This week on Earth Beat: breathable cities. From smoke in Moscow to a greener Mexico City and pollution-absorbing roads, we look at the air we breathe and some green commuting ideas.

Listen to the whole show below.

BREATHABLE CITIES

Extreme summer weather
Many parts of the globe have experienced a series of meteorological catastrophes that have dominated the world's headlines. Marnie speaks with Simon Worral about the aftermath of flooding in Pakistan, and with Jessica Golloher about the smoke from forest fires surrounding Moscow.

Listen to an interview with Simon Worral

Hear reporter Jessica Golloher about the hot summer in Moscow

So why is it happening?
Marnie asks scientists Kevin Trenberth and Stefan Rahmstorf whether we can blame climate change for this year’s unusual weather patterns.

Kevin Trenberth on cause and effect

Stefan Rahmstorf offers his opinion

Envirominute
Mexico City is legendary for its smog, but in recent years has introduced a number of environmental measures. Here’s a 60-second round-up of them.

Listen to the envirominute

Growing up in the smog
Leopoldo Kram Schoen grew up in Mexico City, and remembers it when it was clean, then dirty, then clean again. He speaks to Marnie about how the smog affected him, and the differences with New York city, where he lived for 10 years.

Listen to Leopoldo Kram Schoen

GETTING THERE THE GREEN WAY

Walking the walk
Sometimes the journey is as important as – if not more important than – the destination. Gill Stoker-Lavelle, a Toronto resident, walked from the French Pyrenees to the west coast of Spain on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. She talks to Marnie about how it changed her life when she got home.

Hear Gill talk the walk

A pollution-absorbing road
Nitrogen Oxide, the toxic exhaust gas, is responsible for acid rain, smog, and diseases of the respiratory system. But civil engineer Götz Hüsken and Professor Jos Brouwers of Eindhoven Technical University have invented a road brick which absorbs it. Earth Beat reporter Thijs Westerbeek paid them a visit.

Listen to the report

Commuter Energy
One day, your very presence in the train station may be helping a worthy cause - that of producing energy. Since April the 200,000 commuters flooding daily through Stockholm’s Central Station generate enough heat to partially heat the 13-storey office block next door. Marnie speaks to project director Karl Sundholm.

Listen to the conversation

NEXT WEEK ON EARTH BEAT

Water, water everywhere… or is it?
“I seem to recall that the borderline for water poverty is a thousand cubic metres per person, and Jordan is on average a hundred and fifty cubic metres.”
…..that’s in the next edition of Earth Beat from Radio Netherlands Worldwide.