Do you remember the Northern Spotted Owl, icon of the old-growth Redwood Wars of the 1990s? Well, the Northern Spotted Owl is, once again, under threat. This time, however, the threat comes from another species of owl, the Barred Owl, a larger and more aggressive bird native to the United States, whose range has been expanding westward as a result of development and climate change.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife has devised a plan to protect the Northern Spotted Owl: shoot Barred Owls. Scientists, conservationists and the public are torn: should humans intervene to prevent animal extinctions by competitors and invasive species if they threaten the survival of endemic ones, or should we let nature take its course? And since humans have intervened in nature for thousands of years, everyday and everywhere, what is the right thing to do? How can we decide?

Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a rerun of a 2024 conversation with Hugh Warwick, spokesperson for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, who has been looking into this dilemma around the world. He has just published Cull of the Wild: Killing in the Name of Conservation. Warwick is a frequent speaker on wildlife conservation in public talks and on British radio and TV. He also runs courses on hedgehog conservation.

Warwick with hedgehog photo © Zoe Broughton

Carbon is a boon and a bane. It is at the core of all life on Earth, past and present. In the atmosphere, carbon is what keeps the Earth’s temperature at tolerable levels. Yet, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are rising, raising global temperatures and disrupting climate and weather. California’s cap and trade system is one approach to controlling carbon emissions. But what is it? How does it work? And are there other ways to achieve the same objectives? Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation about cap and trade and how the resources it generates could be put to better use, with Dr. Barbara Haya, director of UC Berkeley’s Carbon Trading Project, and Stephen Lezak, a Visiting Fellow at BCTP.

Everyone is angry with California’s private utilities. Rates keep rising, the utilities lack accountability and they are running roughshod over small-scale renewable energy. Why make your customers so mad? Is that anger justified? And what are the utilities planning for the future? Join SN! host Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation with Loretta Lynch. Lynch was President of the California Public Utilities Commission from 2000 through 2002 and continued as a CPUC Commissioner until January 2005. Since then, she has been a strident advocate for the protection of ratepayers and against corruption in the utility industry, a role in which she continues today.