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.
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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A new version of the popular board game Catan, which hits shelves this summer, introduces energy production and pollution into the gameplay.
Catan GmbH
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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
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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
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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
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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
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The Conemaugh Generating Station in New Florence, Pa., is among the nation's coal-fired power plants that face tough new regulations to limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
Gene J. Puskar/AP
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Wildfire smoke from Canada caused dangerously unhealthy air quality in New York City and across much of the U.S. in 2023. While air quality has improved greatly in the U.S. in recent decades, wildfire smoke and other climate-influenced problems are endangering that progress.
Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images
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Damming waterways is what beavers do best, often to the chagrin of people who want the opposite. But those same damming skills are what make beavers important ecosystem engineers.
Chase Dekker Wild-Life Images
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NPR's Tom Dreisbach is back in the host chair for a day. This time, he reports on a story very close to home: The years-long battle his parents have been locked in with the local wild beaver population. Each night, the beavers would dam the culverts along the Dreisbachs' property, threatening to make their home inaccessible. Each morning, Tom's parents deconstructed those dams — until the annual winter freeze hit and left them all in a temporary stalemate.
Beavers can help with climate change. So how do we get along?
People rest at a cooling station in Portland, Oregon during the deadly Northwest heat dome of 2021. Climate change has made heat risks more dangerous across the country. A new heat forecasting tool could help people stay safe.
KATHRYN ELSESSER/AFP via Getty Images
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A new version of the popular board game Catan, which hits shelves this summer, introduces energy production and pollution into the gameplay.
Catan GmbH
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Artists UMI (left) and Louis VI (right) teamed up with the Museum for the United Nations - UN Live to re-release songs with nature sounds for Earth Day.
Ryusei Sabi, Orson Esquivel.
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