With the approach of what looks like an unusually hot summer, the latest TipSheet offers guidance on covering extreme heat, starting with the step-by-step basics of understanding heat’s health impacts, from dehydration to heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Plus, get 10 story ideas and reporting resources to cover the dangers of extreme heat locally.
It may not seem at first glance like an environmental matter, but the Trump Justice Department’s declaration that the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional potentially undermines the preservation of key administration records, warns WatchDog Opinion. That includes all kinds of environmental policy decision-making by the president, White House and other executive branch staff. Here’s why we need the act.
"For the first time ever, solar is set to generate more electricity than coal in the power market managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Nobody is building new coal power plants in the state, but developers are adding more solar there than anywhere else in the country."
"A controversial land swap orchestrated by the megarich could be “a harbinger of what’s to come” for public lands under Trump."
"In northern Norway, Sami people fear a copper mine will disrupt their traditional lifestyles."
"Each summer, Nils Mikkelsen Utsi guides his reindeer to highland pastures overlooking a fjord, known to locals as Repparfjord, in northern Norway. There, under the Arctic midnight sun, female reindeer give birth and Mr. Utsi marks the ears of the calves. His ancestors have done this for generations.
“This is my reindeer district,” he said. “This is my life.”
"While the Trump administration is directing hundreds of millions of dollars to coal projects, miners in Appalachia are suffering from a resurgence of black lung disease. But industry pushback is delaying federal rules that would reduce miners’ exposure to deadly silica dust."
"Grants managers at two of the U.S. government’s largest funders of scientific research have recently placed unprecedented limitations on the ability of U.S. scientists to publish with co-authors from other countries, researchers say."
"Record-setting drought and hotter-than-average temperatures mixed with sharp drops have impacted much of the U.S. early this year, including the Plains region. Drought conditions have worsened the spread of the wheat streak mosaic virus and barley yellow dwarf virus, which impact the potential of the crop. Combined with climbing input costs related to fertilizer, diesel fuel and tariffs, longtime wheat farmers say they are feeling a lot of pain."
"A group of the world’s leading climate scientists are warning governments and the livestock industry against adopting an “accounting trick” that will imperil the all-out global effort required to control heat-trapping emissions."
"The hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship has created a global public health crisis. But the driver of it is a rodent that weighs about an ounce, and climate shifts this year that have helped increase the odds of transmission."
