WAER - Site Search

A clampdown on contamination in growing fields has pushed out wildlife and destroyed habitats.

How Making Food Safe Can Harm Wildlife And Water

After an outbreak of E. coli in spinach killed several people in 2006, farmers clamped down on every possible source of contamination. Those safety efforts have also pushed out wildlife, destroyed sensitive habitats and increased pollution in waterways.

Shugri Said Salh, second from left, with her husband and three children. From left to right: Her daughters Ayan and Sabina, her husband Selehdin and her son Sami.

A Onetime Nomad Reflects On The Beauty And Harshness Of Life In The Somali Desert

Shugri Said Salh recounts her journey from goat- and camel-herding nomad in Somalia to nurse and mom of three in California in her memoir, The Last Nomad: Coming of Age in the Somali Desert.

Tree planters walk into a cut block with no road access, carrying food, water and a full load of trees to be planted. Unpaid walk-ins of up to an hour are not uncommon in remote areas.

How planting trees fostered a sense of belonging and changed this filmmaker's life

Cinematographer Luc Forsyth documents the back-breaking manual labor and niche community of tree planting.

Physicians say roughly half of all preterm births are preventable, caused by social, economic and environmental factors, as well as inadequate access to prenatal health care.

The U.S. has a high rate of preterm births, and abortion bans could make that worse

The rates of premature birth in the U.S. are high, especially in certain states. Experts worry that states restricting abortion have fewer maternal care providers than those with abortion access.

Georgia is becoming a hub for electric vehicle production. Just don't mention climate

Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp, is pledging to make his state the "electric mobility capital" of the country without embracing the climate realities that are helping drive the transition.

The Allegheny and Monongahela rivers converge to form the start of the Ohio River in Pittsburgh, Pa. The 981-mile-long river stretches all the way to Cairo, Ill., where it flows into the Mississippi River. The Ohio River supplies drinking water to 5 million people.

The Colorado and Ohio rivers are among the 'most endangered' in America. Here's why

A new report from the conservation group American Rivers names a stretch of the Colorado River, the Ohio River and eight other rivers as endangered.

In January 2022, a woman walks toward what was the only crossing between the rest of Ukraine and the northernmost occupied territory, manned by guards on both sides who check documents in Stanytsia Luhanska, in eastern Ukraine.

Photographing a year of war and resilience in Ukraine

NPR photographer Claire Harbage shares her experiences of documenting life in Ukraine for the past year, amid the ongoing Russian invasion.

A soldier fires a Carl Gustav recoilless rifle system during weapons practice in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Heavy weapons like these generate a shock wave that may cause brain injuries.

Pentagon Shelves Blast Gauges Meant To Detect Battlefield Brain Injuries

The military hoped the body-worn sensors would identify troops with brain injuries from a bomb blast. Instead, the sensors showed service members may be at risk from firing their own weapons.

Staff at Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute sluice juvenile white seabass into a cage at Santa Catalina Island, in Southern California, where they grow before being released into the ocean. Thirty-five years ago, the state launched the program to bolster waning white seabass numbers. Now the first scientific assessment of the program finds it had a stunningly low success rate.

$40 Million Later, A Pioneering Plan To Boost Wild Fish Stocks Shows Little Success

A California program begun 35 years ago to boost waning white seabass populations became a model for other states. Now the first scientific review finds the program had a stunningly low success rate.

Mortician Caitlin Doughty says she romanticized working in a crematory, like this one in Watertown, Mass. But the reality is that modern crematories are "really industrial environments and the body goes into large industrial machines." And, she says, "oftentimes I was the only one there."

A Mortician Talks Openly About Death, And Wants You To, Too

"You're never going to be completely comfortable with it," says mortician and author Caitlin Doughty. "But it's an important process." Smoke Gets In Your Eyes is her new memoir.

Search results for