Chokehold: The Trump administration’s stealth plan to unleash poisonous air
The EPA stopped valuing the lives it could save, setting up a deregulatory disaster that will be hazardous to your health.
wildfires
Postcard from California: State’s status as clean energy pacesetter threatened by Trump’s attacks
By Bill Walker
For decades, California has been on the cutting edge of US environmental policy. The state has enacted landmark measures to regulate air and water pollution, protect residents from exposure to toxic chemicals, and combat the climate crisis. Many of its groundbreaking policies have spread to other states.
Postcard from California: The long-term public health toll of the LA fires
By Bill Walker
The horrific fires that incinerated more than 40,000 acres in Southern California last month were still burning when newly-inaugurated President Trump flew in to view the devastation. At a Jan. 24 press briefing with local officials, he groused that he had heard people who lost their homes would not be allowed to rebuild for up to 18 months.
A call for EPA action on climate risks to hazardous waste facilities
By Dana Drugmand
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should be doing more to help address potential climate change-related risks to hundreds of hazardous waste facilities across the country, according to a recent government watchdog report.
High levels of hazardous heavy metals found in products used to fight wildfires
By Douglas Main
A new study shows that sprays and retardants used to fight wildfires contain surprisingly high levels of toxic heavy metals, a “disturbing” finding at a time when wildfires are generally getting worse.
Climate change may be driving extreme fires far ahead of schedule, study warns
By Dana Drugmand
Last year’s record-shattering Canadian wildfire season was directly linked to human-caused climate change, according to a new study, which warns that the climate crisis may be fueling extreme fires decades earlier than previously expected.
Postcard from California: The human cost of living with wildfires
By Bill Walker
The toll of wildfire in California is staggering: In the last 10 years, wildfires have burned more than 13.6 million acres of the state and taken the lives of 144 people, including 15 firefighters. The state estimates property damages from the more than 93,000 wildfires in those years at nearly $250 billion.
Youth win historic climate lawsuit against Montana
By Dana Drugmand
A group of young people who sued Montana officials for failing to adequately address climate change have prevailed in what observers say is a historic legal challenge.
Postcard from California: The climate crisis has become a home insurance crisis
By Bill Walker
It’s an ominous sign of how the climate crisis is hitting ever closer to home: Because of the heightened risk of catastrophic wildfires, the two leading U.S. homeowners insurance companies no longer offer new policies in California.
In Montana, a landmark legal challenge over climate change
By Dana Drugmand
For 20-year-old college student Olivia Vesovich, climate change is not a future concern. It’s a current and near-daily crisis. “Climate change has impacted my ability to breathe,” Vesovich testified from the witness stand of a Montana courtroom last week.