Search results for

After years of drought, California is getting drenched with rains. Some scientists and farmers are testing a way to capture that water by filling the state's depleted groundwater aquifers.

In a statement released Wednesday morning by Donald Trump's transition team, the president-elect has picked former Texas Governor Rick Perry to be secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy.

A new survey finds strong public support for organic food, and suspicion of GMOs — regardless of whether people vote Republican or Democratic. Also, people don't trust scientists much at all.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the last major overhaul of the U.S. tax code. This election year, both President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney say they are committed to serious tax reform, which would include simplifying the code and reducing middle-class tax rates. Weekend Edition host Scott Simon talks with New York Times columnist Joe Nocera, who takes a look back at the historic 1986 reform and finds the required elements of that deal missing in the current political climate.

More than 150 years ago, prospectors moved to California hoping to strike it rich. Now, companies are reopening hard rock mines that have been shut down for decades, but past experiences with environmental damage have made some communities leery of gold diggers.

The good news: Sea level has risen by just a half-inch in the past 20 years as a result of shrinking ice. The bad news: The melting is now speeding up. Over the next century, this could contribute to another 2- to 3-foot rise in sea level — enough to flood New York City every few years.

Environmentalists are focusing on big corporations to prevent the destruction of rain forests cut down for paper products. With help from some unlikely characters, they've scored a success against one of the world's largest paper companies.

Host Scott Simon speaks with Val Castor, the senior "StormTracker" for News 9 in Oklahoma City, about what it's like to do the job in one of the most climatically volatile regions of the country.

The record-breaking wildfire in Yosemite National Park is calling attention to a problem found across the West: Forests are overloaded with fuel after a century of putting out fires. What to do about that is fueling its own heated debate.

The Winter Olympics are just over three months away and have already given rise to some superlatives: most expensive (at more than $50 billion), most heavily guarded and, potentially, most controversial. Is Russia ready? We answer some key questions.