enviroment : NPR

Grace Wertanen, the "seedling intern" at Growing Hope Urban Farm in Ypsilanti, Mich. carries a tray of soil blocked plants Neda Ulaby/NPR hide caption

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Neda Ulaby/NPR

Gardening

What's soil blocking? This seeding method helps gardeners use less plastic and peat

March 26, 2025 • Soil blocking is an environmentally friendly method to prep seedlings. The technique has captured the attention of serious gardeners who'd like to make their growing more sustainable.

What's soil blocking? This seeding method helps gardeners use less plastic and peat

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A rocket sits on a launchpad with watery habitat in the foreground.

Starship is the largest rocket ever built. Elon Musk hopes it will one day fly humans and other species to Mars, but environmentalists say it's doing damage to the local habitat around the Texas launch site. Verónica Gabriel Cárdenas for NPR hide caption

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Verónica Gabriel Cárdenas for NPR

Space

SpaceX wants to go to Mars. To get there, environmentalists say it’s trashing Texas

October 11, 2024 • With each launch, SpaceX has been discharging tens of thousands of gallons of industrial wastewater into sensitive wetlands. Environmentalists say an increase in launches will only make things worse.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS SAY SPACEX IS TRASHING TEXAS

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Floating Toilets That Clean Themselves Grow On A Lake

During the dry season, human waste makes the water putrid along the floating village of Prek Toal on Tonle Sap Lake. Courtesy of Taber Hand hide caption

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Courtesy of Taber Hand

Goats and Soda

Floating Toilets That Clean Themselves Grow On A Lake

December 23, 2014 • A new project places little kayaks filled with aquatic plants under latrines in floating homes on Southeast Asia's largest freshwater lake. So how do the toilets clean the wastewater?

Grasslands Get Squeezed As Another 1.6 Million Acres Go Into Crops

Retired farmer Joe Govert looks at a parcel of family land near Tribune, Kan. It has been enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. Charlie Riedel/AP hide caption

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Charlie Riedel/AP

The Salt

Grasslands Get Squeezed As Another 1.6 Million Acres Go Into Crops

December 22, 2013 • Over the past decade, the government has been paying farmers to keep their land covered with native grasses instead of crops. But as grain prices have risen, the conservation reserve has shrunk by more than 25 percent. This decline in native grasslands means more soil erosion and less habitat for wildlife.

Grasslands Get Squeezed As Another 1.6 Million Acres Go Into Crops

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