NPR News - Environment

Oct. 1 is when new federal rules for sharing the Colorado River start. It's going to be messy and courts will likely have to weigh in.

Valar Atomics wants to place over 450 reactors on more than 9,500 acres in Utah to power a huge data center project.

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In May, a fire damaged 80% of the trees one of the only two naturally-occurring groves of Torrey Pines in the world. The National Park Service is trying to help them recover.

The Trump administration says easing these standards will make cars more affordable. Critics say it's not so simple and could be costly for the environment.

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A new field of study called "smoke ecology" strives to understand the smoke blowing off wildfires, and whether anything can be done to protect the environment's inhabitants from it.

Hurricane Nolo edged further away from the Hawaiian Islands on Sunday as major Hurricane Polo bore down on Mexico's Baja California peninsula with a threat of storm surge, high winds and heavy rains.

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Across the country, lost-and-found networks seek to reunite objects with disaster survivors. The work can take years. In some cases, it's impossible to pick up all the pieces.

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Southwestern Mexico braced for heavy rain and mudslides after Polo became a major hurricane. Forecasters warned another system headed for Hawaii could cause catastrophic flooding later in the week.

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Coral reefs are under threat right now, due to abnormally warm ocean temperatures. Scientists are studying some of the most pristine reefs in the world, in search of ways to help all reefs recover.

Hurricane Polo has grown into one of the most powerful Pacific cyclones in decades, and it was expected to skirt Mexico's southwestern coast as a Category 5 storm.

(Image credit: NOAA via AP)

Incendiamoeba cascadensis, which translates to "fire amoeba of the Cascade mountain range." This single-celled organism can replicate at temperatures up to 145°F, a new record for a complex organism.'/>

Scientists have found a species they've named the fire amoeba, which is capable of reproducing at 145°F and continuing to move up to temperatures of 147°F — a record for complex eukaryotic life.

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The U.S. gets nearly a third of its pork from Iowa. One family is making the switch from pigs to more sustainable specialty mushrooms and trying to show other pig farmers how they did it.

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A fisherman has the ultimate fishing tale: He spotted an adult humpback whale has in California's largest river. That's a rare sighting in those parts.

State officials say the new SpaceX site will be a $100 billion investment and launch thousands of rockets. Lawmakers helped ease regulations and negotiations were covered under nondisclosure agreements.

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Last year, remnants of a typhoon damaged homes, infrastructure and an archaeological dig site. Now, archaeologists are trying to get as many objects out as possible before the next storm.

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This year's single-elimination tournament will see 16 competitors face off, compared to 12 in past years. Officials report more cubs in Katmai National Park than they've seen in recent memory.

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A bacterial infection is wiping out Florida's citrus trees. Growers hope a rootstock developed with gene-editing technology could keep the disease at bay.

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No one across the U.S. is consistently tracking climate-fueled deaths. One medical examiner has a new protocol on heat-deaths.

(Image credit: Cassidy Araiza for NPR)

Gene technology is giving hope to citrus farmers in Florida who are fighting greening disease, which has been killing their trees for two decades.

Residents in Louisiana near SpaceX's next launch site are concerned about the project's impact on the environment and say they were kept in dark about the deal.