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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A new study suggests that climate change is making back-to-back hurricanes more typical, which could make it tougher for coastal communities to recover.
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The EPA is updating its most powerful climate policy tool: a single number called the social cost of carbon. The new number is more accurate, but is also raising ethical concerns.
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Delegates reached a last-minute deal to pay vulnerable countries for damages caused by climate change. But the final agreement does not put humanity on track to avoid catastrophic warming.
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Climate change is an everyday reality for students and teachers living in the Himalayan mountains of Nepal. At one school, they are trying to learn more about the forces that could upend their lives.
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Global leaders are negotiating about how to cut greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible. Scientists say every passing day, and every tenth of a degree, makes a big difference.
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World leaders are meeting in Egypt for the next two weeks to talk about reining in climate change and paying for its deadly effects. Here's what you need to know.
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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.
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Cities in the U.S. are looking for ways to adapt the designs of their parks — and their hours of operations — to keep them functional as climate change raises temperatures around the world.
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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.
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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.