When the Trump administration took the first steps toward shutting down two major programs aimed at protecting the nation’s miners, the grassroots response was immediate, and vehement. And, it turns out, successful. In March, the administration moved to shutter over 30 field offices of the Mine Safety and Health Administration,...
Can a crowdsourced map of the world help save millions of people from climate disaster?
The day I was supposed to join a group of young women to map Gros Islet, an old fishing village on the Caribbean Island of St. Lucia, I got lost. Proann Francis, who was helping lead the expedition, had told me to meet everyone at Care Growell School, which Google...
Climate disasters can alter kids’ brains — before they’re even born
When Superstorm Sandy made a beeline for New York City in October 2012, it flooded huge swaths of downtown Manhattan, leaving 2 million people without electricity and heat and damaging tens of thousands of homes. The storm followed a sweltering summer in New York City, with a procession of heat...
‘For anybody who could use a break’: A Q&A with sci-fi author Becky Chambers
The vision “One of the things I aim for is just to say, hey, it doesn’t have to be this way. I think that’s the key goal of science fiction in general, whether it’s a positive future, a negative future, somewhere in between. It doesn’t have to be like this.”...
Trump’s second term is creating ‘a limbo moment’ for US battery recyclers
In a recycling facility in Covington, Georgia, workers grind up dead batteries into a fine, dark powder. In the past, the factory shipped that powder, known in the battery recycling industry as black mass, overseas to refineries that extracted valuable metals like cobalt and nickel. But now it keeps the...
In California, a biomass company’s expansion raises fears of more fires
Wood pellets, by design, are highly flammable. The small pieces of compressed woody leftovers, like sawdust, are used in everything from home heating to grilling. But their flammable nature has made for dangerous work conditions: Since 2010, at least 52 fires have broken out at the facilities that make wood...
When will a vital system of currents in the Atlantic Ocean collapse? Depends on whom you ask.
Just below Greenland is a menacing stretch of water known as the Cold Blob. As the planet heats up, the Cold Blob remains a spooky outlier — positioned right above the area where the Atlantic Ocean’s so-called conveyor belt is supposed to switch back and head south. The Atlantic Meridional...
Data centers are building their own gas power plants in Texas
Abigail Lindsey worries the days of peace and quiet might be nearing an end at the rural, wooded property where she lives with her son. On the old ranch across the street, developers want to build an expansive complex of supercomputers for artificial intelligence, plus a large, private power plant...
New study shows huge groundwater losses along Colorado River
The Colorado River basin has lost huge volumes of groundwater over the past two decades according to a new report from researchers at Arizona State University. Researchers used data from NASA satellites to map the rapidly depleting resource. The region, which includes seven western states, has lost 27.8 million acre-feet...
How Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill will raise household energy costs
Energy policy analysts are in broad agreement about one consequence of major legislation that Republicans are currently pushing through Congress: It will raise energy prices for the average American household by hundreds of dollars, once all is said and done. That’s because the legislation, which President Donald Trump has dubbed...