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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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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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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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. -
The case focuses on the Clean Air Act permitting required of companies that want to build or modify facilities expected to emit a lot of gases. Critics call the requirement costly and time-consuming. -
The department's final environmental assessment of the Keystone XL pipeline found that blocking the project probably wouldn't stop the development of Canada's tar sands. But the review didn't endorse the pipeline either. Secretary Kerry — and, ultimately, President Obama — will have the final say. -
The rare northern spotted owl species faces habitat loss and, now, intruding barred owls. A biologist, and the federal government, have made a difficult decision — killing one owl to ward off the extinction of another.
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Global warming is pushing species like the polar bear to the brink of extinction. It's not a typical conservation problem, so one government biologist discovered the best way he could help save the great white bears was to quit his job.
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Biologists armed with truck-mounted spotlights, flea spray, and anti-plague vaccine roam the South Dakota grasslands each night, five months a year, as part of a 30-year rescue mission.
