Thirty-four years ago, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established the annual “conferences of the parties,” known as COPs, where almost every nation on earth comes together to negotiate a solution to climate change. But this past November, for the first time ever, the United States did not send a delegation to COP, and this month, the Trump Administration announced its intention to withdraw from the UNFCCC entirely.

Lina Yassin has been to nine COPs, including the most recent, COP30, in Brazil. Originally from Sudan, Lina provides support for some of the world's poorest and most climate-vulnerable nations at these negotiations. She joins Amy to talk about what happened at this year’s conference, and why, despite the U.S. withdrawal, she believes it’s essential to keep this multilateral process alive.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Credits: Threshold Conversations is produced by Sam Moore. Our music is by Todd Sickafoose. Amy Martin is our host and executive producer.

Resources and Links:

Lina’s work at the International Institute for Environment and Development

Key outcomes of COP30 from Carbon Brief

Amy will be writing more about recent developments in climate diplomacy at her Substack, Letters to Earthlings

All over the world, small groups of complete strangers are getting together to share their feelings about climate. These gatherings are called Climate Cafes, and they’re carving out space for some big emotions we might prefer to avoid. But what if talking about our feelings can also help us address the climate crisis?

Audrey Martin is a Bay Area psychotherapist and one of the leaders of the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America. She also happens to be Amy Martin’s sister. Audrey joins us to unpack some of our complicated, scary emotions around climate, and to make the case for why this kind of self-reflection isn’t just comforting—it’s crucial.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Credits: Threshold Conversations is produced by Sam Moore. Our music is by Todd Sickafoose. Amy Martin is our host and executive producer.

Resources and Links:

Climate Psychology Alliance of North America

Last June, the U.S. the Secretary of Agriculture announced that the Trump administration intends to repeal something called the “Roadless Rule”—a policy implemented in 2001, which protected some of the Forest Service’s wildest lands from logging, mining, and road-building.

Author Ben Goldfarb examined the impacts of road and roadless areas in his 2023 book, Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet. We talk with Ben about why our Forest Service lands already have so many roads, and what building more would actually mean for wildlife and for people.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Credits: Threshold Conversations is produced by Sam Moore. Our music is by Todd Sickafoose. Amy Martin is our host and executive producer.

Resources and Links:

Ben’s book, “Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet” at W.W. Norton

To read more of Ben Goldfarb’s ecological writing, go to his website, bengoldfarb.com

A map of Forest Service Roadless Areas in the United States

The Forest Service website about Roadless Areas and the new rule

40 Years a Forester by Elers Koch

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In this final episode of Hark, we think about listening with Indigenous storytellers on three different continents—and we have one more encounter with those magical Shark Bay dolphins.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

New technologies like artificial intelligence have helped to accelerate and open up the entire world of bioacoustics, launching us into a new era of communication with the more-than-human world. In this episode, we explore the promise and perils of using AI in bioacoustics.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Humans have filled the world with so much noise that the only sounds many of us often hear  on a daily basis are  our own. But all this sound isn’t great for our planet mates and it isn’t great for us either. In this episode, we look at how human-made sound makes it hard for other creatures to listen and communicate.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Special thanks to:

Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve

Discovery of Sound in the Sea

Scripps Whale Acoustics Lab

Ships, Whales & Acoustics in Gitga’at Territory

These sounds were recorded in Gitga’at Territory and sourced from the Ships, Whales & Acoustics in Gitga'at Territory Project, a collaborative initiative of the Gitga’at Nation, North Coast Cetacean Society (BC Whales) and WWF-Canada.

Brian Miller, Australian Antarctic Division

NOAA

Lofoten-Vesterålen Ocean Observatory

Thank you to everyone who submitted frog sounds for this episode: Andrew Cronin, Aaron Jonah Lewis, Adrienne van Eeden-Wharton, Alan Burger, Barry Truax, Bess Samuel, Cliff Bahlinger, Craig Hemsath, Curt Newton, Dan Carreno, Diogo Matias, Dr. Paola Moscoso, Edward Ruchalski, Henry Koch, Indraneil Das/UNIMAS, Jenny Skopliak, Joel Watters, Judith Smit, Karthic SS, Klaartje Van Loy, Kriistina Ovaska, Lindsey Nielsen, Mara Altman, Nancy Pick, Natalie Smith, Pablo “Rana” Diserens, Paul Williams, Ren Fergusen, Tony Wobeter, Tracy Leung, Vincent Chanter, and group shoutout to everyone on the Acoustic Ecology listserve

Homo sapiens joined the story of life on Earth just 300,00 years ago.  So when and how did we start making music and creating languages? In this episode, we explore these signature sounds and discover how they just might be rooted in listening.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Elephants communicate through a variety of calls, trumpets, and rumbles. But despite being some of the largest land animals on Earth, elephants  can also be incredibly quiet. In this episode, we open our ears to  elephants and discover how listening may play a key role in saving them.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Modern humans emerged into a world filled with and shaped by elephants. But for elephants, living with humans isn’t always easy. Elephants have survived by adapting to all the changes we’re making to their world. But there’s only so much they can do. In this episode, we look at how we can learn to live with—and listen to—elephants.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Learn more:

Reteti: reteti.org

Longuro: reteti.org/blog/longuro-story

Shaba: amivitale.com/product/shaba

Sarara Foundation: sarara.co/foundation

More than 60 million years ago, an asteroid hit the Earth, wiping out almost all the dinosaurs. But one group made it through—the ancestors of birds. In this episode, we look at how these ancient creatures learned to listen and communicate, and how listening to birds has changed us.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Operation frog sound! Send us your frog sounds for an upcoming episode. We want you to go out, listen for frogs and toads, and record them. Just find someone croaking, and hit record on your phone. It doesn’t matter if there’s background noise. It doesn’t even matter if you’re not sure whether or not you’re hearing an amphibian—if you think you are, we would love to get a recording from you.

Please also say your name and where you are in the world, and then email the recording to us at [email protected]