Environment

Decades of mining for jade has left the landscape desolate. Local activists want to make a change — but can they stand up to the powerful companies that dominate the industry?

China is investing in both coal and renewable energy, the European Union promises to dramatically reduce carbon emissions and the U.S. is leaving the Paris Agreement altogether. What will 2021 hold?

A huge wildfire shut down a portion of a cross-country interstate highway for two weeks. Now, in a ripple effect of the fire, the newly treeless area is vulnerable to flash floods and landslides.

The fires, which have scorched nearly 6,000 square miles in California, now threaten to tear through communities in the state's picturesque wine country, forcing thousands to evacuate.

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with Brendan Cummings, who authored a petition asking the state of California to protect the western Joshua Tree from climate change.

The move extends a moratorium Trump imposed earlier this month. The oil industry opposes the move. Trump's detractors say Trump is playing politics ahead of a close election battle.

Climate change is major election issue for Democrats, but not Republicans. Yet polls show many young conservatives are concerned about climate impacts, and some are lobbying for solutions.

For the last two years, the administration has been working to lift the rule prohibiting development in the Tongass, the country's largest national forest.

The famed naturalist and broadcaster beat out actress Jennifer Aniston for fastest time to reach one million followers on Instagram, according to Guinness World Records.

"This is where the automobile manufacturers are going," Newsom tells NPR a day after ordering a 2035 ban gasoline cars. "We want to accelerate a trend you're seeing all around the rest of the world."

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Wednesday that amounts to the most aggressive clean-car policy in the U.S. and would end the sale of new gas vehicles in the state in 15 years.

"While they are still alive and in water, there is certainly hope for them, but as time goes on, they become more fatigued and their chance of survival reduces," said a government wildlife official.