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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More than 4 million homes face substantial risk of expensive flood damage, a research organization says. Communities where flood insurance is already unaffordable face potentially catastrophic damage. -
Israeli authorities are still trying to pinpoint the source of a major oil spill that has polluted much of the country's coastline with chunks of tar. -
Texas allows companies to sell electricity at wholesale prices. When the price of electricity skyrocketed last week, that meant exorbitant bills for many residents who had been trying to save money. -
The sea level is rising more in some coastal places than in others. But why is that? It has to do with wind, currents, glaciers and even the last Ice Age.
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People of color experience more air and water pollution than white people and suffer the health impacts. It has long been an underaddressed issue in the federal government. -
Overwhelmed sewers. Flooded streets. Deadly heat waves. Baltimore is one of many American cities where the costs of climate change far exceed local resources. Should oil companies pay? -
Studies based on private health data are crucial to understanding dangers posed by pollution. A new rule makes it harder for the EPA to consider many studies when setting safeguards. -
2020 and 2016 are virtually tied for the hottest year on record. That means more powerful hurricanes, more intense wildfires, less ice and longer heat waves. -
Regan is the top environmental regulator for North Carolina. He would be first African American man to run the EPA, and he would oversee much of the federal government's response to climate change. -
Mallory, an Obama veteran, would take the helm at a White House office where she worked as former general counsel. The CEQ is seen as critical to address climate change and environmental equity.
