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Pregnant stingray Charlotte brings in traffic, business to North Carolina town

NPR News - Environment - Mon, 2024/03/18 - 1:57pm

Charlotte the stingray in a small North Carolina aquarium has been attracting visitors since she got pregnant without a mate. Businesses in Hendersonville are delighted by the influx.

Categories: Environment

Taxpayers subsidize plastics plants that violate pollution standards, report says

NPR News - Environment - Mon, 2024/03/18 - 2:07am

Shell's plastics plant outside Pittsburgh, which was built with over a billion dollars in tax credits from the state, has violated clean air laws 19 times since it began operating two years ago.

Categories: Environment

The U.S. Coast Guard's new system reduces the number of whales hit by vessels

NPR News - Environment - Sun, 2024/03/17 - 5:19am

The U.S. Coast Guard has developed a new system to try to reduce the number whales hit by vessels. It's trying it out in the waters in and around Seattle.

Categories: Environment

A volcano in Iceland is erupting for the fourth time in 3 months

NPR News - Environment - Sun, 2024/03/17 - 3:08am

A volcano in Iceland erupted Saturday evening for the fourth time in three months, sending orange jets of lava into the night sky.

Categories: Environment

Ecuadorian Indigenous Women on why they march

NPR News - Environment - Sat, 2024/03/16 - 9:31am

Women from different Indigenous nationalities traveled from their territories to Puyo, Ecuador on March 8 to march through the city's streets as they do every year on International Women's Day

Categories: Environment

Razones por la que mujeres indígenas Ecuatorianas marchan en 8M

NPR News - Environment - Sat, 2024/03/16 - 9:30am

Mujeres de diferentes nacionalidades indígenas viajaron desde sus territorios a Puyo, Ecuador, para marchar por las calles de la ciudad como lo hacen cada año en el Día Internacional de la Mujer.

Categories: Environment

Daniel Lewis explored the roles of different trees play his new book, 'Twelve Trees'

NPR News - Environment - Thu, 2024/03/14 - 3:23pm

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with writer Daniel Lewis about his new book, Twelve Trees, which zeroes in on a different tree species in each chapter.

Categories: Environment

After the fires, a Maui community tries a novel approach to keep homes in local hands

NPR News - Environment - Thu, 2024/03/14 - 2:01am

As burned properties come up for sale in Lahaina, many worry outside developers will scoop them up. Some are turning to a tool that's helped other towns after a disaster: a community land trust.

(Image credit: Ryan Kellman)

Categories: Environment

Oil and gas companies emit more climate-warming methane than EPA reports

NPR News - Environment - Wed, 2024/03/13 - 9:02am

Oil and gas drillers are releasing more climate-warming methane than the government estimates, a new study shows.

(Image credit: David Goldman)

Categories: Environment

This often-overlooked sea creature may be quietly protecting the planet's coral reefs

NPR News - Environment - Wed, 2024/03/13 - 2:00am
Acropora pulchra) appeared to benefit from the presence of sea cucumbers (Holothuria atra), a new study finds.'/>

The pickle-shaped bottom feeders may reduce the amount of microbes on the seafloor that could potentially sicken coral, scientists suggest

(Image credit: Terry Moore)

Categories: Environment

How sea cucumbers act as little allies for disappearing coral reefs

NPR News - Environment - Tue, 2024/03/12 - 2:47pm

The words "coral reef" evoke a riot of color and life. But the ecosystem's disappearing. Now, new evidence points to an ally for the coral reef: a little creature called the sea cucumber.

Categories: Environment

Old power lines plus climate change mean a growing risk of utilities starting fires

NPR News - Environment - Tue, 2024/03/12 - 3:23am

Texas investigators say the largest wildfire in state history appears to be caused by a power line. Aging utility infrastructure ups the risk of starting wildfires as the climate heats up.

(Image credit: Scott Olson)

Categories: Environment

Pee-cycling could help to solve Cape Cod's wastewater problem

NPR News - Environment - Tue, 2024/03/12 - 2:14am

In Massachusetts, many of Cape Cod's iconic beaches and ponds are polluted with wastewater leaching from septic systems. Recycling that waste could be an affordable fix.

Categories: Environment

Probe finds that the largest wildfire in Texas history was 'ignited by power lines'

NPR News - Environment - Mon, 2024/03/11 - 3:54pm

The U.S. faces a dangerous combination of aging utility infrastructure and rising wildfire risk because of global warming. Experts say many utilities aren't employing solutions to reduce the threat.

Categories: Environment

Farmers accused of drying up the imperiled Great Salt Lake say they can help save it

NPR News - Environment - Mon, 2024/03/11 - 9:19am

Environmentalists are suing Utah to force water cutbacks to farmers to save the Great Salt Lake. Farmers call the blame unfair and say that would have its own environmental and economic consequences.

Categories: Environment

U.S. has warmest winter on record – and no, that's not a good thing

NPR News - Environment - Sat, 2024/03/09 - 4:01am

From lack of snow to wildfires, a record-warm winter had impacts across the country. Scientists say winters are warming faster than any other season in the U.S.

(Image credit: Scott Olson)

Categories: Environment

As a deadline approaches, Colorado River states are still far apart on water sharing

NPR News - Environment - Fri, 2024/03/08 - 1:45pm

Ahead of a deadline next week, the seven states that share the Colorado River have revealed competing plans for how the river should be managed in the future.

(Image credit: Alex Hager)

Categories: Environment

Mexico City's long-running water problems are getting even worse

NPR News - Environment - Fri, 2024/03/08 - 3:00am

Reservoirs that furnish a large part of the Mexican capital have fallen to historic lows, as low rainfall, climate change and mismanagement exacerbate the problem.

Categories: Environment

Generations After The First Nuclear Test, Those Sickened Fight For Compensation

NPR News - Environment - Thu, 2024/03/07 - 3:15pm

On August 6, 1945, a stone-faced President Harry Truman appeared on television and told Americans about the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima.

The attack on Hiroshima marked the first time nuclear power was used in war, but the atomic bomb was actually tested a month earlier in the Jornada del Muerto desert of New Mexico.

At least hundreds of New Mexicans were harmed by the test's fallout. Radiation creeped into the grass their cows grazed, on the food they ate, and the water they drank.

A program compensating victims of government-caused nuclear contamination has been in place since 1990, but it never included downwinders in New Mexico, the site of the very first nuclear test.

This week, the Senate voted to broaden the bi-partisan legislation that could compensate people who have suffered health consequences of radiation testing. Now, the bill will go to a House vote.

Generations after the Trinity Nuclear Test, will downwinders in New Mexico finally get compensation?

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(Image credit: VALERIE MACON)

Categories: Environment

A stingray named Charlotte got pregnant — exactly how remains a mystery

NPR News - Environment - Thu, 2024/03/07 - 2:19pm

The world is waiting for a stingray to give birth in the small town of Hendersonville, N.C. That's because it's not clear how she got pregrant, as there's no other stingray in the aquarium.

Categories: Environment
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