When the sun goes down, the wind picks up in central New Mexico, whipping through arid canyons with a ghostly howl that for centuries, locals have likened to the wails of the folkloric ghost La Llorona. A few hours east of Albuquerque, this June, those gusts began powering the largest...
Trump cut funding for farmers — then unlocked billions for them before Election Day
The last two years have been a rough going for farmers and ranchers in the U.S. Rollbacks to several Department of Agriculture programs have cut available funding and left producers in the dark. Last year, farm groups sued the federal agency after it deleted multiple webpages that mentioned climate change,...
The EPA is quietly killing its web archive
In a little-noticed webpage update, the Environmental Protection Agency has announced a plan to decommission its online web archive at the end of the year, a move that would wipe tens of thousands of publicly available environmental resources from the web. The discreet banner notice comes in stark contrast to...
What’s fueling Indonesia’s worst wildfire season in a decade?
A government bus outfitted with oxygen tanks. Fire fighters collapsing to the ground in relief at the first sign of rain. Dozens of orangutans rescued. And hundreds of Indonesian students marching through the haze, some wearing gas masks, others carrying signs that read, “If we burn, you burn with us.”...
Strange, catastrophic landslides are kicking off across the far north
Nearly a decade ago, a helicopter pilot flying in Canada’s Northwest Territories noticed something peculiar: a landslide so immense, it had blocked a river and created a lake. But that damming power wasn’t what made this slide so strange. What he saw wasn’t just new to the landscape, it was...
The new Cold War comes to Kodiak
Last August, Christine Burton got an unexpected call from her sister, an employee at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska. The state-owned facility was about to conduct an unannounced test launch of what was likely a hypersonic missile and would be closing the only road that runs from the...
In eastern Montana, a new oil pipeline comes with perils and a potential payday
Jerry Arnold stands in a patch of cleared land, his combine idling behind him. To the west, acres of freshly cut grain reveal rolling hills, and to the east, 3-foot stalks of wheat pulse in the wind. Arnold’s sweat-stained baseball cap is coated with fine golden dust after a day...
Would you trust an emergency alert written by AI?
Earlier this month, after Hurricane Isaias made landfall on the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 hurricane, the emergency management expert Laura Myers got a call from a meteorologist in Alabama. Myers is director of the University of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Public Safety, and she talks to state and...
Extreme weather is creating a perfect storm of misinformation. Here’s what’s at stake.
Extreme weather is creating a perfect storm of misinformation a perfect storm of misinformation Rumors and conspiracies are spreading too fast for emergency managers to keep up. This information chaos is slowing disaster relief and putting lives at risk. By Jake Bittle Oct 28, 2026 This story is part of...
High power bills, blackouts land Michigan utilities on the ballot
When 83-year-old Sam Getsinger thinks about the future, she pictures her five grandchildren and the world she wants to leave them. An important part of that world, Getsinger said, is a healthy democracy. So when she first heard about an initiative to limit Michigan utilities’ influence in political campaigns, she...