Rebecca Hersher

Federal officials at the U.N. climate meeting are ignoring climate science and touting coal and fossil fuels. But local and state authorities pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on their own.

World leaders are gathered in Poland this week to discuss climate change. The U.S. hosted a meeting on coal, a highly polluting fuel, that many developing nations depend on.

The U.S. hosted an event on coal and refused to endorse the findings of a dire climate science report. And yet, in official negotiations, the U.S. is working out how to implement the Paris agreement.

The U.N. climate meeting underway in Poland is the most important climate conference since the 2015 Paris Agreement set emissions reduction goals for nearly every country on Earth.

According to the government's most comprehensive assessment to date, climate change has already damaged American infrastructure and cost both money and lives.

The city itself — skyscrapers, homes and factories — snagged the moist air of Hurricane Harvey and caused more rain to fall. Two new studies detail how humans are making hurricane flooding worse.

A chemical in common paint removal products is implicated in more than 50 deaths. Even though a federal ban has been delayed, some major retailers are voluntarily taking the products off shelves.

People in Puerto Rico don't trust the water supply, and with good reason. Local systems aren't adequately tested for contaminants, including lead.

In the town of Florence, S.C., residents have been spared the worst of the flooding since Florence made landfall. But at church on Sunday, residents were on edge as flash flood warnings continued.

Residents who evacuated early in the week have already been sleeping in shelters for days. But Tropical Storm Florence still has days of rain and wind to go.

Hundreds of thousands are without power in North Carolina after Hurricane Florence made landfall. Meanwhile, the storm has begun to rip through South Carolina, where the worst is likely still ahead.

Whenever a hurricane is on the way, the same questions tend to resurface. Are storms really becoming stronger and more frequent? And is climate change playing a role? NPR's Rebecca Hersher explains.

Hurricane Florence — large, slow and full of moisture — is threatening to inundate the Southeast. It's a type of storm that's getting more likely to form.

Hurricane Harvey was a wake-up call for petrochemical plants along the Gulf Coast to rethink plans for major floods. Some companies are starting to prepare for storms that are larger and more severe.

Hurricane Harvey was a wake-up call for petrochemical plants along the Gulf Coast to rethink their plans for major floods. Companies are starting to plan for larger, more severe storms.

Criminal charges against a chemical company that flooded during Hurricane Harvey are raising two big questions: When is pollution an accident? And when is it a crime?

Harvey flooded multiple hazardous waste sites around Houston. The cleanup is moving more quickly than it has in the past but it will still be years before most waste is moved out of the flood plain.

Humankind has long been taunted by the puzzle. Well, we've got some breaking news, folks — or at any rate some big news about breaking: The answer involves one very big twist.

Climate change is causing more severe flooding around the country, and a disproportionate number of Native American communities are on the front lines.

When harvests are bad, Native Americans in the region may go without rice for the year. And there have been a lot of bad years lately, as climate change causes more frequent and severe rainstorms.