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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Extremely heavy rain fell in the hardest-hit provinces. About 75% more water is falling during the heaviest rainstorms in the region, according to a new scientific analysis. -
The Earth has already warmed more than 1 degree Celsius. New research suggests that above 1.5 degrees, massive ice melt, ocean current disruptions and coral die-offs are likely. -
Millions of people rely on city parks to recharge, cool off and connect. But climate change is threatening the very spaces that help us cope with the stresses of living on a hotter planet. -
Humans are sweaty beasts, but it turns out many other animals have different ways to keep cool. Staff of the Maryland Zoo help explain how their residents regulate their temperatures.
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The White House is touting the Inflation Reduction Act as a major fix for environmental injustices. But many experts and grassroots anti-pollution groups say the bill is anything but equitable.
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The Inflation Reduction Act is the biggest ever investment to tackle climate change. But there are signs that it could reinforce existing environmental inequalities. -
The Arctic is very sensitive to climate change. In the last 40 years, the region has warmed much more rapidly than the Earth as a whole, a new study finds. -
As the Earth heats up, heavy rain is getting more common across the United States. That means more severe floods happen more often. -
Climate change means more rain and higher seas, which adds up to more flooded homes. Even a small amount of water indoors can cost a lot. -
The floods in Missouri and Kentucky this week were both caused by extreme rainfall. Climate change is making such rain more common, and driving dangerous floods across much of the U.S.
