Rebecca Hersher
Rebecca Hersher 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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Last year's data collected by the agencies is the latest confirmation that the Earth is steadily getting hotter. The planet is now almost 1 degree Celsius warmer than it was in the mid-20th century. -
Massive Australian wildfires are sending embers high into the atmosphere. When they rain down, they can start new fires far from the original source, and some buildings are more flammable than others. -
Two major cyclones and a prolonged drought in 2019 are a reminder that Mozambique's residents are on the front lines of climate change. And they do not have all the resources they need. -
As world leaders gather for a climate summit in Madrid, some of the countries most vulnerable to climate change say they need improved forecasting tools. -
A New York City hospital has created a playlist of songs with the ideal tempo for CPR, although previous research suggests there is more to good chest compressions than just the right tempo. -
A United Nations report warns that greenhouse gas emissions from the world's largest economies must drop dramatically in the next decade to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change. -
Under the agreement hammered out in 2015, the first day that countries can reverse the promises they made is Nov. 4, 2019. It will be another year before the American withdrawal is official. -
Kurdish forces in northern Syria relied on American troops to help them maintain control of the region. Now, they are aligning themselves with Syrian forces that are backed by Russia. -
More than 50 people are dead in the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis, which dropped extreme amounts of rain over the weekend and caused catastrophic flooding in residential areas. -
Scientists have released the most detailed look yet at where and how the U.S. government helps residents retreat from flood-prone areas. Climate change is making such questions more urgent.
