Climate

Scientists in the Florida Keys haven't had great success revitalizing coral reefs

5:44pm February 21, 2024

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Katey Lesneski, research coordinator for coral restoration at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. She's been checking on restored corals, which struggled in 2023.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge from GOP-led states and industry groups seeking to block the EPA's "good neighbor" provision, which is designed to reduce smog and air pollution.

Politics & Government

Supreme Court will hear challenge to EPA's 'good neighbor' rule that limits pollution

5:00am February 21, 2024

by Carrie Johnson

The justices will consider whether to hit pause on a federal rule designed to reduce air pollution that drifts across states and can cause health troubles.

What this year's mild winter means for wildfire season in the western U.S.

6:06pm February 20, 2024

by Kirk Siegler

A mild and dry El Nino winter in parts of the West is stirring anxieties about the looming wildfire season, just as federal agencies are struggling to fill firefighting jobs.

Queue Listen Now

Ryan Hendricks, who is a member of the Quinault Tribal Council, sits on a driftwood log on the Taholah, Wash., sea wall. The coastal tribe is working to move its villages away from the rising waters of the Pacific Ocean and its tsunamis.

How a Northwest tribe is escaping a rising ocean

3:15pm February 19, 2024

by John Ryan

The Quinault Indian Nation in Washington state is gradually moving the village of Taholah away from a rising Pacific Ocean. Other communities in the U.S. may need to take a similar approach.

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What happens when a wind farm comes to a coal town?

4:27pm February 16, 2024

Coal jobs have been declining for generations. Now in the town of Keyser, West Virginia, there's a different energy source on the horizon.

A registered scavenger, who mainly collects plastic waste to sell, walking in a landfill in Indonesia.

Reduce, reuse, redirect outrage: How plastic makers used recycling as a fig leaf

2:53pm February 15, 2024

by Michael Copley

Recycling "does not solve the solid waste problem," the head of a plastics trade group said in 1989, around the time the industry was launching its recycling campaign.

Environment

A lead candidate for president of Indonesia could increase deforestation and coal use

3:23pm February 13, 2024

by Julia Simon

Voters in Indonesia will head to the polls Wednesday to cast ballots in a presidential election. One leading candidate is running on a platform that could increase deforestation and coal use.

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Props and sets are available to rent at EcoSet in Los Angeles. It's a resource for the creative industry that implements zero waste practices on productions and events.

Arts

How Hollywood art directors are working to keep their sets out of the landfill

5:13am February 13, 2024

by Chloe Veltman

Sets are often discarded after productions, with thousands of tons of materials going into dumpsters each year. Now art directors and their allies are pushing for a more sustainable approach.

Ninety-seven percent of migratory fish species are facing extinction. Whale sharks, the world's largest living fish, are among the endangered.

Across the world, migrating animal populations are dwindling. Here's why

7:00pm February 12, 2024

by Nathan Rott

In a landmark UN study, researchers found nearly half of the world's threatened migratory species have declining populations. More than a fifth of the assessed animals face extinction.

Quinault Indian Nation hits milestone in effort to move village uphill to safety

5:19pm February 12, 2024

by John Ryan

In a remote stretch of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, streets and sidewalks have appeared. The Quinault Indian Nation spent a decade trying to move its village of Taholah out of reach of rising seas.