The first person to hoist a sail predates recorded history; humans have been harnessing the wind for thousands of years. Nevertheless, when the first windmill was first used to produce electricity 1887, it was immediately rejected as the work of the devil. Scottish professor James Blyth installed the turbine in...
Trump administration gives coal plants and chemical facilities a pass
For Donna Thomas, smokestacks are a typical sight from her home in Fort Bend County, Texas. Since she was a child, she has seen the coal and natural gas-powered W.A. Parish Generating Station puff clouds of haze during the day and light up brightly at night. The facility — which...
US EV sales are booming — for now
In March, President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared on the lawn of the White House to show off a line of electric vehicles, transforming, for a moment, the commander in chief into the car salesman in chief. Five months later, Musk and Trump are no longer on friendly terms, the red...
Workers are facing dangerous heat — even inside fast-food restaurants
Not long ago, Guillermina ran into a coworker at her doctor’s office. The two women work together at a McDonald’s near San Jose, California. When Guillermina asked what her coworker was doing at the doctor, she responded that she’d been feeling ill, adding, “You know how hot it gets in...
Disasters destroyed their homes. Then the real estate ‘vultures’ swooped in.
When a mile-wide tornado hit St. Louis on May 16, DeAmon White hopped in his car and rushed home. As he navigated downed trees and power lines, turning his 10-minute commute into a three-hour slog, he worried whether his family, neighbors, and home made it through unscathed. When he turned...
We now know just how much climate change supercharged Hurricane Katrina
Two decades ago, Hurricane Katrina spun up like a massive atmospheric engine, using warm ocean water as fuel. Making landfall as a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph, it devastated New Orleans — surging seawater over levees, killing nearly 1,400 people, and causing more than $150...
How a Koch-funded campaign is trying to reverse climate action in Vermont
For about two decades, Americans for Prosperity, the conservative political network, has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into stalling climate action nationwide. Founded by Charles and David Koch, the libertarian oil billionaires behind Koch Industries, the group has local chapters that block renewables standards, clean car rules, and carbon...
Lead pipes are everywhere in Chicago. Here’s how to protect yourself.
Chicago residents risk daily lead exposure from toxic lead service lines, the underground pipes that connect buildings to the city’s water supply. The city has the most lead service lines in the country — around 412,000 — and officials don’t plan to finish replacing them all until 2076. With complete...
Chicago has the most lead pipes in the nation. We mapped them all.
As Gina Ramirez buckled her 11-year-old son into her car last month for their daily drive to school, she handed him a plastic water bottle. “I would love to be able to have him put a cup under the tap if he was thirsty,” Ramirez said. She can’t. Ramirez lives...
How we mapped Chicago’s lead pipe problem and what we learned
Chicago has a lead pipe problem. The city estimates that about 412,000 out of roughly 491,000 water service lines require replacement because they are known or suspected to contain lead. That’s the most of any city in the country. Service lines are the underground pipes that connect the city’s water...