The price of cocoa is on a wild historic ride: It topped the all-time record before Valentine's Day and almost doubled since then, in time for Easter. The culprit is the weather.
Among the changes, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will reinstate a decades-old regulation that mandates blanket protections for species newly classified as threatened.
French bulldogs have soared in popularity, but they and other short-nosed dogs often have serious health problems. New Hampshire could be the first state to put health restrictions on breeders.
Kemmerer, Wyo., is on the front line of America's energy transition, with its coal plant slated to close and a nuclear plant in the works. But some think the rush to quit fossil fuels is impractical.
Savannah’s recycling efforts have taken a step backward with the suspension of a popular glass recycling program. For about 15 months, residents have been bringing glass bottles and jars to drop-off sites around the city. That program abruptly shut down last week.
A new movement has emerged in recent years: de-influencing. What started as a backlash to advertising could now have a surprising and real-world impact on the environment.
Conservationists and environmental groups are sounding the alarm over a measure that they say will unravel the protections for fishing and hunting in Georgia that were fast-tracked last session.
No sign tells you you’ve arrived at a Superfund site, but Rachael Thompson, the executive director of Glynn Environmental Coalition knows the four Brunswick-area ones well and regularly takes curious local citizens on tours of them.
The state was on the cusp of making new rules to protect people who work in places like warehouses from dangerous heat. A last-minute shake-up leaves workers wondering if they'll be safe come summer.
Across the animal kingdom, menopause is something of an evolutionary blip. We humans are one of the few animals to experience it. But Sam Ellis, a researcher in animal behavior, argues that this isn't so surprising. "The best way to propagate your genes is to get as many offspring as possible into the next generation," says Ellis. "The best way to do that is almost always to reproduce your whole life."
So how did menopause evolve? The answer may lie in whales. Ellis and his team at the University of Exeter recently published a study in the journal Nature that studies the evolution of menopause in the undersea animals most known for it. What they uncovered may even help explain menopause in humans.
Curious about other animal behavior mysteries? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
States in the southern High Plains will be "quite vulnerable to high wildfire risk, especially during high wind events," said Jon Gottschalck of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
A fleet of new plastics plants in the U.S. often release illegal levels of air pollution, even while receiving big tax breaks from state and local governments, the report found.
Charlotte the stingray in a small North Carolina aquarium has been attracting visitors since she got pregnant without a mate. Businesses in Hendersonville are delighted by the influx.