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This summer's record-breaking wildfires have reduced some forests to burnt trees and heaps of ash. In towns, the ash could clog pipes and cause problems with drinking water systems for years.

The specter of drought is often raised in these early days of summer. And for good reason, though water levels have returned to normal around the New…

Climate change is affecting what visitors see in Mesa Verde National Park. Over the past decade, scorching wildfires have destroyed archaeological artifacts — and have also revealed new ones.

The specter of drought is often raised in these early days of summer. And for good reason, though water levels have returned to normal around the New…

That's more than the number of the critically endangered species remaining. The orangutans have been hit hard by deforestation and hunting. The animals are native to the island.

As Washington State's wildfires rage, high temperatures and winds threaten more land. Firefighter Renee Jack tells NPR's Rachel Martin what it's like to be on the front line.

The urban oasis boasts about 170,000 different types of microbes, recent dirt samples show. That diversity is comparable to a tropical rain forest. About 2,000 species are found only in the park.

1. Vanishing Rest StopsFor the past fifty-three years, rest areas have offered weary travelers a place to pull off and pause and maybe even learn a little…

American chestnuts once made up a quarter of all the forest between Maine and Georgia. Animals depended on the tree for its fruit and humans used the wood. But at the beginning of the last century, a blight wiped out almost all of the chestnut trees. A few survive, including one specimen in upstate New York. The family that planted that tree 27 years ago enjoys its blooms each year at this time.

This week, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended lowering the legal limit of blood alcohol content for drivers to .05 or even lower. Currently, it's illegal to drive in all states with a BAC of .08 or higher. Host Scott Simon speaks with Dr. Anthony Liguori of Wake Forest School of Medicine about alcohol's impact on driving ability.