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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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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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.
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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.
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A majority of people in the U.S. have experienced extreme weather in the last five years, according to a new survey conducted by NPR, Harvard University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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Federal forecasters predict 14 to 21 named storms will form in the Atlantic this hurricane season, which begins June 1. (This story first on on All Things Considered on May 24, 2022)
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Some ecosystems have already been irreversibly altered, scientists say. And climate change is wreaking havoc on human health.
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The Department of Housing and Urban Development disproportionately sells homes in flood-prone areas, NPR finds. Housing experts warn that this can lead to big losses for vulnerable families.
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People are likely to be confused by common terms such as "mitigation" and "carbon neutral," according to a recent study. How can scientists do a better job communicating about global warming?
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Underground trains are incredibly susceptible to flooding from climate-driven extreme rain and sea level rise. Cities around the world are racing to adapt their transit systems.