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"A helicopter swooped through the bright blue sky, as a pilot scanned the high desert below for wild horses running through the dusty sagebrush, about an hour's drive west of Meeker, Colorado. A small group of reporters and horse lovers watched from the cover of wizened trees, about a mile from a pen that would trap the horses."
"Ryan McElroen had spent years repairing the New York City subway underground when he got the opportunity to work in the middle of the ocean." "Two years ago, McElroen began being trained by his union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3, for a job in the emerging offshore wind industry."
"Ebola virus, hantavirus and the pathogen that causes Covid-19 likely jumped from animals to humans. So do these viruses — and scientists say climate change is speeding their spread." "By the time colleagues called Dr. Matías Lahitte, an Argentine infectious disease specialist, it was too late."
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The Interior Department Friday announced steep reductions in Coloradfo River water allocations for lower basin states. "When the plan was released in draft form last month, the tribes argued they were not sufficiently party to the decision making process and that the proposed use plan does not reflect their rights."
"Last winter was tough for marmots living high in the Colorado mountains, where researchers say two-thirds of one population died while hibernating because of insufficient snow cover. Those that survived are doing well, fattening up in time not just for fall and hibernation season but … drumroll, please … the very first Fat Marmot Week."
"President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he will nominate Heidi Overton, a top aide at the White House’s Domestic Policy Council, to serve as the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration."
"Publishers acceded to state requests watering down information on climate change’s impact, WUSF/Hechinger Report investigation finds. Now the state has turned to updating its science standards"
"The Trump administration has hit the brakes on its plan to roll back a Fish and Wildlife Service wetland conservation policy following pushback from prominent Republicans and tens of thousands of duck hunters."
"More governors are shifting their stances or taking more steps to squeeze data centers as the midterm elections near and public opinion sours on the energy-hungry behemoths that tech giants and developers are building to fuel artificial intelligence products and cloud computing. The backlash to the massive server warehouses is enveloping races for governor in some of the nation’s biggest states and presidential battlegrounds."
"More than 40 million people in the United States and Canada depend on the Great Lakes for drinking water. Each glass of treated lake water is laden with tiny bits of plastic — microplastics — made of toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases. Also contaminated are fish, staples of Midwestern fish fries and fish boils, and an important part of the diet of Indigenous tribes, certain immigrant populations and communities of color."
"The Trump administration has taken a series of extraordinary steps to attack California’s position as a national leader in environmental protection, enlisting at least a half-dozen federal agencies to undermine the state’s efforts to pivot away from fossil fuels."
"The Trump administration is ending summertime smog restrictions on gasoline early this year in a bid to offer relief for high prices at the pump."
"Long after sunset, Motoaki Iijima’s illuminated greenhouse north of Tokyo glows like a lantern as the flower farmer harvests pink and orange gerberas, avoiding a daytime sun fierce enough to be deadly."
"On a spring morning so blustery that the National Weather Service issued a small craft advisory, a Samish Indian Nation research boat, called the Chinook (Yómech), set out from Anacortes, Washington, just east of the San Juan Islands."
"August though it is, there’s still at least one good book left of summer. So this month’s post offers 12 possible choices for your final summer read: six non-fiction and six fiction."
