Environment

National Park Service Celebrates 100th Anniversary

4:37pm April 25, 2016

by Nathan Rott

The National Park Service is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its creation this year. NPR spends time on the job with workers in the country's busiest national park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, to explore the vast variety of work the park service does and the challenges it's facing.

If there was a way to keep using your phone forever, would you want to?

Environment

Phone, Everlasting: What If Your Smartphone Never Got Old?

4:30pm April 25, 2016

by Alina Selyukh

For many of us, when a phone starts slowing down we face a choice: spend the money to try to fix it or get a new one. But could there be a phone that never loses its luster?

Liam is a robot Apple created to disassemble iPhones.

These Earth-Saving Robots Might Be The Future Recyclers

2:32pm April 24, 2016

by Zhai Yun Tan

Apple recently unveiled Liam, a robot with 29 arms that takes apart iPhones so materials can be recycled and reused. As we accumulate more waste, recycling robots like Liam might become more common.

Solar Impulse 2 pilots Bertrand Piccard (right) and Andre Borschberg celebrate after Piccard landed their solar-powered plane at Moffett Field in Mountain View, Calif., on Saturday.

Experimental Solar-Powered Plane Completes Journey Across The Pacific

8:39am April 24, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

Solar Impulse 2 flew for three days from Hawaii to Calif., after a nine month delay for repairs. The team is aiming to complete a round-the-world journey using only the sun's power.

A map of the Amazon shelf showing the newly discovered reef structures in yellow.

Reef Larger Than Delaware Found At The Mouth Of The Amazon River

3:37pm April 23, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

The reef is unusual because it lies in muddy waters, and scientists had only seen hints of its existence until recent research expeditions. They say it's already in danger because of oil drilling.

A trip to Iceland wouldn't be complete without a dip in the Blue Lagoon, a man-made geothermal pool on Reykjanes peninsula.

#NPRreads: 3 Stories To Soak Up This Weekend

1:36pm April 23, 2016

The premise of #NPRreads is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers from our newsroom share the pieces that have kept them reading and each weekend, we highlight some of the best stories.

The World Resources Institute says you don't have to bid burgers bye-bye in order to reduce the environmental footprint of what you eat. For Americans, cutting back on beef (but not eliminating it altogether) could go a long way, it says.

For Earth Day, Report Has News To Ease A Meat-Lover's Conscience

10:21pm April 22, 2016

by Maria Godoy

The World Resources Institute says you don't have to bid burgers bye-bye in order to reduce the environmental footprint of what you eat. Americans cutting back on beef could go a long way, it says.

U.S. Proposes Removing Yellowstone Grizzly Bears From Endangered Species List

6:19pm April 22, 2016

by Eric Whitney

Grizzly bears in Yellowstone may soon lose protection from the federal government. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed taking the bears off the endangered species list, saying the population has recovered to a self-sustaining number. Opponents dispute that, in part because they say federal biologists aren't sufficiently accounting for climate change threatening their food sources.

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Phan Sopheak, a rice farmer in Cambodia, rests shortly after a man wielding an axe attacked her. She had been patrolling the Prey Lang forest around her village with a volunteer group that is trying to stop illegal logging.

#EarthDay: The High Cost Of Eco-Activism

5:10pm April 22, 2016

by Nurith Aizenman

Why the world's poorest people are some of the most effective — and vulnerable — environmental activists.

Secretary of State John Kerry holds his 2-year-old granddaughter, Isabel Dobbs-Higginson, as he signs a far-reaching climate accord at the United Nations, in a ceremony timed to coincide with Earth Day on Friday.

Earth Day Brings Celebrations, Signing Of Historic Climate Pact

1:31pm April 22, 2016

by Bill Chappell

Earth Day brings everything from special Google Doodles and beautiful views of our planet to the historic signing of an international climate agreement.