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NPR Environmental news
NPR Topics: Environment
Breaking 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.

Environment
  • Un-Natural Selection: Human Evolution's Next Steps
    Millions of years ago, the natural environment was shaping us into the species we are now and humans evolved by natural selection.  But as humans continue to evolve, we've turned the notion of natural selection on its head. Nature isn't the only force that picks the genes. Humans are doing it too.

  • Evolving Culture: Where Do We Go From Here?
    Humans are still evolving, but cultural evolution is far outpacing genetic evolution. Our environment and technology are changing so rapidly that genetic adaptations can't keep up. So we're adapting by learning new things and passing that knowledge onto the next generation.

  • Scientist Watches Glacier Melt Beneath His Feet
    Scientists collecting ice cores from Indonesia's Pancak Jaya say they saw the 16,000-foot glacier drop 12 inches in just two weeks. Puncak Jaya is one of the few tropical glaciers remaining in the world, and it's especially vulnerable to climate change. This makes it especially important to researchers.

  • A Village Sacrificed For China's Greater Good
    A $62-billion water diversion project 60 years in the making will channel water from the south of the country to the drought-prone North. The project will dislocate 330,000 people, who must leave their homes forever.

  • Former Skeptic Offers Ideas On Climate Change
    Bjorn Lomborg, the controversial Danish economist, has pushed his way back into the global warming debate with a book that proposes "smart solutions" to climate change. Those promised solutions rely heavily on R&D aimed at making clean energy cheap, rather than attempts to shut down dirty energy sources. Lomborg says his views haven't changed, but more people are willing to listen to him because international negotiations on limiting greenhouse emissions have accomplished so little.