Wilmer Vasquez was a gregarious extrovert. "He was very outgoing person," remembers his ex-girlfriend Rose Carvajal. He died in 2023 at just 29 years old after working outside as a roofer in record-breaking August heat in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Rose Carvajal hide caption
Cailyn Joseph, a PhD student in Andrew Baker's lab, organizes brain and elkhorn coral in Honduras before the trip to Miami.
University of Miami Rosenstiel School
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A man affected by the scorching heat is helped by another Muslim pilgrim and a police officer during the Hajj pilgrimage in Mina on June 16. Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Warehouses in California can get dangerously hot. The state just passed a rule protecting people who work indoors in industries like warehousing, restaurants or manufacturing from excessive heat. Virginie Goubier/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A rainbow appears behind a flooded neighborhood in Jamaica Beach, Texas, on Thursday. Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America hide caption
An Afghan boy shovels mud from the courtyard of a house following flash floods after heavy rainfall at a village in Baghlan-e-Markazi district of Baghlan province on May 11, 2024. More than 300 people were killed in flash flooding in Afghanistan's northern province of Baghlan, according to the World Food Programme. ATIF ARYAN/AFP via Getty Images/AFP hide caption
People rested at the Oregon Convention Center cooling station in Portland, Oregon during a record-breaking heat wave in 2021. FEMA has never responded to an extreme heat emergency, but some hope that will change. (Photo by Kathryn Elsesser / AFP via Getty Images) Kathryn Elsesser/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
The 'i'iwi is one of Hawaii's honeycreepers, forest birds that are found nowhere else. There were once more than 50 species. Now, only 17 remain. Ryan Kellman/NPR hide caption
A boy plays in a splash pad at Riverview Park on June 5 in Mesa, Ariz. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption
A satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Idalia, center, over Florida and crossing into Georgia, and Hurricane Franklin, right, as it moves along off the East coast of the U.S., on Aug. 30, 2023. AP/NOAA hide caption
Bill Gates poses for a portrait at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., June 13, 2024. Ben de la Cruz/NPR hide caption
Suppressing mosquitoes could give birds like the kiwikiu a chance to survive. “There is no place safe for them, so we have to make that place safe again,” says Chris Warren of Haleakalā National Park. “It’s the only option.”
Robby Kohley/DLNR/MFBRP
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A heat dome that began in Mexico in May moved into the U.S. in early June causing sweltering temperatures. Michala Garrison/NASA Earth Observatory hide caption
Pima County Medical Examiner Greg Hess at his office in Tucson, Ariz. Hess and another Arizona-based medical examiner are rethinking how to catalog and count heat-related deaths, a major step toward understanding the growing impacts of heat. Cassidy Araiza for NPR hide caption
Hurricane Ian passes over western Cuba in 2022, as captured by a U.S. weather satellite. Climate change is causing more extreme weather, and creates new challenges for weather forecasters. AP/NOAA hide caption
Catastrophic flash floods killed dozens of people in eastern Kentucky in July 2022. Here, homes in Jackson, Ky., are flooded with water. Arden S. Barnes/The Washington Post via Getty Images hide caption
A trash can overflows as people sit outside of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. Jacquelyn Martin/AP hide caption
Anthony Lee stands in front of his barn on his family farm in the German state of Lower Saxony. Lee has been an outspoken critic of the European Union’s climate change policies and has been a leader in the farmer protest movement in Europe. He’s running for EU Parliament for the right-wing Free Voter party and his YouTube channel has over 24 million views. Rob Schmitz/NPR hide caption
FWS Inspector Mac Elliot looks over a legal shipment while Braxton, a dog trained to smell heavily trafficked wildlife like reptiles and animal parts like ivory, enthusiastically does his job. Wildlife trafficking is one of the largest and most profitable crime sectors in the world. Estimates of its value range from $7-23 billion annually. Ryan Kellman/NPR hide caption
People walk through cooling misters on June 4, 2024 in Las Vegas. Tens of millions of people from California to Texas are experiencing intense heat. New data shows that the amount of planet-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has hit a new record. John Locher/AP hide caption
When patients use telehealth or visit health care centers closer to home, the overall climate impact of health care can be reduced. NoSystem images/Getty Images/E+ hide caption
A small tractor clears water from a business as flood waters block a street, July 12, 2023, in Barre, Vt. Vermont has become the first state to enact a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a share of the damage caused by climate change after the state suffered catastrophic summer flooding and damage from other extreme weather. Charles Krupa/AP/AP hide caption
