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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Abnormally hot water in the Gulf of Mexico helped Hurricane Ian gain strength. Rapidly intensifying major hurricanes are more likely as the Earth gets hotter. -
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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Hurricane Ida rapidly gained strength right before it hit Louisiana this weekend. Abnormally hot water in the Gulf of Mexico acted as fuel for the storm.
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The U.N. has released the most comprehensive global climate science report ever. It is unequivocal: Humans must stop burning fossil fuels or suffer catastrophic impacts.
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Scientists say humans must keep global temperatures from increasing more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. The World Meteorological Organization warns that number is looming.
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The computer model that predicts the weather is getting more power. Climate change is upping the stakes for forecasters as extreme weather gets more common and residents demand earlier warnings.
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Space is the best place — maybe the only place — to get a complete picture of how climate change is affecting the Earth's oceans. And what happens in the ocean does not stay in the ocean.
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Hurricane Laura hit an area known for its refineries and chemical plants. They released millions of pounds of air pollution when they shut down, and many air monitors are not functioning.
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Hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves and disease outbreaks are all a preview of our hotter future. Dramatically cutting greenhouse gas emissions would help.
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Hurricane Laura rapidly intensified before it made landfall. Abnormally hot water in the Gulf of Mexico helped it gain power.
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Millions of home listings on Realtor.com now include information about climate change-driven flood risk. Other real estate sites are holding off.
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Focus more on water, less on wind and beware the cone of uncertainty. Here's a simple guide for understanding hurricane risks.
