Extreme flooding has struck almost every corner of the country over the past year, from rural areas in Tennessee and California to the Michigan suburbs and the streets of Brooklyn, New York. Floods have always been by far the most widespread and costliest weather disaster in the U.S., and they have only gotten worse as […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Temperatures over the Great Barrier Reef in December were the highest on record with “alarming” levels of heat that have put the ocean jewel on the verge of another mass bleaching of corals, according to analysis from U.S. government scientists seen by […]
On Friday the Federal Emergency Management Administration, or FEMA, will roll out sweeping changes to a government program that provides flood insurance to some three million American households. These changes will sharply raise the cost of flood insurance for many high-value homes in coastal states like Florida, sending dramatic new signals to current and potential […]
Months of protests and a six-year legal battle culminated on Thursday, when the Canadian oil company Enbridge announced that work on its controversial new Line 3 pipeline was “substantially completed,” and that oil would begin flowing across northern Minnesota on Friday. Line 3 “will soon deliver the low cost and reliable energy that people depend […]
Rich people are known for flying around in private jets, sailing breezily in yachts, and owning three too many vacation homes. So it’s no surprise that the moneyed are responsible for much more than their share of carbon emissions. According to one measure, the world’s wealthiest 1 percent produce twice the emissions of the poorest […]
If you live in the United States, you’re probably familiar with the Energy Star logo — it’s typically a blue sticker with a star on it that sits in the corner of some appliances, like refrigerators and washing machines. What you may not know is that the sticker is not some industry-sponsored marketing tool, it’s […]
When the Dixie Fire began on July 13, 2021, environmental groups knew it would be a fast-growing blaze thanks to the combination of the megadrought, the buildup of forest debris (aka wildfire fuel) , and extreme heat. They couldn’t have predicted that it would be the first wildfire to span the Sierra Nevada mountain range, […]
Stu Smith got an email from his insurance company last summer with some bad news: His premium was more than quadrupling. Smith is the co-owner of Smith Madrone, a wine operation in the mountains of California’s Sonoma Valley, and he had held a wildfire insurance policy with the company for more than 30 years. Now, […]
Linda McNeil moved into her three-bedroom home in Mount Vernon, New York, 21 years ago. Six weeks after she closed on the property, heavy rain caused her water pipes to back up and sewage to flood her basement. It was the first in a string of ongoing backups over the last two decades, damaging her […]
Climate scientists have long warned that global warming would lead to extreme heat in many parts of the world. But the 120 degree Fahrenheit temperatures brought on by the heatwave in the Pacific Northwest in June were more in line with what researchers had imagined would occur later this century. “Astonished” is the word Michael […]