Donate

Steve Curwood

Soldiers of the Puerto Rico National Guard and volunteers of the Puerto Rico State Guard clear a road at Punta Santiago in Humacao, Puerto Rico. Scenes of utter devastation were found throughout the island after Hurricane Maria hit last September.

Report: FEMA wasn’t ready for Hurricane Maria, destruction in Puerto Rico

It is said that practice makes perfect. As the events surrounding Hurricane Maria showed, a lack of practice can make a tough situation even worse.

Elkhorn coral is one of the main varieties of coral that workers on the northern coast of Puerto Rico have been able to restore following damage done by Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Local NGOs repair Puerto Rico’s coral reefs in Maria’s aftermath

Science
Under a new carbon offset program that is gaining popularity in Congress, oil and gas companies — and other manufacturers of products involving — fossil fuel would have to pay $40 for every ton of carbon emitted into the atmosphere.

New carbon offset program may have the bipartisan support it needs on Capitol Hill

Politics
Since 2002, scientific data pointed to a slower decline of CFC-11, one of several chemical substances banned by the Montreal Protocol in 1987. The amount of CFC-11 found in the atmosphere has actually gone up during that time, prompting the United Nations

Scientists detected a spike in ozone-depleting chemicals. They’ll use the Montreal Protocol to stop the pollution.

Environment
Growing high tides have turned this photo — taken from Pompano Beach, Florida, after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 — into a regular occurrence along the U.S. coastlines.

New report forecasts a troubling picture of rising tides, frequent flooding on coasts

Climate Change
The overall catch from lobstering in Maine was down 16.4 percent in 2017 from the year before. Those who catch lobsters for a living in the state are hoping that downfall does not continue in 2018.

The feast-or-famine life of lobstering in Maine

Jobs

The lobster industry has always been an up-and-down business, but a new book looks into how global warming is adding to that already uncertain rollercoaster.

Snow is blown off of the calving front off of Thurston Island in western Antarctica in this photo, taken in November 2014. New findings show the western side of Antarctica to be more vulnerable to warming oceans — and increased ice loss — than first thoug

A scientist’s response to Antarctic ice loss: ‘We can act.’

When it came to figuring how much ice loss was taking place over the last five years in Antarctica, they knew it was a bad situation — but they did not realize it was this bad.

Mastodons (this one on display at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles) are just a small part of the story of how humans first migrated to the Americas 15,000 years ago — or longer.

Retracing paths that people first traversed while migrating to the Americas

Books

When it comes to the first people arriving in the Americas during the Ice Age from Asia, Craig Childs says it is a “blank space” in the collective memory of most Americans. His newest book fills up that space with firsthand adventures and exploration.

Protestors hold up signs at a rally against a proposed Kinder Morgan oil pipeline expansion on Burnaby Mountain in 2014 in British Columbia. In late May, the Canadian government announced it would fund an expansion project for the Kinder Morgan Trans Moun

With pipeline decision, Canada’s Trudeau draws ire of environmental supporters

When Justin Trudeau was elected as the prime minister of Canada in 2015 he did so on a platform that pledged to reform the country’s environmental laws. Recent news of the Canadian government agreeing to fund a sands oil pipeline extension has many who voted for him questioning his motives.

Certain hair products — many of which are used on black girls from birth to help straighten their hair — have been linked to such health issues such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and breast cancer.

Study shows hair care products targeted to black community contain harmful chemicals

Health

The quest for straighter and smoother hair may be causing significant health issues, according to a new study.