Amid Today’s Extreme Temperatures, Unpaid Power Bills Could Prove Deadly
Arizona, the state with the highest number of heat deaths annually, has banned utility companies from cutting off households for unpaid bills.Matt York/AP This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Millions of low-income households are at risk of having their power disconnected this…
Plagued by Developers and Rising Seas, a Historic Black Community Embraces Conservation
A birds-eye view of historic Ten Mile and the Copahee Sound marsh. Courtesy of Dana Coleman This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. At high tide, the marsh alongside Seafood Road disappears under an inscrutable mirror of water. Then, as it drains, reeds resurface and begin…
FEMA Aims to Tighten Restrictions on Building in Flood-Prone Areas
Flooding from Hurricane Beryl swamps a highway running through Houston, July 8, 2024. Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto/ZUMA This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. When the Federal Emergency Management Agency spends millions of dollars to help rebuild schools and hospitals after a hurricane, it tries to make the community more resilient…
The Problematic Chemicals Fueling America’s EV Revolution
This investigation was reported in collaboration with The Examination, The Post and Courier, Columbia Journalism Investigations, and RTBF, and co-published in partnership with Mother Jones. Propulsion without the need for petroleum: That’s the lithium-ion battery’s promise. Backed by government incentives across the globe, lithium-ion batteries are hailed as key to a green transportation revolution—and for…
Plastics Makers Tout “a World Without Waste.” But what Does That Mean?
Plastic bottles packed together in a recycling plant.Imago via ZUMA Press This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In the time it takes you to read this sentence—say, four seconds—the world produces nearly 60 metric tons of plastic, almost entirely out of fossil fuels. That’s about 53,000 metric tons…
“Things Are Moving So Quickly” as Scientists Study This “Very Scary” Climate Strategy
This story was originally published by Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In 2006, a group of preeminent scientists met for a two-day conference at the NASA Ames Research Center in California to discuss cooling the Earth by injecting particles into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight into space. At some point,…