New Emails Reveal that the Trump Administration Manipulated Wildfire Science to Promote Logging
An aerial view of a neighborhood destroyed by the Camp Fire on November 15, 2018 in Paradise, California.Justin Sullivan/Getty This piece was originally published in the Guardian and appears here as part of our Climate Desk Partnership. Political appointees at the Interior Department have sought to play up climate pollution from California wildfires while downplaying emissions from…
Americans Are Getting Evacuated from China because of the Coronavirus
Kyodo/AP American diplomats and their families are getting evacuated from Wuhan, China, which has become the epicenter of an outbreak of the deadly coronavirus. In an effort to contain the epidemic, Chinese authorities have nearly completely cut off this city of 11 million from the rest of China, with all transportation and other points of…
A Rare Species of Tree Was Saved from Australia’s Wildfires. And Then Something Amazing Happened.
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service personnel inspect Wollemi pine trees in the Wollemi National Park, New South Wales, Australia.NSW National Parks and Wildfire Service/AP This piece was originally published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and appears here as part of our Climate Desk Partnership. Buried amid the horrific news from Australia about climate…
According to the Doomsday Clock, We’re Down to 100 Seconds Before Midnight. Plan Accordingly.
The Doomsday Clock reads 100 seconds to midnight, a decision made by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.Eva Hambach/Getty Thursday morning, scientists responsible for maintaining the Doomsday Clock—a metaphor for how close mankind stands to its own destruction—announced that it advanced 20 seconds from last year, to within 2 minutes of midnight, the bookend marking human…
They Were Promised Broadband and High-Tech Jobs. They’re Still Waiting.
Imago/ZUMA This story was originally published by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublica’s The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published. A year ago, Mary Lou Muncy landed her dream job advising home health care agencies on…
China Announces Major Anti-Plastic Campaign
Workers stand over piles of used white plastic food containers at a construction site in Hefei, in eastern China’s Anhui provinceSTR/Getty The Chinese government has said it plans to ban plastic bags in the country’s major cities by the end of the year, Reuters reports. The bags will be banned in the rest of the country…