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Why home insurance is unaffordable, even in places without wildfires or hurricanes

NPR News - Environment - Thu, 2025/11/13 - 3:30am

Some of the country's highest home insurance prices are in the central U.S., a region generally considered to be protected from climate-driven disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes.

(Image credit: Rebecca Hersher)

Categories: Environment

It's harder to get home insurance. That's changing communities across the U.S.

NPR News - Environment - Wed, 2025/11/12 - 3:30am

Home insurance is getting less affordable, and less available, as insurers raise prices and pull back from areas with extreme weather. That's forcing families across the country to make tough choices.

(Image credit: Ryan Kellman)

Categories: Environment

States renegotiate their share of the Colorado River without federal intervention

NPR News - Environment - Thu, 2025/11/06 - 2:51pm

The Trump administration is using different tactics that his predecessor to get the states the share the Colorado river to agree how to do it in a climate changed world.

Categories: Environment

Why do only some leaves turn red in the fall? Scientists can't agree on an answer

NPR News - Environment - Wed, 2025/11/05 - 10:03am

The red pigments in some fall leaves have proven to be a puzzle for researchers who debate why leaves bother to go red.

(Image credit: Charlie Riedel)

Categories: Environment

California euthanizes 4 gray wolves after 'unprecedented' surge in livestock kills

NPR News - Environment - Sun, 2025/10/26 - 3:37pm

California wildlife officials have been working to mitigate the impact of the state's rebounding wolf population on its ranchers. The Northern California wolves that were euthanized had become dependent on cattle for food.

Categories: Environment

A Virginia vineyard finds a creative way to battle the spotted lanternfly invasion

NPR News - Environment - Sun, 2025/10/26 - 2:48pm

A vineyard in Virginia has turned pest control into a pastime, arming visitors with electric fly swatters to protect its vines from lanternflies. Randi B. Hagi with member station WMRA reports on its fly swatting competition.

Categories: Environment

Coffee-driven deforestation is making it harder to grow coffee, watchdog group says

NPR News - Environment - Fri, 2025/10/24 - 12:13pm

In Brazil's coffee-producing areas, more than 42,000 square miles of forest have disappeared over about two decades, says Coffee Watch. Deforestation leads to drought, which harms crop yields.

(Image credit: Evaristo Sa)

Categories: Environment

Trump administration pushes ahead with Alaska wildlife refuge oil and gas drilling

NPR News - Environment - Fri, 2025/10/24 - 12:39am

The Trump administration plans to offer parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska for oil and gas drilling. It's part of a larger effort to advance controversial projects in the state that were blocked by the Biden administration.

Categories: Environment

Trump administration finalizes plan to open pristine Alaska wildlife refuge to oil and gas drilling

NPR News - Environment - Thu, 2025/10/23 - 9:26pm

The Trump administration has finalized a plan to open the coastal plain of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, renewing long-simmering debate over whether to drill in one of the nation's most sensitive wilderness areas.

(Image credit: Lindsey Wasson)

Categories: Environment

Nearly 120 million people in US exposed to unhealthy levels of soot and smog – report

Guardian Environment News - Tue, 2023/04/18 - 9:01pm

American Lung Association’s study also found great disparity between coasts, with 10 of 11 most polluted counties in California

The climate crisis has upended progress on improving air quality, with one in three Americans currently living in areas with harmful levels of pollutants known to increase the risk of medical emergencies, pregnancy complications and premature death, new research reveals.

Almost 120 million people in the US are still exposed to unhealthy levels of soot and smog, according to the annual report by the American Lung Association (ALA), which found that people of color are almost four times more likely to live in the most polluted places than white Americans.

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Categories: Environment

Beetaloo Basin inquiry calls for national plan to offset vast emissions expected from gas projects

Guardian Environment News - Tue, 2023/04/18 - 8:54pm

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says Labor support for recommendations is a ‘huge blow’ to companies trying to frack in the NT

An inquiry into major plans to exploit gas in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin has recommended the federal government commit to a national plan to offset the vast emissions the project is expected to release.

The former government made gas exploration in the Beetaloo Basin a central tenet of its plans for recovering from the Covid pandemic, using grants and tax breaks to incentivise gas corporates to begin work in the region. The basin covers about 28,000 sq km south-east of Katherine and is thought to contain huge reserves of shale gas.

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Categories: Environment

Humpbacks spotted having whale of a time at underwater ‘day spa’ off Gold Coast

Guardian Environment News - Tue, 2023/04/18 - 6:35pm

Griffith University researcher captures video of five whales doing ‘bizarre rolls’ on the sea floor as they exfoliate and socialise

Whales have been caught on camera enjoying a marine version of a day spa, returning to their favourite spot off the Gold Coast to scratch off itchy skin and parasites, and catch up with their cetacean buddies.

Griffith University whale researcher Dr Olaf Meynecke and his colleagues were trying to shed light on the behaviour of competing pods of humpbacks that use Gold Coast waters to rest, breed and socialise.

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Categories: Environment

'Full of life': scientists discover pristine deep-sea Galapagos coral reefs – video

Guardian Environment News - Tue, 2023/04/18 - 10:11am

Scientists operating a submersible have discovered deep-sea coral reefs in pristine condition in a previously unexplored part of the Galapagos marine reserve. Diving to depths of 600 metres (1,970ft), to the summit of a previously unmapped seamount in the central part of the archipelago, the scientists witnessed a breathtaking mix of deep marine life. This has raised hopes that healthy reefs can still thrive at a time when coral is in crisis due to record sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification

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Categories: Environment

Campaigners urge action over carbon footprint of disposable nappies

Guardian Environment News - Tue, 2023/04/18 - 9:00am

Reusables have 25% less global heating potential, finds UK government report, but overall picture is mixed

Environmental campaigners are calling on the UK government to take action after new analysis found a significant difference between the carbon footprints of washable and disposable nappies.

Reusable nappies have 25% less global heating potential compared with single-use nappies, according to a report commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

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Categories: Environment

Scientists discover pristine deep-sea Galápagos reef ‘teeming with life’

Guardian Environment News - Tue, 2023/04/18 - 4:54am

Diving to 600m, researchers find reefs full of octopus, lobster and fish, raising hopes for corals’ survival amid rising sea temperatures

Scientists operating a submersible have discovered deep-sea coral reefs in pristine condition in a previously unexplored part of the Galápagos marine reserve.

Diving to depths of 600 metres (1,970ft), to the summit of a previously unmapped seamount in the central part of the archipelago, the scientists witnessed a breathtaking mix of deep marine life. This has raised hopes that healthy reefs can still thrive at a time when coral is in crisis due to record sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification. It also showed the effectiveness of conservation actions and effective management, they said.

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Categories: Environment

Dig in: how to build a forest from scratch – in pictures

Guardian Environment News - Mon, 2023/04/17 - 11:30pm

The Bristol-based charity Forest of Avon Trust has recently acquired 100 acres of grazed farmland near the village of Pensford in Somerset, to create the Great Avon Wood. Alongside charity partners Avon Needs Trees, the aim is to plant more than 40,000 trees supplied by the Woodland Trust over the next three years, resulting in a green corridor of three linked woodland sites. The first step is an army of volunteers …

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Categories: Environment

Colorado River snaking through Grand Canyon most endangered US waterway – report

Guardian Environment News - Mon, 2023/04/17 - 9:01pm

Unique ecosystem on the brink of collapse due to climate crisis and mismanagement, says conservation group American Rivers

A 277-mile stretch of the Colorado River that snakes through the iconic Grand Canyon is America’s most endangered waterway, a new report has found.

The unique ecosystem and cultural heritage of the Grand Canyon is on the brink of collapse due to prolonged drought, rising temperatures and outdated river management, according to American Rivers, the conservation group that compiles the annual endangered list.

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Categories: Environment

Japan’s ‘toxic’ dolphin meat contains mercury up to 100 times safe level, test shows

Guardian Environment News - Mon, 2023/04/17 - 6:17pm

Exclusive: Conservation group Action for Dolphins has lodged a complaint with police, demanding the meat be removed from sale

Marine conservation campaigners have lodged a complaint with police demanding that “toxic” dolphin meat be removed from sale in Japan, after a test showed a sample contained levels of mercury up to 100 times higher than the government’s recommended safe level.

Action for Dolphins (AFD), a nonprofit based in Australia, filed the complaint with police in central Japan this month, amid expert warnings that regular consumption of dolphin meat could threaten the health of consumers.

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Categories: Environment

Lords amendment to energy bill may stop new coalmines in England

Guardian Environment News - Mon, 2023/04/17 - 1:00pm

Change to bill says opening and licensing of new coalmines by the Coal Authority to be prohibited

An amendment to the energy bill currently going through the House of Lords means that it will not be possible to open a new coalmine in England.

The amendment may still be reversed in the House of Commons, but it marks the growing frustration of politicians as they press the government to move faster and harder on the climate crisis.

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Categories: Environment

World snooker championship disrupted by Just Stop Oil protesters in Sheffield

Guardian Environment News - Mon, 2023/04/17 - 12:02pm
  • First-round matches held up by graphic powder protest
  • Government urged to ‘stop all new UK fossil fuel projects’

The World Snooker Championship is the latest high-profile sporting event to be disrupted by protestors after a Just Stop Oil activist poured a packet of orange powder paint over a table on Monday evening, forcing a 24-hour suspension in the match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry.

Milkins was 11-0 up in the early stages of the opening frame when a man suddenly ran out of the crowd, jumped on to the table and began emptying the powder. It took 12 seconds for two security guards to get down the stairs of the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, and bundle the activist away, but the damage had long been done.

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Categories: Environment
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