Despite a daily cleanup that leaves the post-parade landscape remarkably clean, uncaught beads dangle from tree limbs like Spanish moss and get ground into the mud under the feet of passers-by.
The number of days that Georgia can now perform “prescribed burning” is shrinking as a result of climate change, adding to the already delicate balance of the fire prevention action.
People say they move to Los Angeles for the weather. As climate change makes extreme weather events like wildfire and flooding more common, some people wonder if they should stay or go.
The Biden administration is unveiling new, stricter pollution standards for American cities such as Salt Lake City, Utah, which have long struggled with chronically dirty air.
The plant gets its color — and a boost in antioxidants — from genes from an edible flower. It's the first time gardeners have been able to grow a GMO crop at home.
Today, the Chattahoochee River between the city of Atlanta and West Point Lake — a 70-mile stretch with forested riverbanks, rocky shoals, rural communities, and cultural sites — is no longer regularly polluted with the city’s waste. Once considered off-limits for recreation due to chronic sewage overflows and polluted storm runoff, this previously blighted section is on the cusp of becoming a major destination for outdoor experiences.
California sea otter populations have rebounded in recent decades. New research finds that by feasting on shore crabs, these otters are helping to protect their coastal marsh habitat against erosion.
Octopuses are seen as smart and solitary. A seafood company plans to farm them commercially. Octopus garden? Sure. Octopus farm? No way, say the animal's advocates.
California is in the grips of an atmospheric river that's causing flooding all over the state. Climate change might be intensifying storms like it — but scientists are still working out the details.
Opponents of the mining proposal are trying to ramp up pressure on lawmakers to pass a measure that some see as the best shot at protecting the ridge from mining.
It was a year ago this month that a Norfolk Southern freight train with 38 cars derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.
Twenty of those train cars carried hazardous materials. In the days after the crash officials, decided to burn off one of those hazardous materials, vinyl chloride. The burn and massive plume of smoke it created caused environmental problems and concerns about the health and safety of residents.
A year after that devastating derailment and chemical burn the train company Norfolk Southern and the EPA say the air and water are safe.
The people who have to go on living there aren't so sure.
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In 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, releasing radioactive material into northern Ukraine and Belarus. It was the most serious nuclear accident in history. Over one hundred thousand people were evacuated from the surrounding area. But local gray wolves never left — and their population has grown over the years. It's seven times denser than populations in protected lands elsewhere in Belarus. This fact has led scientists to wonder whether the wolves are genetically either resistant or resilient to cancer — or if the wolves are simply thriving because humans aren't interfering with them.
This episode, researchers Shane Campbell-Staton and Cara Love talk through what might be causing this population boom. Plus, why researchers in the field of human cancer are eager to collaborate with them.
Want to hear about other ways humans are impacting the planet? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.