EnvironmentBreaking news on the environment, climate change, pollution, and endangered species. Also featuring Climate Connections, a special series on climate change co-produced by NPR and National Geographic.
A burial team in Liberia awaits decontamination after performing "safe burials" for people who died of Ebola during the 2014-15 outbreak. Strains of the virus are harbored by bats and primates. A new study looks at how human activity affects the transmission of infectious diseases like Ebola.
John Moore/Getty Images
hide caption
Jackye Lafon, who's in her 80s, cools herself with a water spray at her home in Toulouse, France during a heat wave in 2022. Older people face higher heat risk than those who are younger. Climate change is making heat risk even greater.
Fred Scheiber/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
Public Health student Hanna Stutzman helps establish new native plantings at The College of New Jersey.
Nathaniel Johnson/The College of New Jersey
hide caption
Lauren Hill, a graduate student at Cal State LA, holds a bird at the bird banding site at Bear Divide in the San Gabriel Mountains.
Grace Widyatmadja/NPR
hide caption
People cycle along the street in Afuá, a city in northern Brazil's Pará state, in January. Since 2002, this city on the banks of the Amazon River has been famously off limits to motor vehicles.
Stefan Kolumban
hide caption
Isabella Mogeni, 54, from the neighborhood of Mukuru kwa Reuben, looks on as bulldozers destroy homes in the slum area on May 3.
Emmanuel Igunza for NPR
hide caption
Christiane Keyhani (bottom left) and Liz Yannell (bottom right), of the non-profit group Hui O Ka Wai Ola, measure water quality along Lahaina's coast. The group is part of a coalition that mobilized in the wake of the fire to closely monitor the water quality off Lahaina.
Ryan Kellman/NPR
hide caption
A woman takes refuge during Greece's July 2023 heat wave. El Niño helped drive global temperatures to new heights, making it the hottest year on record.
Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
A man swims from a submerged church compound, after the River Tana broke its banks following heavy rains at Mororo, border of Tana River and Garissa counties, northeastern Kenya, April 28. Heavy rains pounding different parts of Kenya have led to dozens of deaths and the displacement of tens of thousands of people, according to the United Nations.
Andre Kasuku/AP
hide caption
An aerial view of Colombia's Regadera Reservoir in Usme, near Bogotá, April 16. Colombia's capital of Bogotá imposed water rations due to a severe drought aggravated by the El Niño.
Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
A new version of the popular board game Catan, which hits shelves this summer, introduces energy production and pollution into the gameplay.
Catan GmbH
hide caption
Richelle Dietz holds an empty five-gallon water bottle at her home in Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Monday, April 22, 2024, in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Dietz family relies on bi-weekly water deliveries for basic needs since their water was tainted in 2021.
Mengshin Lin/AP
hide caption
Independence Hall in Philadelphia in 2021. The National Park Service plans to install gas-fired boilers at Independence National Historical Park, despite a 2007 law mandating new and remodeled federal buildings be 100% free of fossil fuels by 2030.
Matt Rourke/AP
hide caption
The Flint River water starts flowing to Flint, Mich. on April 25, 2014. Without corrosion control, lead leeched from the pipes.
Brett Carlsen/Getty Images
hide caption
A coyote at the Fort Worth Zoo is photographed in the hours leading up to the April 8 total solar eclipse.
The Hartstone-Rose Research Lab, NC State
hide caption