In 2024, an interdisciplinary team of social and marine scientists set out to examine whether the prevalence of marine heat waves — prolonged rises in ocean temperatures that are becoming more frequent and more intense because of climate change — has any impact on child and maternal health outcomes. “I was...
West Point’s only climate scientist fired after continuing to teach human causes of climate change
The only climate scientist teaching at West Point, the U.S. Army’s military academy, was fired after he resisted an order to stop teaching about the human causes of the climate emergency, a lawsuit claims. Dr. Adam Kalkstein, a civilian professor of geography at the New York institution, was terminated after the spring semester this...
How rising temperatures likely contributed to Nepal’s deadly flood
Roughly 160 people are dead and hundreds more — including dozens of international tourists — are missing after flash floods hit a region on the mountainous border of Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday. Devastating footage posted to social media shows people fleeing a wall of water that washed away buildings...
How to deal with burnout on a burning planet
In this month’s Ask a Climate Therapist column, we’re tackling two questions at once — each examining similar themes of burnout and paralysis from two very different vantage points. Wherever you are on your own path of climate engagement, I hope the advice will resonate. Dear Leslie, I have been working...
The rush to power data centers is weakening the Clean Air Act
Across the country, the electricity needs of data centers have been a major driver of the widespread resistance to speedy development. The rapid buildouts of data centers have raised concerns that residential and small business utility customers will end up shouldering the costs, and about the health and climate impacts...
Nevada preached peace on the Colorado River. Now it’s suing to protect its water.
Nevada officials have long presented themselves as a voice for compromise and conservation in debates over the Colorado River. The Las Vegas area, home to two-thirds of the state’s population and most of its economy, has become a model of urban water conservation. As the river has declined from overuse...
On Louisiana’s disappearing coast, a natural gas terminal is poised to become the largest in the US
Less than two years after opening, a liquefied natural gas terminal near New Orleans is seeking a multibillion-dollar expansion under the Trump administration’s new “emergency” permitting process that cuts regulatory review and could put nearby wetlands and waterways at greater risk. Earlier this summer, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...
‘Starwashing’: The new space race has an environmental problem
As artificial intelligence devours more land and electricity, a new breed of tech companies promises that outer space holds the solutions to our problems on Earth. If data centers are so hard to find a place for down here, why not put them hundreds of miles above the planet instead?...
New research shows the world isn’t doing nearly enough to fix its food problem
A new report finds that, across the globe, progress toward developing more sustainable, resilient food systems is not advancing fast enough to meet internationally agreed upon deadlines. The research builds on previous studies tracking a number of goals, including some established a decade ago by United Nations member countries, like...
In the American West, wildfire comes for the suburbs
Somersett, a short drive from downtown Reno, Nevada, is a peaceful place where homes with sweeping, high-desert views line cul-de-sacs and roads meander through shrubland, trailheads, and golf courses. But in the summer, months of low humidity and hot weather prime the landscape to burn. On the morning of August...