Colonial law helped shape modern deforestation. Legal historian Mariana Dias Paes explains how 19th-century property law, land dispossession, and colonial legal systems accelerated rainforest destruction in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and continue to influence environmental conflicts today. This episode of Green Frequency explores colonialism, Indigenous land rights, private property, environmental history, and the legal foundations behind modern climate and conservation crises across the Atlantic world, including the Amazon and Congo rainforests. Recorded live at The American University of Paris, the conversation connects legal history to present-day environmental governance, climate justice, and biodiversity loss. Full video version with presentation slides and maps available on YouTube.

Episode Guests: Dr. Mariana Dias Paes

Browse Dr. Dias Paes’ publications on Google Scholar

Explore the Pine Forest Media digital ecosystem on our website

Find the full-length video on YouTube @PineForestPods

Follow us on Social Media @pineforestmedia

Audio Editing by Clark Marchese, Video Editing by Madelyn Cho Weir

Videography and Set Design by Le Studio Du Passage

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

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Listen to Something in the Water on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

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We already understand many of the world’s biggest problems. So why are they still unsolved? A lot of the science is in. We know what is driving climate change, biodiversity loss, and pressure on global food systems. But knowledge alone does not create change. Somewhere between evidence and action, people have to make decisions. This episode explores that space.

Using food systems as a case study, this conversation looks at what happens when science, policy, and lived experience meet. It asks who gets to shape solutions, how decisions are actually made, and why simple answers often fall short.

Featuring Amanda Harding and Sarah Glavan of Convene, the discussion introduces the idea of deliberate dialogue. Carefully designed spaces where farmers, researchers, policymakers, and communities work through complex challenges together. Not by avoiding disagreement, but by working through it.

Across this conversation:

• Why scientific knowledge does not automatically translate into action
• How power, culture, and politics shape environmental decision making
• What science-policy-society interfaces actually look like in practice
• Why listening may be just as important as producing evidence

At the center of it all is a simple idea.

Science can help us understand the world.

But changing it requires something more human.

Episode Guests: Amanda Harding and Sarah Glavan

Visit the Convene Website to learn more about Deliberate Dialogue

Explore the Pine Forest Media digital ecosystem on our website

Find the full-length video on YouTube @PineForestPods

Follow us on Social Media @pineforestmedia

Hosted by Clark Marchese

Audio Editing by Clark Marchese, Video Editing by Oscar Padula

Videography and Set Design by Le Studio Du Passage

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Water is simple to drink, but complex to understand. Water is essential to life, yet 2 billion people lack reliable access to clean drinking water. At the same time, millions of tons of plastic waste come from single-use bottles each year. So what actually makes water “sustainable”? Environmental scientist and water sommelier Dr. Elena Berg uses drinking water as a case study to unpack the complexity of sustainability from water sources and mineral content to local infrastructure, plastic use, and global inequality. Learn why not all water is the same, how small-scale “water farmers” approach stewardship, and why simple good vs bad narratives can be misleading. A deeper look at sustainability, environmental decision-making, and the hidden systems behind everyday choices.

Episode Guest: Dr. Elena Berg

Listen to Something in the Water on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Explore the Pine Forest Media digital ecosystem on our website

Find the full-length video on YouTube @PineForestPods

Follow us on Social Media @pineforestmedia

Hosted by Clark Marchese

Audio Editing by Clark Marchese, Video Editing by Oscar Padula

Videography and Set Design by Le Studio Du Passage

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.