Environment

Curled heads of wheat show the drought damage on Nicole Berg's ranch in southeast Washington state.

Farmers Are Feeling The Pain As Drought Spreads In The Northwest

5:00am June 03, 2021

by Anna King

It's as dry as it's been in a century in parts of Washington and Oregon. Some farmers are watching their crops fail, while others are selling cattle because they don't have the grass to feed it.

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Smoke billows from the Singapore-registered container ship X-Press Pearl on Wednesday. The ship carries more than 80 containers of dangerous goods, including 25 tons of nitric acid.

Sri Lanka Faces An Environmental Disaster As A Ship Full Of Chemicals Starts Sinking

4:05pm June 02, 2021

by Laurel Wamsley

Beaches are coated with plastic pellets, and a container full of nitric acid has leaked. Sri Lankan authorities are now making preparations for an oil spill.

White House Suspends Drilling Leases In Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

5:45am June 02, 2021

by Tegan Hanlon

The Biden administration began reversing the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's coastal plain to oil drilling, by suspending leases issued in the final days of the Trump administration.

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Louisiana Is Facing A Coastal Restoration Conundrum

5:05pm June 01, 2021

by Debbie Elliott

Louisiana's $2 billion plan to divert the Mississippi River is getting pushback. The project is part of the state's effort to save a coast suffering one of the highest rates of land loss in the world.

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Hurricanes, Drought And Fires: The U.S. Has An Intense Summer Ahead

4:32pm June 01, 2021

Atlantic hurricane season kicks off on June 1, and it's supposed to be a slightly above average hurricane season. In the Western U.S., there's already a serious drought and elevated fire risk.

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Biden Administration Wants Agriculture Subsidies To Help Fight Climate Change

7:26am June 01, 2021

by Frank Morris

The White House wants to pay farmers for carbon in their soil. Sequestering carbon on farms is straightforward, but benefits are hard to measure. Some worry about creating another subsidy.

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Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is America's original national park and hosts more than 4 million visitors annually.

Plan For Your Great National Park Trip

7:43pm May 31, 2021

by Dustin Jones

The National Park Service expects a busy summer as the country begins to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic. Last year 237 million people flocked to national parks to escape from COVID-19.

After Years Of Drought, Australia Faces A New Natural Disaster: Multiplying Mice

4:58pm May 31, 2021

Mice are plaguing Australia, from rural farms in New South Wales to cities like Sydney. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Sybilla Gross, a Bloomberg News reporter, about efforts to end the crisis.

Environment

Watching For Change After Activist Hedge Fund Wins 2 Seats On ExxonMobil Board

6:52am May 31, 2021

NPR's Noel King talks with shareholder adviser Nell Minow about the implications of a small, activist hedge fund winning two seats on ExxonMobil's board in a push to reshape the company.

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A sandstorm moves the Gobi desert in Mongolia.

Buried Alive In Mongolia's Worst Sandstorms In A Decade

9:13am May 30, 2021

Even the rescue teams could not go forward during one of the fiercest of many sandstorms this spring. Herders have lost their herds — an estimated 1.6 million livestock — and their lives.