Phoenix Is the Hottest US City. It Also Has the Country’s Only Dedicated Heat Team.
Walter G. Arce Sr./ASP via ZUMA Wire This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Phoenix is America’s hottest city, and it’s getting hotter. The global climate crisis and decades of sprawling urban growth have turned this desert city into a hazardous heat island with dwindling water…
Just When You Thought Biden’s Climate Agenda Might Have a Chance, Here Comes Kyrsten Sinema
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/AP This story was originally published by The Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The most ambitious attempt yet to pass climate legislation in the US may have surprisingly won the crucial backing of a senator who owns a coal company. Now it faces a further, deeply ironic, obstacle—a lawmaker who…
Conservative Courts and the Filibuster Are Blocking Heat Protections for Farmworkers
Farm workers clear out hosing which was used to irrigate an okra field on July 13, 2022 near Coachella, California.Mario Tama/Getty In the fertile plains of Washington State’s Yakima Valley, maximum summer temperatures typically approach 90° F, meaning sweaty, potentially dangerous work for the people who harvest the region’s bounty: 77 percent of US-grown hops,…
Frustrated by US Climate Inaction, These GenZ Activists Have Taken Matters Into Their Own Hands
John Marshall Mantel/ZUMA Press Wire This story was originally published by The Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. On a searingly hot night in New York City, a group of mask-wearing activists grasping bags of lentils set out to stage the biggest blitzkrieg yet upon a new target for climate campaigners in the…
Why Can’t Congressional Democrats Imagine a World In Which Fewer People Drive Cars?
Richard B. Levine/Levine Roberts/via ZUMA Press This story was originally published by Slate and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. With West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin suddenly on board with climate legislation (albeit one refashioned as an anti-inflation bill), wary Democrats met the announcement of a domestic-policy bill this week with jubilation and relief. At…
We Know Wildfire Smoke Is Terrible for You. But What Does It Do to Cows?
Marty Bicek/ZUMA Wire This story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. California’s wildfire season has kicked off in earnest, with the Oak Fire chewing extraordinarily quickly through the parched landscape around Yosemite National Park. The fire has burned nearly 17,000 acres so far, forcing thousands from their homes and blanketing the…