Latest Environmental News

The Butachimie chemical plant sits in Chalempe, eastern France, Tuesday, Nov.8, 2022. (Jean-Francois Badias/AP)

What Trump's win means for global efforts to fight climate change

Trump has promised to withdraw again from the Paris climate accords.

Here & Now

05:262 hours ago

Comparison of drought conditions on the banks of the Cambridge Reservoir looking south from Trapelo Road in Lincoln. Left, as seen on July 26, 2016, and right, Nov. 8, 2024. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

The drought in Massachusetts is getting worse

Environment

Nov 7, 2024

Amey Bailey records the status of sugar maples, American beech and yellow birch trees at sites throughout the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. (Zoey Knox/NHPR)

Climate change could affect fall colors. 30 years of data from N.H. might provide insights on how

Environment

Nov 7, 2024

A row of turbines in the Vineyard Wind project near Martha's Vineyard. (Raquel C Zaldívar/New England News Collaborative)

For environmentalists in Mass., a day of stress eating and laying plans after Trump's win

Environment

Nov 7, 2024

Support the news

PFAS Series

PFAS expert tips: How to reduce your exposure to harmful ‘forever chemicals’

Health

05:06Feb 13, 2023

Littleton Electric Light and Water Department workers inside a new water treatment facility that will remove PFAS chemical compounds from the water supply. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Toxic 'forever chemicals' force Mass. towns to face 'true cost of water'

Environment

04:52Feb 14, 2023

Town Administrator Denise Dembkoski points out on a map the origin of the PFAS contamination at the old fire station across the street from town offices. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Private well owners stuck with costs to treat 'forever chemicals'

Environment

05:21Feb 15, 2023

Tracing the path of toxic ‘forever chemicals’ inside the body

Health

05:41Feb 16, 2023

Climate Reality

At WBUR, we cover the climate conversation in ways that spur new ideas, provide a place for debate and arm our community in Massachusetts and beyond with information and inspiration...

Environment

Power Shift: The Future of Offshore Wind

Technicians of the Block Island Wind Farm Support Team repair a crack in the blade of one of the wind turbines. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

We asked big questions about the offshore wind industry. Here’s what we uncovered

Environment

Oct 15, 2021

Offshore wind is America's new industry. Who will build it?

Environment

06:41Oct 13, 2021

Fisherman Jamey McGroarty hurls a dogfish overboard to begin separating the squid from the bycatch from his haul. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

As turbines rise, small-scale fishermen have the most to lose

Environment

06:44Oct 14, 2021

The five turbines of the Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Big Oil wants to be Big Wind. Can fossil fuel companies be trusted?

Environment

06:13Oct 15, 2021

More Environmental News

Wind turbines are pictured in Bourne, Mass. on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, near the Cape Cod Canal. (Raquel C. Zaldívar/New England News Collaborative)

New England grid reports greenhouse gas reductions

Environment

Nov 5, 2024

A technician walks with a solar panel during a solar panel installation on the rooftop of Boston Building Resources in Jamaica Plain. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Here’s what’s in the new Mass. climate and clean energy bill

Local Coverage

Nov 4, 2024

Pumpkins, along with garden waste and other organic waste, await composting in this file photo from California. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

Do the pumpkin smash: Boston wants you to compost your gourds in community

Local Coverage

Nov 1, 2024

Diver Zach Talmadge holds on to the line that he'll use to attached to the abandoned lobster traps that he's found on the seafloor. (Courtesy of Noah Oppenheim)

These divers are trying to make a dent in Maine's 'ghost gear' problem, one abandoned trap at a time

Environment

Nov 1, 2024

Here & Now Climate News

More

Reporters' notebook: 'Electric speed' and hurricane-ready wind turbines

Here & Now

06:53Nov 1, 2024

Battles over environment slow down clean-energy projects

Here & Now

10:25Oct 31, 2024

Sunzia’s Todd Harrison at a new switchyard for the $10 billion project that will bring wind power from New Mexico to cities in Arizona and California. (Peter O'Dowd/Here & Now)

After nearly 20 years of planning, New Mexico powerline set to electrify the West with wind power

Here & Now

11:00Oct 30, 2024

In the Gulf of Mexico, an oil hub sees opportunity in offshore wind

Here & Now

10:18Oct 29, 2024

On Point Environment Stories

Boats cruise over the river Main next to the European Central Bank, right, in Frankfurt, Germany, after the sun set Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Can we save the quietest places in the world?

On Point

47:18Sep 10, 2024

The push to preserve quiet

On Point

Sep 10, 2024

A pedestrian crosses a street holding an umbrella to protect herself from the sun in downtown Los Angeles during a heatwave Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Is extreme heat an extreme disaster?

On Point

47:19Sep 9, 2024

A pedestrian shades from the sun using an umbrella in downtown Los Angeles as Southern California is hit by a heatwave Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

The dangers of extreme heat

On Point

Sep 9, 2024

Cars wait at a red light during rush hour at the Las Vegas Strip, in Las Vegas on Thursday, April 22, 2021. (John Locher/AP)

Fossil fuels are as American as apple pie

Cognoscenti

To clean up eastern Mass. rivers, EPA unveils new commercial property permit plan

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to require thousands of commercial, industrial and institutional property owners to get new permits and to modify their sites. The agency says the move...

Environment

Nov 1, 2024

Hugo Urbina, of SumCo Eco-Contracting, lifts a panel into the new living seawall at the Condor Street Urban Wild in East Boston. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Snails, mussels and seaweed: Boston project aims to bring life to barren seawalls

A pilot project from the Stone Living Lab aims to make seawalls more friendly for marine life, by turning them into "Living Seawalls." The group is using technology that was...

Environment

03:02Nov 1, 2024

Heavy machinery is used to cut trees to widen an existing Central Maine Power power line corridor to make way for new utility poles, April 26, 2021, near Bingham, Maine. (Robert F. Bukaty/AP)

Mass. ratepayers to pay extra $512M for transmission line for Canadian hydropower

Three Massachusetts utilities and a transmission line developer have agreed to pass along $512 million in added costs to Massachusetts ratepayers for an electric transmission project in western Maine. The...

Environment

Oct 31, 2024

Kiki Polk, one of the first Boston Medical Center patients to enroll in the Clean Power Prescription program, turns on the air conditioner in her home in Dorchester. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

When patients couldn’t afford utilities, a Boston hospital turned to solar for help

A doctor got tired of hearing that her patients couldn’t afford to run their breathing assistance machines, recharge their wheelchairs, turn on air conditioning or even keep refrigerators plugged in....

Health

04:03Oct 31, 2024

Robert Rowllins of Salisbury, N.H., finishes up a four-hour session of raking leaves out front of his Salisbury, N.H. home, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009. (Cheryl Senter/AP)

Should you 'leave the leaves' this fall?

Yards are filling up with fallen leaves at this time of year, but some biodiversity researchers are urging homeowners to "leave the leaves" where they are for the winter.

Local Coverage

Oct 30, 2024

A turbine stands in the Vineyard Wind 1 project area south of Martha’s Vineyard. (Eric Haynes/AP)

Gulf of Maine wind power sale attracts lackluster interest

Results from the federal government's first-ever wind energy lease sale netted about $22 million in lease payments for four parcels off the coast of Cape Cod and Maine. The sale...

Environment

Oct 30, 2024

A whitetail doe and her fawn keep an eye out from a field in Freeport, Maine. (Robert F. Bukaty/AP)

Maine asks hunters to avoid eating deer, turkey in some areas because of PFAS contamination

Hunters trek to Maine every autumn from around the Northeast. But the state has issued a "do not eat" advisory for two of the most popular game animals because of...

Local Coverage

Oct 29, 2024

Trucks hauling shipping containers drive in Boston in 2023. (Michael Dwyer/AP)

Why is Massachusetts slow-rolling this emissions rule for trucks?

Gov. Maura Healey’s administration is delaying a new tailpipe emissions rule for heavy-duty trucks, following recent pushback from the trucking industry and some lawmakers.

Local Coverage

Oct 25, 2024