Rebecca Hersher
Rebecca Hersher (she/her) is a reporter on NPR's Science Desk, where she reports on outbreaks, natural disasters, and environmental and health research. Since coming to NPR in 2011, she has covered the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, embedded with the Afghan army after the American combat mission ended, and reported on floods and hurricanes in the U.S. She's also reported on research about puppies. Before her work on the Science Desk, she was a producer for NPR's Weekend All Things Considered in Los Angeles.
Hersher was part of the NPR team that won a Peabody award for coverage of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and produced a story from Liberia that won an Edward R. Murrow award for use of sound. She was a finalist for the 2017 Daniel Schorr prize; a 2017 Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting fellow, reporting on sanitation in Haiti; and a 2015 NPR Above the Fray fellow, investigating the causes of the suicide epidemic in Greenland.
Prior to working at NPR, Hersher reported on biomedical research and pharmaceutical news for Nature Medicine.
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Burning oil, coal and other fossil fuels releases plumes of tiny, dangerous particles. A new study estimates that eliminating that pollution would save about 50,000 lives in the U.S. each year. -
The U.S. promised to slash its emissions and send tens of billions of dollars to low-lying and less well-off nations. The war in Ukraine is delaying that even as the toll from climate change rises. -
The facilities are located in every state, and are threatened by floods, hurricanes and wildfires that can cause dangerous leaks and explosions, according to a federal watchdog. -
Some ecosystems have already been irreversibly altered, scientists say. And climate change is wreaking havoc on human health. -
Arctic communities have long been plagued by soot that drives snow melt and respiratory disease. Now, humans are making their mark in Antarctica. -
Sea levels are rising even faster on the East Coast and Gulf Coast. And advances in climate science mean we can see the future clearly for the first time.
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Billions of people rely on glaciers for drinking water, hydropower and irrigation. A raft of new research suggests there is less ice left than previously thought. -
When hurricanes cause both extreme high tides and heavy rains, devastating floods ensue. Such storms will get much more frequent by the end of the century, according to a new study. -
Climate change means more flood risk from rising seas, hurricanes and heavy rain. Black communities in the southern U.S. are in the crosshairs, according to a new analysis. -
The case brought by Baltimore is one of more than 20 similar lawsuits nationwide that seek to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their role in climate change.
