Environment

Saudi Hay Farm In Arizona Tests State's Supply Of Groundwater

5:59pm November 02, 2015

by NPR Staff

A Saudi Arabian dairy company owns 15 square miles in Arizona — and 15 water wells — to make hay to send home to cows. Local farmers are just realizing their water is being exported overseas as hay.

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A field near harvest time at Meyers Farm in Bethel, Alaska, can now grow crops like cabbage outside in the ground, due to rising temperatures.

Rising Temperatures Kick-Start Subarctic Farming In Alaska

1:02pm November 01, 2015

by Daysha Eaton

Producers and consumers in southwestern Alaska see one upside to climate change. It's now possible to farm in parts of the tundra where agriculture was unheard of just a few years ago.

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An Indonesian soldier helps firefighters and rescue teams at a peat land fire in Kalimantan.

As Indonesia's Annual Fires Rage, Plenty Of Blame But No Responsibility

10:39am November 01, 2015

by Anthony Kuhn

The onset of the rainy season in Indonesia brings hope of extinguishing forest fires that have raged for weeks, spawning both an environmental and political crisis in Southeast Asia's largest economy.

One-quarter of the endangered mountain gorilla population lives in the Virunga National Park, which activists are trying to protect from oil exploration.

Environment

Congolese Activists Honored for Fighting Oil Exploration in Virunga National Park

6:04pm October 30, 2015

by Alexandra Starr

The Alexander Soros Foundation has given awards to people trying to block a British company from doing drilling in the park. The activists fear the operations would damage human and wildlife habitats.

Jane Goodall grooms the coat of a chimpanzee as he eats a banana in this photo from 1974.

Jane Goodall Wants To Save Us (And Her Beloved Chimps) From Ourselves

5:48pm October 30, 2015

by Malaka Gharib

She's learned a lot about chimpanzees. But what has she learned from them has given her a new mission: improve the health of the planet.

International Leaders To Discuss Substances That Cause Global Warming

5:46pm October 30, 2015

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy about next week's international conference on substances in air conditioners and refrigerators that heat up the atmosphere.

#NPRreads: White Privilege, FBI Director's Remarks On Policing, And Oyster Farming

4:00pm October 30, 2015

Also this week: a story from an NPR Music reporter about the "lost art of listening."

Zach Whitener, research associate at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, holds a cod while collecting samples for a study.

Why Is It So Hard To Save Gulf Of Maine Cod? They're In Hot Water

10:44am October 30, 2015

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

In the past decade, the Gulf of Maine warmed faster than 99.9 percent of the global ocean. The rapid warming explains why recent fishing policies failed to rebuild the cod population, a study finds.

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Why Fighting Climate Change Requires Changing The Narrative

10:41pm October 28, 2015

by Adam Frank

NPR blogger Adam Frank says Americans need to stop carrying the guilt of climate change, so that we can move on and fix it.

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When salmon was out of season, diners in restaurants were likely to get a species other than what they ordered 67 percent of the time, a new survey finds.

That Salmon On The Menu Might Be A Fraud — Especially In Winter

6:04pm October 28, 2015

by Clare Leschin-Hoar

Diners were likely to get duped 67 percent of the time when ordering salmon in restaurants out of season, a survey says. Much of the deception involved farmed salmon passed off as more expensive wild.