Rebecca Ramirez

5 days ago | wrvo.org | Emily Kwong |Regina Barber |Hannah Chinn |Rebecca Ramirez

In 2018, computer scientist Sasha Luccioni was an AI researcher for Morgan Stanley — and couldn't shake this existential worry. "I essentially was getting more and more climate anxiety. I was really feeling this profound disconnect between my job and my values and the things that I cared about," Luccioni told NPR. So Luccioni quit her job.

1 week ago | wrvo.org | Emily Kwong |Regina Barber |Hannah Chinn |Rebecca Ramirez

As the tech industry has grown, so too have data centers. Data centers are enormous buildings filled with hundreds of thousands of computers that store cloud data and power artificial intelligence. To keep up with computing demands, data centers use electricity and sometimes chilled water to keep those computers cool. The result? A surge in energy and water use that has caught the attention of scientists and lawmakers.

2 weeks ago | wrvo.org | Regina Barber |Nell Greenfieldboyce |Rachel Carlson |Rebecca Ramirez

Some scientists are convinced that beyond Neptune, there's a planet they've yet to see. This so-called "Planet 9" is so far away, it would be a faint object. The stretch of sky researchers would have to search is huge. But a new astronomical facility on a mountaintop in Chile could help tackle the search. The NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory has been under construction for years.

3 weeks ago | wrvo.org | Jonathan Lambert |Emily Kwong |Hannah Chinn |Rebecca Ramirez

A fish walks into a pharmacy ... It's the start of a joke – with echoes in reality. Sort of. Fish aren't being prescribed anti-anxiety drugs. But they are experiencing the effects. That's because fish and other aquatic creatures are being affected by increasing levels of drug pollution – from human waste or pharmaceutical factory runoff – that then seep into our waterways. Researchers have found more than 900 different pharmaceutical ingredients in rivers and streams around the world.

3 weeks ago | tpr.org | Hannah Chinn |Emily Kwong |Rebecca Ramirez

This is the first episode of Nature Quest, a monthly Short Wave segment that answers listener questions about your local environment. Every month, we'll be bringing you a question from a fellow listener who is curious about how nature is changing – how to pay attention to the land around us – and make every day Earth Day. Shai Tsur lives in Oakland, California. He's used to seeing flowers bloom in his neighborhood: pear trees, plum trees, California poppies. But not in January.