climate

You now have to compost food scraps and yard cuttings if you live in California

5:14pm March 14, 2022

by Raquel Dillon

New rules in California require the composting of food scraps and yard cuttings. Commercial composting facilities are gearing up to cash in as they turn food scraps into fertilizer and other products.

Gretchen Turner looks toward her home before making her way to Halloween festivities in downtown Waverly, Tenn.

Rebuild or leave? In a flood-prone Tennessee town, one family must decide

5:00am March 14, 2022

by Damon Mitchell

Weather disasters displaced thousands of Americans in 2021. In one Tennessee town, a family decides whether to rebuild or leave for good after a deadly flood sparked by a catastrophic rainfall.

A worker assembles Volkswagen electric cars at the company's plant in Zwickau, Germany on Jan. 27. Automakers like Volkswagen are racing to secure enough metals to power the batteries needed to make electric vehicles.

Environment

How a handful of metals could determine the future of the electric car industry

5:00am March 13, 2022

by Camila Domonoske

Automakers want to sell you an electric vehicle, but to do that, they'll need the world to dig a lot more minerals out of the ground. The challenge is transforming both mining and the auto industries.

Queue Listen Now

Asmeret Asefaw Berhe speaks at TED2019: Bigger Than Us. April 15 - 19, 2019, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Photo: Bret Hartman / TED

Asmeret Asefaw Berhe: How can soil's superpowers help us fight climate change?

9:47am March 11, 2022

Earth's soil can store vast amounts of carbon. Biogeochemist Asmeret Asefaw Berhe says soil could be a powerful tool for fighting climate change - if only we stopped treating it like dirt.

Queue Listen Now

Global carbon emissions from energy spiked to record highs last year

5:13am March 11, 2022

by Nathan Rott

A new report finds global energy related carbon dioxide emissions rose 6% last year to an all-time high. The report from the International Energy Agency means bad news for the world's climate.

Fans spray air mixed with water vapor to cool down pedestrians on a Baghdad street on June 30, 2021, during a heat wave.

Why Baghdad will be one of the cities hardest hit by global warming

8:42am March 10, 2022

by Jason Beaubien

Iraq's capital city is already seeing record heat — up to 125 degrees Fahrenheit. A report predicts more 120-plus degree days to come. And the "urban heat island" effect will make things even worse.

Politics & Government

Soaring gas prices have Biden talking up the importance of domestic drilling

5:08am March 10, 2022

by Scott Detrow

Russia's war on Ukraine and the resulting oil price spike have forced the Biden White House to consider all kinds of measures for fossil fuel that it once would have shunned.

National

Kansas farmers are planting more cotton as climate change redraws agricultural maps

4:23pm March 09, 2022

by David Condos

Cotton farming is inching north into the Midwest. Climate change combined with dwindling water resources and new infrastructure means states like Kansas are becoming cotton country.

Cleanup efforts are underway in Winterset, Iowa, on Sunday after a tornado hit the area.

National

At least 7 are dead after a large tornado hit central Iowa

4:11pm March 06, 2022

by The Associated Press

Emergency management officials in Madison County said four were injured in addition to those killed when the tornado touched down southwest of Des Moines.

Politics & Government

NC directs $164M toward infrastructure projects

10:45am March 02, 2022

by Neal Charnoff

North Carolina is awarding $164 million for water and sewer projects around the state.