NPR News - Environment
Trump picks former Rep. Lee Zeldin to be his EPA administrator
President-elect Donald Trump said the New York Republican would help push deregulation and support American businesses. Environmental groups decried the nomination.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla)
Trump's reelection casts a shadow over the start of global climate negotiations
Trump's return to the White House raises questions about whether the country will continue working on global climate initiatives.
(Image credit: Sergei Grits)
'How Wild' podcast explores the history of the wilderness and its future
A new podcast from KALW, explores the history of wilderness and its future.
Scientists try to repopulate shorelines with an endangered snail
On a rare undeveloped point of the California coast, scientists are trying to repopulate shorelines with an endangered marine snail. This type of experimental conservation is becoming more necessary. This story first aired on All Things Considered on November 7, 2024.
Scientists try to repopulate shorelines with an endangered snail
On a rare undeveloped point of the California coast, scientists are trying to repopulate shorelines with an endangered marine snail. This type of experimental conservation is becoming more necessary.
Trump’s victory promises to shake up U.S. energy and climate policy, analysts and activists say
Despite Donald Trump’s focus on fossil fuels, his return to the White House won’t derail clean energy, analysts and activists say.
(Image credit: Evan Vucci)
Communities in the Amazon struggle amid the second year of a devastating drought
A prolonged drought, now in its second year, is devastating large swaths of Brazil's Amazon rainforest. Whole communities and the Amazon’s largest city are struggling under the parched conditions.
At the U.N.'s global biodiversity convention, nations pledge to reverse deforestation
A recent biodiversity meeting acknowledged the serious problem of deforestation while a new report on global environmental threats to trees offered a startling estimate.
An Ecological Disaster in the Past and One in the Making
We go to the borders between Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan to see the dried up shores of what was once one of the largest lakes in the world, the Aral Sea. Mismanagement of the rivers that fed the sea because of demand for irrigation in the dry region, caused the Aral Sea to slowly disappear. And now an irrigation project being undertaken by the Taliban government in Afghanistan threatens to disrupt the ecological and economic balance of one of the main sources of water in the region.
Unprecedented flooding in Spain kills at least 158 people
Crews in Spain searched for bodies in stranded cars and sodden buildings as people tried to salvage what they could from homes following monstrous flash floods.
(Image credit: Alberto Saiz)
Central Asia’s Ticking Time Bomb: Water
The Aral Sea has nearly disappeared over the last 60 years. Now, its source rivers are depleting.
(Image credit: Claire Harbage)
A wastewater recycling program could be a model for regions where water is scarce
The Orange County Water District's wastewater recycling program uses ponds, manmade waterfalls and technology to keep wells from running dry -- a model for other regions facing water scarcity.
The story of a village in Kazakhstan that sits on the Aral Sea's shrinking shores
Once one of the worlds largest inland lakes, Asia's Aral Sea has evaporated into desert, dried by Soviet era irrigation plans. One village in Kazakhstan sits on the shrinking shores of the Aral Sea.
A small, silver lining to the Colorado River drought
Land re-emerging from dried out reservoirs seems to be thriving with native plants. They're out-competing invasive weeds that are choking the river elsewhere.
The small team caring for some of the last of Hawaii's native snail species
More than a million species are at risk of extinction, many within decades, because of human actions. Among them? The kāhuli, Hawaii's native tree snails that are some of the most endangered animals on the planet. At one point, there used to be about 750 species of snails in Hawaii — almost all of them found nowhere else. Now, they are rapidly disappearing. NPR climate reporters Lauren Sommer and Ryan Kellman join host Emily Kwong to tell the story of the small team caring for the last of some of these snail species — and their fight against extinction.
Read more of Lauren and Ryan's reporting.
Curious about other biodiversity news? Email us at shortwave@npr.org and we might cover your topic on a future episode!
Are biodiversity efforts keeping up with the effects of climate change?
This week and next, world leaders are gathering in Colombia for the 16th United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity to check up on their collective progress in slowing biodiversity loss.
Can they successfully turn those plans into action against what the United Nations is calling "humanity's senseless and suicidal war with nature?"
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(Image credit: LARS HAGBERG)
A ship will set one more record when it becomes the world's largest artificial reef
The SS United States, the fastest ocean liner to ever cross the Atlantic, is preparing for one final voyage. Then it'll be sunk and turned into the world's largest artificial reef.
North Carolina government calculates Hurricane Helene damages, needs at least $53B
The estimate includes damages and potential investments to prevent similar destruction in future storms.
(Image credit: Mike Stewart)
Dengue fever is rare in L.A. That could start to change because of climate change
Several people caught dengue fever locally in Los Angeles this fall. Climate change and invasive mosquitoes have made that possible, experts say.
(Image credit: John Moore)
The Greek island paradise of Amorgos is wrestling with a water shortage
Most visitors to Greece's Amorgos don’t know though is that on the island itself, water for household use and irrigating crops is far from abundant. Farmers are struggling to grow crops.