California Moves, Haltingly, Toward a Post-Lawn Future
Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. This story was originally published by CityLab. It appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. On the first Saturday of December in a northeast neighborhood of Fresno, California, Jeff Collins and his neighbors were putting up their Christmas decorations: strings of lights along identical…
“There’s Nothing Left of This Town.” Paradise, California, May Never Come Back From the Ashes
Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. On an overcast afternoon, Phil Hughes pulls his truck into the driveway of what was once his home in Paradise, California, and starts sifting through the rubble. He notes where his couch used to be, the bedroom where his 10-month-old son would sleep, the kitchen,…
ICE Could Deport Him to a Country He’s Never Been To—Unless California’s Governor Steps In
Somdeng Danny Thongsy Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. Somdeng Danny Thongsy was born 39 years ago in a Thai refugee camp, after his mother and older brother had fled their native Laos following the Vietnam War. His father had stayed back in Laos, and when Thongsy was two, his family…
California’s Battle Against Climate Change Is Going Up in Smoke
Smoke rises from a burned out grove of trees at the Blue Cut wildfire in Wrightwood, California on August 17, 2016.Jonathan Alcorn/AFP/Getty Images Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. Just a few months ago, climate activists in California were celebrating an impressive victory: New data showed that the state had brought…
This Cross-Border Town Has Faced Toxic Pollution for Years. Now Its Residents Are Fighting Back.
Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. This story was originally published by High Country News and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Last September, Paloma Aguirre spent the day collecting bits of trash and tires in the Tijuana River Valley, which straddles the US-Mexico border south of San…
The Smoke’s Gone, But Hearts and Lungs Still May Be in Danger Months After Wildfires
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. This story was originally published by Reveal and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Three days after the Camp Fire erupted, incinerating the Northern California town of Paradise and killing 85 people, Katrina Sawa found herself struggling to breathe. But Sawa wasn’t…