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Advocates worry about North Carolina's old growth forests, damaged by Hurricane Helene

NPR News - Environment - Sat, 2025/01/18 - 6:01am

The old growth forests of Western North Carolina took a beating from Hurricane Helene. Now they've lost a bid for federal protection. This worries advocates that the forests could soon vanish.

Categories: Environment

Is the air quality index actually useful right now?

NPR News - Environment - Sat, 2025/01/18 - 5:00am

The air has improved in the LA region as firefighters get blazes under control, but there are questions about how safe the air actually is.

(Image credit: Ryan Kellman)

Categories: Environment

'The birds are back.' Resilience in the ruins of the Palisades fire

NPR News - Environment - Fri, 2025/01/17 - 4:35pm

Will Rogers State Historic Park is a vast stretch of natural space in the Santa Monica Mountains. It's a treasure to Angelenos. People get married there, picnic there, and have kids' birthday parties on the great lawn.

The park's namesake, Will Rogers, was a vaudeville performer, radio and movie star, and was known as America's "cowboy philosopher."

His nearly century-old ranch house is the park's centerpiece. It's survived a near miss with wildfire before. Last week, as firestorm engulfed large parts of Los Angeles, this piece of American history was reduced to rubble.

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(Image credit: Apu Gomes)

Categories: Environment

Development is taking a toll on Florida's precious springs

NPR News - Environment - Fri, 2025/01/17 - 3:00am

The state has been slow to adopt rules to protect Florida's endangered springs. While a boom in residential construction has increased the amount of groundwater being taken from the aquifers.

(Image credit: Zack Wittman for NPR)

Categories: Environment

U.S. electricity demand is set to explode. That will make it harder to cut climate pollution

NPR News - Environment - Fri, 2025/01/17 - 2:01am

Analysts say the country will burn a lot more natural gas in the coming years to meet soaring electricity demand, potentially locking in decades of heat-trapping emissions.

(Image credit: George Frey)

Categories: Environment

Hazmat crews tackle toxic waste left behind by LA's fires

NPR News - Environment - Fri, 2025/01/17 - 1:58am

The fires have turned some electric car batteries and household items into "unexploded ordnances," says an EPA official tasked with the cleanup

(Image credit: David Crane/MediaNews Group)

Categories: Environment

Trained crews begin hazardous waste removal in LA

NPR News - Environment - Fri, 2025/01/17 - 1:58am

Crews have started hazardous waste removal in LA — a critical first phase of cleanup. Trained personnel carefully remove household items turned dangerous or deadly by "heat assault" from the fires.

Categories: Environment

Trump's pick for EPA administrator is Lee Zeldin. Here's what to know.

NPR News - Environment - Thu, 2025/01/16 - 3:17pm

Democrats worry the Trump administration will roll back efforts to limit climate change.

(Image credit: Mark Schiefelbein)

Categories: Environment

Toyota's commercial truck company will pay $1.6 billion for faking emissions tests

NPR News - Environment - Thu, 2025/01/16 - 11:57am

Hino Motors will plead guilty to submitting false emissions data to regulators for more than 100,000 heavy-duty trucks. The company will pay an array of fines, and fix some affected vehicles for free.

(Image credit: Ivan Couronne/AFP)

Categories: Environment

Trump's pick to lead the EPA, Lee Zeldin, expected to roll back environmental rules

NPR News - Environment - Thu, 2025/01/16 - 1:51am

Trump's pick to lead the EPA, former N.Y. Rep. Lee Zeldin, does not have a major profile on environmental issues and is expected to embrace Trump's promised roll back of environmental regulations.

Categories: Environment

Invasive green crabs threaten West Coast ecosystems. One solution? Otters

NPR News - Environment - Wed, 2025/01/15 - 11:50am

As invasive green crabs wreak havoc on California's estuaries, a new study has found that a restored sea otter population might be the solution.

(Image credit: Lilian Carswell)

Categories: Environment

Hellbender salamanders could be added to endangered species list

NPR News - Environment - Tue, 2025/01/14 - 3:49am

A giant salamander called the "hellbender" is on its way to becoming an endangered species. It needs very clean water to survive and that's getting harder to find.

Categories: Environment

Invasive crabs threatened West Coast ecosystems for decades. One solution? Otters

NPR News - Environment - Mon, 2025/01/13 - 3:20pm

NPR's Juana Summers speaks to researcher Rikke Jeppesen about her work on how sea otters, which were hunted to almost near extinction, have been able to thrive by eating up to 120,000 crabs a year.

Categories: Environment

Weird weather isn't always because of climate change — but sometimes it is

NPR News - Environment - Mon, 2025/01/13 - 3:15am

Sometimes, weather is just weather. And other times human-caused climate change had an obvious impact.

(Image credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Categories: Environment

How one U.S. conservationist's work is helping to preserve Chile's wilderness

NPR News - Environment - Sun, 2025/01/12 - 4:00am

Chile is set to gain its 47th national park early this year — largely due to the efforts of U.S. conservationist Kristine Tompkins and her organization.

(Image credit: Tamara Merino for NPR)

Categories: Environment

People are rushing to install solar panels before Trump becomes president

NPR News - Environment - Sun, 2025/01/12 - 3:00am

Potential rooftop solar customers and installers worry the incoming Trump administration might try to eliminate a 30% federal tax credit. Some customers plan to install sooner because of that. And solar companies are changing their business plans.

(Image credit: David Paul Morris)

Categories: Environment

Nearly 120 million people in US exposed to unhealthy levels of soot and smog – report

Guardian Environment News - Tue, 2023/04/18 - 9:01pm

American Lung Association’s study also found great disparity between coasts, with 10 of 11 most polluted counties in California

The climate crisis has upended progress on improving air quality, with one in three Americans currently living in areas with harmful levels of pollutants known to increase the risk of medical emergencies, pregnancy complications and premature death, new research reveals.

Almost 120 million people in the US are still exposed to unhealthy levels of soot and smog, according to the annual report by the American Lung Association (ALA), which found that people of color are almost four times more likely to live in the most polluted places than white Americans.

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Categories: Environment

Beetaloo Basin inquiry calls for national plan to offset vast emissions expected from gas projects

Guardian Environment News - Tue, 2023/04/18 - 8:54pm

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says Labor support for recommendations is a ‘huge blow’ to companies trying to frack in the NT

An inquiry into major plans to exploit gas in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin has recommended the federal government commit to a national plan to offset the vast emissions the project is expected to release.

The former government made gas exploration in the Beetaloo Basin a central tenet of its plans for recovering from the Covid pandemic, using grants and tax breaks to incentivise gas corporates to begin work in the region. The basin covers about 28,000 sq km south-east of Katherine and is thought to contain huge reserves of shale gas.

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Categories: Environment

Humpbacks spotted having whale of a time at underwater ‘day spa’ off Gold Coast

Guardian Environment News - Tue, 2023/04/18 - 6:35pm

Griffith University researcher captures video of five whales doing ‘bizarre rolls’ on the sea floor as they exfoliate and socialise

Whales have been caught on camera enjoying a marine version of a day spa, returning to their favourite spot off the Gold Coast to scratch off itchy skin and parasites, and catch up with their cetacean buddies.

Griffith University whale researcher Dr Olaf Meynecke and his colleagues were trying to shed light on the behaviour of competing pods of humpbacks that use Gold Coast waters to rest, breed and socialise.

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Categories: Environment

'Full of life': scientists discover pristine deep-sea Galapagos coral reefs – video

Guardian Environment News - Tue, 2023/04/18 - 10:11am

Scientists operating a submersible have discovered deep-sea coral reefs in pristine condition in a previously unexplored part of the Galapagos marine reserve. Diving to depths of 600 metres (1,970ft), to the summit of a previously unmapped seamount in the central part of the archipelago, the scientists witnessed a breathtaking mix of deep marine life. This has raised hopes that healthy reefs can still thrive at a time when coral is in crisis due to record sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification

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Categories: Environment
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