Burning oil, gas, and coal — literal fossil fuels, made from the compressed remains of ancient plants and plankton — has released carbon into Earth’s atmosphere, where it traps heat and alters the climate. That process has caused massive destruction and loss of life, and it will continue to do...
Alaska Natives want the US military to clean up its toxic waste
In June 1942, Japan’s invasion of the Aleutian islands in Alaska prompted the U.S. military to activate the Alaska territorial guard, an Army reserve made up of volunteers who wanted to help protect the U.S. So many of the volunteers were from Alaska’s Indigenous peoples — Aleut, Inupiak, Yupik, Tlingit, and...
How the Klamath Dams Came Down
Loading… How the Klamath Dams Came Down By Anita Hofschneider and Jake Bittle Illustrations by Jackie Fawn March 19, 2025 Last year, tribal nations in Oregon and California won a decades-long fight for the largest dam removal in U.S. history. This is their story. Part 1 Fish and Paper Part...
You rely on this agency’s data for weather and climate forecasts. DOGE is decimating its workforce.
Late last month, Rebecca Howard was fired from her dream job. With less than two hours’ notice, the research biologist was told to leave her position with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, surveying Alaskan shellfish and pollock populations. Howard is one of the more than 1,000 employees...
Utilities are shutting off power to a growing number of households
Electric utilities across the United States are shutting off power to a growing number of households, according to a recent report that also found most shutoffs happened during last year’s record-hot summer, a reminder that climate change fuels more intense, frequent, and prolonged heat waves. Shutoffs can be deadly, especially...
The end of the EPA’s fight to protect overpolluted communities
The first thing Amanda Cronin did when her supervisor offered her a job at the Environmental Protection Agency was buy herself a big piece of chocolate cake. The 25-year old New York native had spent nine months searching for work in environmental advocacy with little luck, until she stumbled upon...
Trump repeals America’s first-ever tax on greenhouse gases before it goes into effect
In late February, Republicans in the House and Senate voted along party lines to repeal a Biden-era rule implementing a federal tax on methane pollution. President Donald Trump signed the measure into law on Friday — putting the country’s climate goals further out of reach. Since taking control of the...
‘Our people are hungry’: What federal food aid cuts mean in a warming world
Every Friday, as he’s done for the last year and a half, Mark Broyles hops in his truck and drives 20 minutes from his home in Big Stone Gap to Duffield, Virginia, to pick up two boxes of free food. Though their contents are always a surprise, as the retired...
Supreme Court declines to hear Republicans’ ‘Hail Mary’ effort to block climate lawsuits
The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that it would not hear a case seeking to stop climate lawsuits in five Democratic-led states that are seeking financial damages from oil and gas companies for having obscured the connection between their products and global warming. The rejected complaint, filed directly to...
How Citibank got caught in a $20B climate fight
In the chaotic first few weeks of the Trump administration, as the government has frozen and unfrozen billions of dollars in federal funding, Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin has focused on one program in particular. For almost a month, he has been waging a crusade against the EPA’s Greenhouse...