political outcomes of COP17.

Episode Guest: Turmunkh Gongorjav
Read Turmunkh Gongorjav’s article here
Interview translated and recorded by Nomin Byambatsogt

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Cover Art by Laurel Wong
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Find some more Pine Forest Media podcasts below
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Ocean technology cannot operate alone. Nicolas Pade, executive director of the European Marine Biological Resource Centre, joins Green Frequency to unpack five policy recommendations emerging from Blue Tech Europe 2026. We explore technological sovereignty, strategic procurement, collaboration between academia and industry, usable ocean data, market demand and the skills needed to sustain ocean-observation systems. Although developed for Europe, many of these questions apply wherever science must become lasting public infrastructure. And we ask what happens when what markets consider viable is not necessarily what society considers valuable.

This is a companion to the Oceanography episode, What Do We Need From Ocean Technology?

Episode Guest: Nicolas Pade

Visit the EMBRC website or follow the EMBRC on LinkedIn

Listen to Oceanography on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

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Cover Art by Laurel Wong
Theme music by Nela Ruiz
Find some more Pine Forest Media podcasts below

Listen to Oceanography on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
Listen to Plastic Podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
Listen to South Pole on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
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What happens behind the exhibits at a natural history museum? At Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand, millions of specimens form a scientific record stretching across species, ecosystems, and generations. In this episode of Green Frequency, Clark is joined by deep-sea researcher and curator of fishes Dr. Thom Linley to explore what those collections are actually for.
We find out why researchers sometimes need to borrow a shark, how curators decide what to preserve for scientists a hundred years from now, and how technologies like micro-CT scanning, hyperspectral imaging, and machine learning are changing what we can learn from specimens collected decades ago. Along the way, we encounter snailfish, bioluminescence, colossal squid, the world's friendliest "meat library," and a much bigger question: what does it mean for a museum to preserve the memory of a changing natural world?

Episode Guest: Dr. Thom Linley
Listen to the Deep Sea Podcast
And Dr. Linley’s episode on Oceanography, What is the Deep Sea Even Like?

Visit the Te Papa Tongewera Museum website
Review Dr. Linley’s publications on Google Scholar

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Cover Art by Laurel Wong
Theme music by Nela Ruiz
Find some more Pine Forest Media podcasts below

Listen to Oceanography on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
Listen to Plastic Podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
Listen to South Pole on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
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What would happen to coffee and cocoa if humans deliberately tried to cool the planet? Atmospheric scientist Dr. Nina Grant joins Green Frequency to explain stratospheric aerosol injection, or SAI, a proposed form of solar geoengineering that would introduce reflective particles into the upper atmosphere.

Drawing on climate and crop modeling for cocoa in Ghana and coffee in Brazil, Nina explains why lowering global temperatures may not be enough. In her modeled scenarios, SAI softened projected losses but did not return either crop to present-day yields. The conversation opens the black box of climate models, explores the importance of rainfall and agricultural management, and reveals how one planetary intervention could produce very different outcomes around the world.

It also confronts the much larger questions surrounding ozone loss, termination shock, climate justice, and governance. SAI would not remove carbon dioxide or replace phasing out fossil fuels. But as scientific and political interest grows, understanding what it could change, whom it might help, and who gets to decide is becoming a public question.

Episode Guest: Dr. Nina Grant
Read Dr. Grant’s dissertation and watch a short video explainer
Review Dr. Grant’s other publication on Google Scholar
Connect with Dr. Grant on LinkedIn or visit Dr. Grant’s website
Learn more about SAI at solargeo.org

Green Frequency Ep. 1: Climate change | Where are we now?

5 episode of Oceanography on marine climate intervention:

mCDR: Can the Ocean Store Our Carbon for Centuries?
Marine Cloud Brightening: Can Brighter Clouds Cool the Planet?
Stratospheric Aerosol Injection: Should We Reflect More Sunlight?
A Natural Experiment in the Sky: Shipping, Clouds, and Climate
Solar Geoengineering: Who Gets to Decide?

Explore the Pine Forest Media digital ecosystem on our website
Follow us on Social Media @pineforestmedia

Cover Art by Laurel Wong
Theme music by Nela Ruiz
Find some more Pine Forest Media podcasts below

Listen to Oceanography on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
Listen to Plastic Podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
Listen to South Pole on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
Listen to Something in the Water on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
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