Katelynn Delos Reyes thought she knew what to expect when Typhoon Sinlaku slammed into Saipan last month. As a lifelong resident of the island, Delos Reyes had survived frequent storms, including Supertyphoon Yutu, the second-strongest in U.S. history. Eight years ago, Yutu’s 170-mph winds devastated her village in the southern...
The world’s largest data center was supposed to run on 100% natural gas. Utah’s Republican governor says ‘never.’
A sprawling, 40,000-acre data center planned for northern Utah has stirred up controversy across the state over the past month, partly because of the pollution it’s expected to contribute to a region that already struggles with smog. Officials with the quasi-governmental Military Installation Development Authority, or MIDA, which approved the...
Wildfire smoke engulfed their cities. Did it make their babies sick?
They never thought the fires would reach them. They lived in cities, after all, far from the parched, combustible wilderness. There’s the woman who never expected to have to grab her 1-year-old out of her bed in the middle of the night, shielding her soft head from a hailstorm of...
Everlane, Shein, and the myth of sustainable fashion
As a college sophomore with an internet connection during the Obama era, I was instantly intrigued by the promise of the new direct-to-consumer clothing brand Everlane. I don’t remember how or when I found out about the fashion startup exactly; I just remember getting the emails. Launched around 2011 with...
Nike’s recycled World Cup uniforms reveal the limits of ‘circular’ fashion
In June, athletes from 16 countries will kick off the World Cup wearing other people’s used clothing. Well, maybe. They’ll be sporting uniforms made from recycled fabric, potentially including a mix of scraps and old clothes. It’s the latest initiative from Nike, one of the world’s largest apparel companies, to...
‘I need Chevron’: The oil company at the center of the California governor’s race
When it comes to California’s climate future, the most important figure in the state’s chaotic governor’s race may not be any of the candidates on the debate stage. It may not even be outgoing governor Gavin Newsom or President Donald Trump. Instead, it might just be Chevron, the multinational oil...
The EPA just walked back Hawai‘i’s plan to retire its dinosaur power plants
Hawaiʻi has some of the freshest air in the nation, but in some parts of the state hazy skies can impact tourism and public health. Now, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has pumped the brakes on a multi-decade effort to improve visibility and reduce fine particulates and other man-made pollutants....
Solar to overtake coal on Texas grid for the first time ever this year
The Texas sun keeps rising, as Texas coal wanes. For the first time ever, solar is set to generate more electricity than coal in the power market managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT. Nobody is building new coal power plants in the state, but developers are adding more...
Why hybrids — not EVs — are winning over US consumers
Even as gas prices continued to rise across the United States, sales of electric vehicles fell in April. That is in contrast to strong growth elsewhere in the world, such as Europe. But American drivers are gravitating toward at least one more efficient powertrain: hybrids. Sales of new EVs fell...
In a rare show of global unity, countries adopt landmark climate ruling
About six years ago, law students at the University of the South Pacific convinced the government of the small island nation of Vanuatu to take the harms wrought by climate change all the way to the International Court of Justice, the world’s highest legal authority. Vanuatu, along with the students,...