NPR News - Environment

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Breaking news on the environment, climate change, pollution, and endangered species. Also featuring Climate Connections, a special series on climate change co-produced by NPR and National Geographic.
Updated: 4 hours 15 min ago

What the fossil fuel industry is saying in this year's climate talks

Mon, 2023/12/04 - 2:51pm

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.

Categories: Environment

New rules on tourist flights seek to return some serenity to national parks

Mon, 2023/12/04 - 2:15pm

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)

Categories: Environment

Companies say they're closing in on nuclear fusion as an energy source. Will it work?

Mon, 2023/12/04 - 3:04am

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

(Image credit: Geoff Brumfiel/NPR)

Categories: Environment

Health is on the agenda at UN climate negotiations. Here's why that's a big deal

Sun, 2023/12/03 - 2:30am

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

(Image credit: AFP via Getty Images/LUIS TATO)

Categories: Environment

Wolves are returning to Colorado. But is it too crowded for them to thrive?

Sat, 2023/12/02 - 9:21am

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.

(Image credit: Kirk Siegler/NPR)

Categories: Environment

In Ecuador's Amazon rainforest, solar-powered boats are a boon for the trees

Sat, 2023/12/02 - 5:37am

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.

(Image credit: Peter Yeung for NPR)

Categories: Environment

EPA aims to slash the oil industry's climate-warming methane pollution

Sat, 2023/12/02 - 1:00am

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

(Image credit: David Goldman/AP)

Categories: Environment

The iceberg cometh: It's the size of Oahu, and it's moving into the open ocean

Fri, 2023/12/01 - 3:23am

"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.

(Image credit: European Union/Copernicus Sentinel-3/via Reuters)

Categories: Environment

A proposed new rule from the EPA says U.S. cities need to replace lead water pipes

Fri, 2023/12/01 - 3:09am

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.

Categories: Environment

Countries promise millions for damages from climate change. So how would that work?

Fri, 2023/12/01 - 3:00am

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

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Categories: Environment

At climate summit, nations want more from the U.S.: 'There's just a trust deficit'

Fri, 2023/12/01 - 3:00am

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)

Categories: Environment

EPA proposes new rule to require nationwide replacement of lead pipes

Thu, 2023/11/30 - 3:23pm

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.

Categories: Environment

Biden administration proposes strictest lead pipe rules in more than three decades

Thu, 2023/11/30 - 6:49am

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.

(Image credit: Seth Wenig/AP)

Categories: Environment

Widespread flooding has already killed hundreds in East Africa

Wed, 2023/11/29 - 3:20pm

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

Categories: Environment

Oil spills increase in Venezuela as it revs up output after the U.S. lifted sanctions

Wed, 2023/11/29 - 9:43am

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)

Categories: Environment

U.S. moves to protect wolverines as climate change melts their mountain refuges

Wed, 2023/11/29 - 9:20am

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)

Categories: Environment

3 climate impacts the U.S. will see if warming goes beyond 1.5 degrees

Wed, 2023/11/29 - 2:30am

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.

(Image credit: Brent Jones/NPR)

Categories: Environment

Armed with barriers made of human hair, Venezuelans take on massive oil slicks

Tue, 2023/11/28 - 4:42pm

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.

Categories: Environment

Climate funding is in short supply. So some want to rework the financial system

Tue, 2023/11/28 - 3:00am

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)

Categories: Environment

Florida's coal reefs are recovering after record high ocean temperatures

Mon, 2023/11/27 - 3:09am

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.

Categories: Environment