Last July, heavy storms lashed Vermont with record rain, leaving roads torn asunder, communities submerged, and farms washed out. In response, state legislators made a historic move by introducing the Climate Superfund Act to hold Big Oil accountable for the damages spurred by the emissions generated by the extraction and combustion of its products. The […]
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In a debut book, a love letter to eastern North Carolina — and an indictment of colonialism as a driver of climate change
As the planet grapples with the ever-starker consequences of climate change, a debut book by Lumbee citizen and Duke University scientist Ryan Emanuel makes a convincing argument that climate change isn’t the problem — it’s a symptom. The problem, Emanuel explains in On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice, is settler colonialism and its […]
DeSantis says he’s ‘restoring sanity’ by erasing climate change from Florida laws
South Florida suffered through brutal heat and humidity this week when the heat index (the “feels like” temperature) in Key West reached 115 degrees F — matching the record for any time of year. With rising temperatures, flooding on sunny days, and toxic algae blooms, Floridians recognize that something’s amiss. Ninety percent of residents accept […]
Canadian wildfire smoke just blanketed the Midwest — again
This coverage is made possible through a partnership with Grist and Interlochen Public Radio in Northern Michigan. Wildfires in western and central Canada spread rapidly this week, forcing thousands of people to evacuate, with smoke sweeping into the Midwest and triggering air quality alerts in several states, a reminder of last year’s smoky conditions. “You […]
This enzyme is responsible for life on Earth. It’s a hot mess.
Pretty much all life on Earth – plants, animals, humans – in large part, owe their entire existence to one microscopic protein. It’s called ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, better known as RuBisCO, and it’s an enzyme: a biological machine that helps turn CO2 into energy. Of the millions of enzymes on earth, RuBisCO might be the […]
The American Climate Corps will get people into green jobs. Can it help their mental health too?
In the depths of the Great Depression in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt warned Congress that millions of Americans were idly “walking the streets,” presenting a threat to the country’s stability, even though they “would infinitely prefer to work.” It’s part of the reason he proposed the Civilian Conservation Corps, a program that would hire […]
How ‘kitty cats’ are wrecking the home insurance industry
The rising cost of homeowner’s insurance is now one of the most prominent symptoms of climate change in the United States. Major carriers like State Farm and Allstate have pulled back from offering fire insurance in California, dropping thousands of homeowners from their books, and dozens of small insurance companies have collapsed or fled from […]
Inside a California oil town’s divisive plan to survive the energy transition
Les Clark III took charge of the West Side Recreation and Park District in 2018, just as the bottom was falling out in Taft, California. The oil pumps that surrounded the town of 9,000 had been nodding up and down for decades, but all at once they froze in place, beams hovering in the air […]
Tribes could lease their water to dry states. Why is it so hard?
The Colorado River Indian Tribes now have the ability to lease their water rights off-reservation, a move that could ease pressures on communities facing the effects of climate change through drought. The option may prove to be financially beneficial for the Colorado River Indian Tribes, also known as CRIT, but experts say the ability of […]
A trillion cicadas will emerge in the next few weeks. This hasn’t happened since 1803.
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit, environmental media organization. If you live in the Midwest or the Southeast, you know the cicadas are coming. And if you live in Chicago, you know the Cicadalypse is coming. Cicadas, winged buggy noisemakers whose relatives include leaf-hoppers and spittle bugs, […]