Elizabeth Shogren
Elizabeth Shogren is an NPR News Science Desk correspondent focused on covering environment and energy issues and news.
Since she came to NPR in 2005, Shogren's reporting has covered everything from the damage caused by the BP oil spill on the ecology of the Gulf Coast, to the persistence of industrial toxic air pollution as seen by the legacy of Tonawanda Coke near Buffalo, to the impact of climate change on American icons like grizzly bears.
Prior to NPR, Shogren spent 14 years as a reporter on a variety of beats at The Los Angeles Times, including four years reporting on environmental issues in Washington, D.C., and across the country. While working from the paper's Washington bureau, from 1993-2000, Shogren covered the White House, Congress, social policy, money and politics, and presidential campaigns. During that time, Shogren was given the opportunity to travel abroad on short-term foreign reporting assignments, including the Kosovo crisis in 1999, the Bosnian war in 1996, and Russian elections in 1993 and 1996. Before joining the Washington bureau, Shogren was based in Moscow where she covered the breakup of the Soviet Union and the rise of democracy in Russia for the newspaper.
Beginning in 1988, Shogren worked as a freelance reporter based in Moscow, publishing in a variety of newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek, The Dallas Morning News, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Washington Post. During that time, she covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful revolution in Prague.
Shogren's career in journalism began in the wire services. She worked for the Associated Press in Chicago and at United Press International in Albany, NY.
Throughout Shogren's career she has received numerous awards and honors including as a finalist for the 2011 Goldsmith Prize for investigative reporting, the National Wildlife Federation National Conservation Achievement Award, the Meade Prize for coverage of air pollution and she was an IRE finalist. She is a member of Sigma Delta Chi and the Society of Professional Journalist.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts in Russian studies at the University of Virginia, Shogren went on to receive a Master of Science in journalism from Columbia University.
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To withstand their 9,300-mile migration, red knots feast on eggs from horseshoe crabs each spring in Delaware Bay. Scientists worry many crabs are starting to lay eggs before the birds can get there. -
Next week President Obama will unveil his plan for the first nationwide program to control greenhouse gas emissions from the electrical power sector. States that have already started to control such emissions say it's not as hard as they thought it would be. They've ended up exceeding their goals, largely because of abundant natural gas, which burns more cleanly than coal.
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A new U.S. government report tells an unambiguous story: The planet is warming, climate change is driven primarily by people and it's already affecting Americans, through more frequent or intense heat waves, downpours and, in some regions, floods or droughts.
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Environmental groups that have mired the Keystone XL pipeline in delays now are focusing on LNG export terminals. They say opening up exports of natural gas will hasten domestic hydraulic fracturing.
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The Supreme Court is upholding a major EPA air pollution rule. The rule seeks to rein in pollution from power plant smoke stacks which can make the air in downwind states unhealthy. Researchers say the rule finally addresses a disconnect between the science of air pollution and the laws that had tried to clean it up.
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The Justice Department wants the settlement with mining company Kerr-McGee to send a powerful message: corporations can't shirk their responsibility to clean up the toxic legacies of their operations. -
Since the world community banned whaling, Japan has continued to permit its fleet to kill whales under the guise of scientific research. The International Court of Justice in the Hague Monday ordered Japan to stop whaling in the Antarctic Ocean. Japan says it will abide by the ruling.
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Toxic Chemical Dioxane Detected In More Water SuppliesWest Virginia's drinking water crisis earlier this year highlighted an unsettling truth about tap water: Treatment plants test for only a fraction of the chemicals in use.
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The Exxon Valdez spill happened 25 years ago Monday, and only 4 years ago this spring, a British Petroleum well spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. New research shows the effects of such disasters on the fish in those regions. The study focuses on commercially valuable fish and finds that concentrations of oil can be toxic to developing fish hearts.
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In the aftermath of the 1989 oil spill off the Alaskan coast, scientists expected the worst damage to be short-lived. Instead, the spill shattered conventional wisdom about oil's affect on wildlife.
