NPR News - Environment

The fossil fuel industry has a huge voice in this year's climate talks. But what are oil companies actually saying? And why does it matter? We break down their statements into plain English.

One of the strictest plans was announced at Mount Rushmore and Badlands National Park, where tour flights will be banned from getting within a half mile of the South Dakota sites starting in April.

(Image credit: David Zalubowski/AP file photo)

For decades, government scientists have toiled away trying to make nuclear fusion work. Will commercial companies sprint to the finish?

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Advocates say human-driven climate change is hurting people's health worldwide–but taking action like reducing reliance on fossil fuels lowers risks immediately.

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Colorado's booming urban population flipped the state from red to blue, allowing a referendum on reintroducing wolves to pass. But that growing population now may be too big for them to thrive.

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The Indigenous Achuar people in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest sail in six solar-powered canoes. And it's not just to save money on fuel — the trees of the rainforest will benefit too.

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New EPA rules require oil and gas companies to slash climate-changing methane from their operations.

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"It's a trillion tons of ice," as one expert told NPR. Now the largest iceberg in the world, A23a, is on the move after decades of being grounded on the seafloor.

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NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Flint resident Melissa Mays, a clean water activist, about the EPA's proposed rule that most U.S. cities will have to replace lead water pipes within the next 10 years.

A historic agreement at the international climate talks will provide hundreds of millions of dollars for developing countries. It's nowhere near enough.

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The United States looms large at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. Historically, it's responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than any other nation. But it's also key for major breakthroughs.

(Image credit: William Vasta/The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands)

Under the Biden Administration's new guidance, most U.S. cities would have to replace lead pipes within the next 10 years. About 9 million lead pipes are still bringing water into American buildings.

Most cities would have to replace lead water pipes within 10 years under new rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency aimed to prevent like the ones in Flint, Mich. and Washington, D.C.

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Many countries in East Africa have gone from drought to deluge, and the rains aren't over yet.

After the U.S. lifted its sanctions, Venezuela is trying to revive its beleaguered oil industry. But ramping up production is causing more oil spills.

(Image credit: John Otis for NPR)

The North American wolverine would receive threatened species protections under a Biden administration proposal. Warming temperatures are expected to shrink the mountain snowpack wolverines rely on.

(Image credit: Chris Stermer/California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP, File)

Climate science shows that beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, impacts in the U.S. get substantially worse. The world is on track for almost double that level of warming by the end of the century.

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Venezuelans attempt to tackle the massive oil slicks that are clogging up one of South America's largest bodies of inland water — by using human hair.

Efforts to boost climate financing have moved beyond national pledges. Now the focus is on overhauling organizations like the World Bank and providing countries debt relief.

(Image credit: Jerome Delay/AP)

Marine scientists have begun restoring corals to underwater nurseries as waters have cooled and conditions have improved off Florida's coast, following a summer of record-breaking ocean temperatures.