NPR News - Environment

The regal fritillary butterfly has largely disappeared from the East Coast, save for a surprising refuge on a military base in Pennsylvania. A few days each summer, hundreds descend for a tour.

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Yet-Ming Chiang, professor of materials science and engineering at MIT, about why new battery technology is key to cutting carbon emissions and slowing climate change.

He was out. Now he's in.

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A large part of the country has been hit with a punishing heat wave. A visit to a suburban parking lot shows more vegetation would help metropolitan areas stay cooler.

NPR's Sarah McCammon speaks with environmental advocate Ben Lecomte, who is swimming through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Hurricane Barry last weekend was just the latest to batter Louisiana's coast. The state is trying to preserve some traditions before they disappear.

Clean water activists are leveraging their state's crucial position in the presidential primaries to get candidates to take up their issue.

The president's reelection campaign is selling reusable and recycled straws in its 2020 online store, because, it says, "Liberal paper straws don't work."

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Native Hawaiian activists are protesting to prevent the construction of the world's largest telescope on Hawaii's tallest mountain. Now, authorities appear poised to break up the protests.

Scientists at four leading universities have seen their soybean experiments injured by a stealthy vandal: drifting fumes from a weedkiller called dicamba, now popular among farmers.

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The National Weather Service warns a widespread and dangerous heat wave is building in the central and eastern U.S. How should people think about these kinds of events in the era of climate change?

Chemical experts say recent refinery explosions could have been far more devastating if deadly hydrogen fluoride was released. Some are calling for a ban on the chemical.

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Reservoirs are dry in India's sixth biggest city. Municipal taps work only a few hours a day. Trains are delivering emergency water supplies.

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By the turn of the 20th century, America's love affair with diamondback terrapin soup — a subsistence food turned gourmet fare — had left the turtle's population teetering. Booze ban to the rescue.

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There's already not enough produce for everyone in the world to get the daily recommended amount. Two new studies urge revamping the food system to feed the growing population and protect the planet.

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The mandatory move imposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on most of the workers at two vital research agencies has been criticized as a "blatant attack on science."

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A new study from the Florida Keys shows that a lot of the stress on corals comes from local sources, providing hope that community action can help save them.

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The shipping industry is starting to move away from pollutant-intensive heavy fuel oil. Scientists and private companies are betting on a clean replacement technology: hydrogen fuel cells.

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Frustrated with federal inaction, states such as New Hampshire, are taking their own measures against a class of pollutants known as "forever chemicals"

Maersk, the world's largest container shipping company, has set a massive goal for itself: going carbon neutral by 2050. This would be good for the world. But how would it be good for the bottom line?

(Image credit: David Hecker/Getty Images)