Environment

A jury in North Dakota has found Greenpeace owes hundreds of millions of dollars to Energy Transfer, the company that built the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

Experts say the verdict has relevance for free speech issues nationwide.

(Image credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

Last week, officials announced that a volcano 80 miles west of Anchorage is "likely" to erupt within the next few weeks or months. That could send ash into the air for hundreds of miles.

Exposure to heat can alter the way your DNA works, according to a new study. The effects could lead to long-term health outcomes.

(Image credit: Nick Ut)

Simple activities to help you better appreciate the birds, bees and flowers — and spend more time outside.

Move over, TikTokers. It's time to shine a spotlight on some of the earliest influencers around: dinosaurs. When these ecosystem engineers were in their heyday, forest canopies were open and seeds were small. But around the time most dinosaurs were wiped out, paleontologists noticed an interesting shift in the fossil record: Seeds got bigger — much bigger. There was a fruit boom. Did the death of these dinosaurs have something to do with it? And who are the modern day equivalent of dinosaur influencers? To find out, host Emily Kwong talks to Chris Doughty, an ecologist at Northern Arizona University.

Tell us what other tales of dino past you want us to regale you with by emailing us at shortwave@npr.org!

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Some 400 to 600 Asian elephants are believed to remain living in the wild in Cambodia. Researchers said the study's findings underscore the potential of a "national stronghold" for the species.

(Image credit: The Flora & Fauna conservation/AP)

The Trump administration plans to reconsider about two dozen environmental rules, in what the Environmental Protection Agency calls the "most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history."

The Environmental Protection Agency didn't provide details about what it wants to do with the regulations — whether it will try to weaken them or eliminate them entirely.

(Image credit: Ting Shen/AFP)

Many people say their seasonal allergies are hitting earlier and harder. We talk with a professor who studied how climate change has affected plant biology for over 30 years.

Clean energy is crucial to meet rising U.S. electricity demand, according to industry analysts and executives. But the Trump administration's actions could slow development.

(Image credit: Rick Bowmer)

Tourists to Antarctica are fueling research on some of the tiniest, most influential organisms on Earth: phytoplankton. These itty bitty critters make their own food and are the base of the food web in most of the ocean, but tracking how well they're doing is historically tricky. So, researchers with the program FjordPhyto are using samples collected by these tourists to understand how the balance of power in the Antarctic food web could be shifting — could ripple across the food web of the entire ocean.

Want to hear more community science at work or about polar ecosystems? Let us know by emailing shortwave@npr.org! We're also always open to other story ideas you have. <3

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Archeologists know early humans used stone to make tools long before the time of Homo sapiens. But a new discovery out this week in Nature suggests early humans in eastern Africa were also using animal bones – one million years earlier than researchers previously thought. The finding suggests that these early humans were intentionally shaping animal materials – like elephant and hippopotamus bones – to make tools and that it could indicate advancements in early human cognition.

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Tests in Key West show sediment stirred up by cruise ships, which can harm marine life, routinely exceed federal standards. Key West has responded by suspending the tests.

(Image credit: Handan Khanna)

On their second job ever, Collette Yee and her partner were assigned a difficult job: locate transient whale poop in the ocean before it sinks. Luckily, Collette was partnered with Jack, a blue heeler mix trained to sniff out cryptic odors from things that conservation biologists have trouble collecting on their own. Producer Berly McCoy reports on Jack and the growing field of dog detection conservation that helps science by sniffing out everything from invasive crabs to diseased plants to endangered species.

Interested in more biotech stories? Let us know by dropping a line to shortwave@npr.org.

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Batteries are everywhere. They're in our phones, our remote controls, smart-watches, electric cars and so much more. They could also be the solution to a problem that renewable energy companies have faced for years: How to store the mass amounts of energy they produce for later use. Some companies are using batteries to make renewable energy accessible 24/7. Today, we dig into how the technology is rapidly progressing with Cooper Katz McKim, a producer from fellow NPR podcast The Indicator from Planet Money.

Listen to The Indicator's three-part battery series.

Have questions about the future of technology? Contact us at shortwave@npr.org.

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Climate change has impacted virtually every part of life in Greenland. The tradition of dogsledding illustrates just one aspect of what's at risk for the island as the Earth warms.

(Image credit: Grace Widyatmadja/NPR)

Mardi Gras can make a lot of trash, adding up to millions of pounds each year. Now, some parades in New Orleans are cutting down on their environmental footprint by banning plastic beads.

The plant, formally known as Ovicula biradiata, is especially notable for being the simultaneous discovery of a new species and genus. It was found with help from the community science app iNaturalist.

(Image credit: D. Manley)

Northeast Michigan held one of the shortest fishing seasons ever — 17 minutes. Hundreds of people gathered and raced against the clock in an effort to catch a lake sturgeon, or "dinosaur" fish.