This Year’s El Niño Is Huge and Already Changing the World
"The recurring climate phenomenon is expected to peak later this year, but it is already causing dry spells and crop failures on three continents."
Source: New York Times, 08/13/2026
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1000s Flee Long Drought In Somalia As Hunger Deepens And Aid Shrinks
"After nearly two weeks on the road with her five children, Luul Mohamed finally arrived in the southwestern Somali city of Baidoa with no food and little sense of what would happen next."
Source: AP, 08/13/2026Huge Oil Slick Hitting Oman's Shoreline As Agencies Warn Of Disaster
"A vast oil spill from a leaking tanker has started to hit Oman's coastline, its environment agency confirmed on Wednesday, in what threatens to become one of the world’s worst in years after spreading largely unchecked for weeks."
Source: Reuters, 08/13/2026Trump’s ‘Energy Emergency’ Could Speed Expansion Of La. LNG Terminal
"Less than two years after opening, a liquefied natural gas terminal near New Orleans is seeking a multi-billion-dollar expansion under a new Trump administration “emergency” permitting process that shortens environmental review and may weaken protections for surrounding wetlands and waterways."
Source: Verite News, 08/13/2026Calif. Scrambled as Spring Wildfire Neared Former Nuclear Reactor Site
"As a wildfire in May approached the site of one of the worst nuclear meltdowns in U.S. history, state and local officials scrambled to respond to the blaze and to establish proper real-time radiation and air monitoring to protect Southern California families, internal emails show."
Source: Inside Climate News, 08/13/2026Neighbors of Pipeline Leak Live in Fear, Regulatory Neglect in Trump Era
"As Trump’s agencies shrink, narrow their role and reduce enforcement, politically connected Energy Transfer is steering a slow clean-up of fuel it spilled into drinking water near the Delaware River."
Source: Inside Climate News, 08/13/2026California Phasing Out Herbicide Linked To Parkinson’s Disease
"Pesticide manufacturers have voluntarily cancelled registrations for products containing paraquat in California — kickstarting a statewide phase-out of the controversial herbicide linked to Parkinson’s disease, according to a California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announcement on Monday."
Source: The New Lede, 08/13/2026Chicago Mayor Seeks to Curb Environmental Health Harm of Data Centers
"Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order on Tuesday directing a new task force to work on tighter regulations aimed at restricting data centers’ air and noise pollution, tempering water and energy usage and preventing utility bill spikes."
Source: Inside Climate News, 08/13/2026How Cougars Keep The Roadways Of Washington's Olympic Peninsula Safe
"While we think of predators as being dangerous, an otherwise harmless deer meandering into the road is far more likely to take you out than a bear or a wolf or a mountain lion is to stalk and eat you. Occasional news stories about pumas (Puma concolor) might suggest that they are a significant threat to humans. They are not—only around 30 deaths have been recorded since official record-keeping began in 1868."
Source: Sierra, 08/13/2026Alito Gained Up To $2.9M From Oil And Gas Assets Since Joining Court
"The supreme court justice Samuel Alito gained up to $2.9m from his fossil fuel interests between 2005 and 2024, a new review of financial disclosures shows." "Critics argue US high court justice should recuse himself from upcoming fossil fuel firms’ climate accountability case".
Source: Guardian, 08/12/2026Dems Probe Uranium Company For Insider Trading Tied To Bears Ears
"House Democrats are investigating whether executives at a uranium company operating in Utah engaged in possible insider trading by making investments days before President Donald Trump opened a nearby national monument to mining."
Source: E&E News, 08/12/2026"Trump Administration Kills a Flagship Annual Report on the Arctic"
"The Trump administration has pulled federal funding for an annual report chronicling the changing environment of the Arctic, where rapid warming is upending ecosystems, reconfiguring trade routes and scrambling Great Power strategy."
Source: New York Times, 08/12/2026Opinion: Drought, Rationing And Dry Rivers: Global Water Crisis Is Here
"Disturbing news about our water resources is now constant and unrelenting. In just the past few weeks, media have reported that Puerto Rico is suffering a deep water crisis as severe drought has cut water supplies to thousands. The Rhine and Po rivers in Europe are at record low levels. The seven states sharing the Colorado River in the US are fighting over unprecedented shortages, while its major reservoirs have shrunk to their lowest levels since they were built."
Source: Guardian, 08/12/2026Anti-Uranium Advocates Swamp Hearing On Proposed Mine Near Navajo Land
"A recent hearing meant to inform the public about a new uranium mine proposal near Church Rock instead exposed wounds around the legacy of mining’s impacts on Navajo communities, as well as fresh concerns about whether technology that promises to safely extract the mineral is as clean as the industry claims."
Source: Source New Mexico, 08/12/2026One Year On And The Global Plastics Treaty 'Is Going Backwards'
"A new Aid to Negotiations document for the Global Plastics Treaty has been released a year after Geneva's collapse, but campaigners warn it dilutes key measures and retreats from the ambition needed to end plastic pollution."
Source: Oceanographic, 08/12/2026
