News & Commentary

Beauty and Despair Collide in These Murals of the Great Lakes

December 5, 2017 PerspectivesUnited StatesClara Chaisson

Alexis Rockman’s new series creates a vision of the lakes’ past, present, and future that sparks imagination while addressing stark realities.

Climate Change May Bring Big Trouble to Big Bluestems (and the Cattle That Love Them)

December 4, 2017 DispatchMidwestSusan Cosier

As higher temperatures head north, the Great Plains’ grasslands are in for a transformation.

Conflicts of Interest Swamp the Department of Interior

December 1, 2017 Latest NewsUnited StatesJeff Turrentine

While his fellow Cabinet members struggle to fill key positions, Ryan Zinke is staffing the Interior with former lobbyists for oil and gas companies.

When Its Rainforest Disappeared, This Raptor Became a Beach Bum

November 30, 2017 Latest NewsInternationalJason Bittel

To save the critically endangered Ridgway’s hawk, scientists sent it to this Dominican resort town.

For This Ex-miner, BBQ (Not Coal) Is the Answer

November 28, 2017 DispatchIllinoisSusan Cosier

Southern Illinois is waiting for Trump’s promised coal boom, but job prospects are still a bust.

Buy Cleaning Products? A New Law Has Your Back

November 27, 2017 DispatchCaliforniaCorey Binns

Manufacturers will soon have to disclose what’s in the bottle—including toxic chemicals long omitted from packaging labels.

How Best to Rebuild a Hurricane-Ravaged City? Listen to the Residents, Says This New Orleans Native

November 27, 2017 NRDC in ActionNew Orleans, LouisianaNicole Greenfield

Khalil Shahyd had a hand in helping his hometown recover from Katrina, and now he advocates for climate resiliency on behalf of vulnerable communities nationwide.

Wild Turkeys Are Heroes to Critters Up and Down the Eastern Seaboard

November 21, 2017 Latest NewsUnited StatesJason Bittel

Red-cockaded woodpeckers, eastern cottontails, and eagles can thank turkeys (and conservationists) for saving their homes.

Would More People Ride the Bus if It Looked and Felt Like a Train?

November 17, 2017 PerspectivesUnited StatesJeff Turrentine

Bus rapid transit has gone totally off the rails.

Florida’s Endangered Key Deer Survived Hurricane Irma—but Their Future Is Stormy

November 17, 2017 Latest NewsFloridaJason Bittel

From climate change to kidnappings, the threats are adding up against these tiny, adorable cervids.

This Thanksgiving, Nashville Saves Food and Feeds the Hungry

November 16, 2017 DispatchNashville, TennesseeRobynne Boyd

In Music City, restaurateurs, grocers, farmers, volunteers, the mayor, and NRDC's Nashville Food Waste Initiative are harmonizing in the fight against wasted food.

This 13-Year-Old Gives Us Hope for the Future

November 16, 2017 DispatchConnecticut, Washington, D.C.Nicole Greenfield

From the classroom to Capitol Hill, Sena Wazer has dedicated herself to standing up for whales.

A Tale of Two Treaties: One Saved the Ozone Layer, the Other Aims to Curb Climate Change

November 9, 2017 Latest NewsInternationalJeff Turrentine

Will Trump undermine both of them?

The Complicated Story Behind 18,000 Dead Penguin Chicks

November 9, 2017 Latest NewsInternationalJason Bittel

Despite global lows in sea ice coverage, too much ice (also caused by climate change) may be to blame for this Antarctica disaster.

A Hospice for Hemlocks? An Art Installation Wrestles with the Loss of an Iconic Tree

November 9, 2017 PerspectivesEast, United StatesClara Chaisson

Massachusetts’s Harvard Forest is in mourning as invasive insects kill eastern hemlocks all along the Atlantic Seaboard.

New Haven Is for the Birds—and the People

November 7, 2017 DispatchConnecticutClara Chaisson

This partnership is bringing bird-friendly “urban oases” to underserved neighborhoods in Connecticut.

Keeping a Close Watch on China’s Climate Transition

November 7, 2017 NRDC in ActionBeijing, Shanghai, ChinaJeff Turrentine

JingJing Qian, senior strategic advisor for NRDC’s China program, is bearing witness to some truly remarkable changes taking place in her home country. She’s also helping to make those changes happen.

Trump Is No Teddy Roosevelt to America’s Outdoorsmen

November 3, 2017 Latest NewsUnited StatesJeff Turrentine

Like other environmentalists, hunters and anglers are angry about the administration’s attacks on public lands—and they’re not afraid to use their outside voices.

Scientists Discover a New—and Endangered—Orangutan Species

November 2, 2017 Latest NewsInternationalJason Bittel

Meet the frizzy-haired Tapanuli orangutan, already among the world’s most imperiled great apes.

Environmental Advocacy Is a First Amendment Right

October 31, 2017 ExplainerUnited StatesBrian Palmer

Industrial polluters have gone to great lengths to stifle environmental advocacy, but their expansion of censorship laws has finally crossed a line for some federal judges.