Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s reelection as president of Brazil gave Indigenous communities a measure of relief after a campaign in which his opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, promised to halt recognition of new Indigenous territories and push for more mining and development. “For Indigenous Peoples, the reelection of Luiz Inácio Lula...
Trump’s EPA is letting America’s leakiest oil and gas companies off the hook
At a campaign rally on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said his administration is going to dismantle restrictions on methane, one of the most common and potent planet-warming greenhouse gases. The new rule, proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency in response to complaints from the oil and gas industry, revises a...
Hurricane Helene haunts the midterms in North Carolina
Lunch hour was busy at the Haywood County Public Library in Canton, North Carolina, where the midterm election wasn’t the only thing on people’s minds as they cast early ballots on October 19. The region has seen a lot of natural disasters in the past few years, and many residents...
How to fact-check during and after a disaster
Misinformation about extreme weather and disasters often starts small: Someone reposts a rumor on social media about government corruption or an AI photo of a shark swimming in floodwaters. It’s shared dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of times before huge swaths of people believe it as truth. Trying to fact-check...
Thwaites is a runaway climate disaster. New studies show how.
A single glacier sitting at the bottom of the world may be all that is holding back catastrophic amounts of sea level rise. As it melts away faster than ever, scientists are racing to get a better understanding of when it might fail. Unfortunately, they’ve recently found more bad news. ...
The Michigan climate candidate courting opponents of Big Solar
By her own admission, Marjorie Steele doesn’t get along with many people in the climate movement. She runs a Michigan-based activist group that advocates against large-scale industrial development. Though she considers herself a political independent, her opposition often puts her into conflict with both climate advocates and Trump-aligned conservatives. She...
California has a plan for El Niño’s torrential rain: Save it for later
Something ominous just hit California: rain. The life-giving water that normally hydrates people and crops brings an aura of dread this autumn, thanks to the strongest El Niño ever recorded. While the phenomenon causes severe drought and heat in many parts of the world, historically it’s brought extraordinary rainfall to...
Higher temperatures fuel gun violence. Now we know how much is from climate change.
This year, Philadelphia is on track to have the lowest number of homicides since 1963. But over Fourth of July weekend, a heat dome stretching from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico descended, leaving 165 million people facing major or extreme heat. Cities including Boston, Baltimore, and Raleigh saw record...
Climate change rarely goes on trial. This one could be a landmark.
Climate change gets a rare day in court on Monday when 15 Canadian youth will accuse the federal government of violating their constitutional rights by failing to adequately address the country’s role in global warming. Although thousands of similar cases have been filed across the globe, legal experts said this...
For Black voters, climate action means little without relief from rising costs
For Elijah Lee, protecting the environment has always been about what’s happening close to home. He grew up in a predominantly Black, low-income community in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, and went to school next to a paper mill that filled the air with pollution. He always wondered why it seemed...