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Ashley Ahearn

Ashley Ahearn is the host of the podcast Terrestrial, produced out of KUOW in Seattle. She also rides vintage motorcycles, snowboards, and hikes in the Pacific Northwest.

Ashley Ahearn is the host of terrestrial, a national podcast on the environment, produced out of KUOW in Seattle. Ashley brings more than a decade of experience covering the environment at the local and national level. Her stories have appeared on Marketplace, Morning Edition, Here and Now, The World and other NPR and PRI shows.  She holds a masters in science journalism from the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California. Check out terrestrial at: http://kuow.org/terrestrial

“I don't want to have to do this,” Victoria Barrett says. “It's just I feel like it obviously needs to be done. It's frustrating... Sometimes I feel like people my age are fighting the hardest when we didn't even start this in the first place."

This 18-year-old from New York is suing the Trump administration over climate change

Global Politics

When it comes to setting climate change policy in the US, kids don’t have much of a voice because they can’t vote. But they can go to court. So a group of 21 young people are suing the Trump Administration for failing to adequately tackle the climate crisis.

Dave Rank was the top US diplomat in China when President Trump announced he would pull the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement. His refusal to help implement that decision ended his 27 years in the foreign service.

How climate change and Donald Trump brought an end to this diplomat’s career

Global Politics
Orca leaping

Calling over boat noise is making endangered orcas hungrier

Environment
Easton Glacier, Mount Baker

How will the Pacific Northwest change when its glaciers are gone?

Environment

Calling Over Boat Noise Is Making Orcas Hungry

Scott Pattee, a water supply specialist with the National Resources Conservation Service, checks snow levels at Stevens Pass ski resort in Washington's Cascade Mountains.

Record-low snowpack in Pacific Northwest could be ‘dress rehearsal’ for climate change

Environment

Low levels of snow melt in California and the Pacific Northwest could be harbinger of things to come, but one expert says the silver lining is that it gives officials a way to examine and prepare for global warming.

What a Record-Low Snowpack Means for Summer in the Northwest

Snowpack is important for summer life in the Northwestin the winter, it accumulates on mountaintops and as temperatures rise, snowmelt recharges water systems and generates hydropower throughout the region. This year, snowpacks are at record lows and many fear that this supply wont be enough to last throughout the drought season. But as EarthFixs Ashley Ahearn reports, its not time to hit the panic button just yet.

Hormone Disruptors Linked to Genital Changes and Sexual Preference

Scientists continue to sound the alarm about some chemical exposures that may effect reproductive health and development. The endocrine disrupting chemical, atrazine has been found to feminize male frogs and is linked to an increased incidence of homosexual behavior.

Climate Change & Pacific Northwest Glaciers

Glaciers set the Pacific Northwest apart and are essential for the regions drinking water, hydropower and salmon survival. But as EarthFixs Ashley Ahearn reports, disappearing glaciers make the region uniquely vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Scientists with the US Geological Survey gather samples near coal train tracks in the Columbia Gorge near Washougal, Washington. Little research has been done on how coal interacts with the environment.

Scientists dig into booming coal exports and their effects on wetlands

Environment

While the US is using less coal than we have in the past, we plan to export more coal to Asia. That means transporting it by trains, as we’ve done for decades. But there’s very little research on the effects coal has on the environment when it escapes from coal hoppers bumping along the rails.