Environment

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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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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

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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.

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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.

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The official numbers are in: 2024 is the hottest year on record. Climate change is the main culprit. But there might be something else going on, too.

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As fire crews and air tankers work to block the wildfires' explosive growth, images of red clouds of fire retardant falling onto trees are common. What is it — and what's in it?

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Over 29,000 acres in the greater Los Angeles area are on fire right now. The fires emerged after the Santa Ana winds swept into the Los Angeles area Tuesday. The largest is the Palisades fire, which is quickly burning through the Pacific Palisades and Malibu communities. It's one of four ongoing critical fires — only one of which is partially contained. Ahead of the windy week, a Red Flag Warning was issued for an increased fire risk due to the strong winds, low humidity and higher temperature. Today, we dig into the Santa Ana winds: What they are and how they combined with other factors to create conditions for the most destructive fire in Los Angeles' history.

Questions, story ideas or want us to dig more into the science underpinning natural disasters? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear from you!

The Great Lakes don't readily evoke images of surfing and surfboard-making, but a surfer in Wisconsin is on an eco-friendly mission to change that.

Planet Money buys a "biodiversity credit" and travels to the Andean cloud forest in Colombia — to see how these credits work, and if they can really help save threatened species.

Southern states don't often deal with winter conditions, but New England does. New Hampshire especially has tips for how to prepare for a winter storm.

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Exposure to wildfire smoke is a growing health problem across the U.S., as climate change increases the risk and intensity of wildfires.

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