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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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. -
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. -
For decades, it was impossible to say that a specific weather event was caused, or even made worse, by climate change. But advanced research methods are changing that. -
Most Americans have recently been affected by extreme weather and support efforts to protect against future disasters, a new survey finds. And many people suffer long-term financial problems. -
Federal forecasters expect more hurricanes than usual this year. Climate change is driving larger, more destructive storms. This is the seventh year in a row with an above-average forecast. -
Burning oil, coal and other fossil fuels releases plumes of tiny, dangerous particles. A new study estimates that eliminating that pollution would save about 50,000 lives in the U.S. each year. -
The U.S. promised to slash its emissions and send tens of billions of dollars to low-lying and less well-off nations. The war in Ukraine is delaying that even as the toll from climate change rises.
