Private Equity Is Snapping Up Gas and Oil Firms. What Could Go Wrong?
A pulling unit on an oil well in Utah. Jon G. Fuller/VW Pics/ZUMA This story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Where private equity investors make acquisitions, bankruptcies tend to follow. Brands from Radio Shack to Toys R Us went under after being bought by these firms, as did the company that…
Despite Record-Breaking Temps, Phoenix Heat Tsar Says Hottest City in the US Has a Livable Future
Matt York/ AP This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The heat expert leading efforts to make America’s hottest city more bearable insists that Phoenix could eventually eradicate heat deaths—despite July’s record-breaking death toll. As many as 300 people may have died during the hottest ever month on record as…
Biden’s Pseudo-Declaration of Emergency Frustrates Climate Activists
Susan Walsh/AP This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Joe Biden has said that he has “practically” declared a national emergency on the climate crisis, despite not actually taking that step, vexing climate campaigners. “I’ve already done that,” Biden said when asked if he intends to declare a climate…
State Pension Fund Is Helping a Middle Eastern Firm Export Arizona’s Precious Groundwater
A new groundwater pump was installed for farming in La Paz County, Arizona, in 2017. Débora Souza Silva This article is a collaboration between Mother Jones and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit investigative newsroom. Also listen to Reveal’s accompanying podcast, “The Great Arizona Water Grab.” As rural Arizonans face the prospect of wells running dry, foreign…
Mike Huckabee Is Now Peddling Climate Misinformation to Children
Kiichiro Sato/AP This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Beverly Grimmett thought the kids magazines she saw stacked on a coworker’s desk this spring were perfectly innocent, until she picked one up. “My stomach turned,” Grimmett said. The guides were decorated in bright colors and cheerful cartoons,…
Big Business Is Fighting Efforts to Protect Workers From Heat
Jon G. Fuller/Zuma This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Big-business lobbyists, including big agricultural and construction groups, are pushing to water down or stymie efforts at the federal and state levels to implement workplace heat protection standards. This summer, millions in the United States have been exposed…