forests

When lightning strikes a giant tree in the tropical rainforest, there's usually no fire, no blackened crater — you might not even notice any damage. But come back months later, as Evan Gora does, and you may find that tree and dozens around it dead. Gora, a forest ecologist who studies lightning in tropical forests, says we are just beginning to understand how lightning actually behaves in these forests, and what its implications are for climate change. On today's episode, Evan Gora tells Aaron Scott about shocking discoveries in lightning research, and why Evan has developed a healthy respect for the hazards it poses – both to individual researchers and to the forests that life on Earth depends on.

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The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just released the second of three reports on climate change. Nearly 300 scientists from all over the world worked together to create this account of how global warming is affecting our society.

NPR climate reporter Rebecca Hersher fills us in on this major climate science report and actually brings three empowering takeaways hidden within it.

Read the report here: https://bit.ly/3hzWNFv

And listen to Rebecca Hersher's hopeful takeaways from the first report: https://n.pr/3pwZRGX

What empowers you when thinking about climate change? Email the show at shortwave@npr.org!

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All of this week's episodes of It Could Happen Here put together in one large file.2

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Sure, you know that trees have an impact on climate change: to wit, fewer trees mean more atmospheric CO2. But did you know that trees can actually impact local and immediate weather? Learn about why you should love trees even more than you do.

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