"The National Weather Service is preparing for the probability that fewer forecast updates will be fine-tuned by specialists, among other cutbacks, because of “severe shortages” of meteorologists and other employees, according to an internal agency document."
"In one of the nation’s poorest towns, the mayor and others are planning to build a solar installation, a weatherization resource center, and a gleaming new resilience hub."
"An animal’s chance of survival after domoic acid poisoning is 50-50, and this year an outbreak has sickened hundreds"
"The change may speed up flood recovery, but it will leave communities — and taxpayers — facing the same problems over and over again."
Even as U.S. government agencies rush to wipe climate change information (or even the mention of the word climate) from their websites, others are racing to reconstruct lost data elsewhere. Case in point is a rescued database on climate risks preserved by The Guardian. The latest Reporter’s Toolbox has more on the preserved database and how best to use it.
"The California Coastal Commission today fined an oil company a record $18 million for repeatedly defying orders to stop work on a corroded pipeline in Santa Barbara County that caused a major oil spill nearly a decade ago."
"The president’s suite of executive orders to decimate environmental regulations will propel his administration into court."
"The Trump administration wants to effectively break up NOAA and end its climate work by abolishing its primary research office and forcing the agency to help boost U.S. fossil fuel production, budget documents show."
"An inside look at the effort to help marine mammals sickened by domoic acid, a neurotoxin in the water resulting from a bloom of algae."
"The secretary of commerce is personally reviewing all contracts with commitments above $100,000 at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, causing backups and uncertainty in the agency that is responsible for the country's weather forecasts, marine fisheries management and coastal management. NOAA is housed within the Department of Commerce."
