By Michael Hiltzik 25 August 2023 (Los Angeles Times) – In the first couple of years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Peter Hotez, an expert in vaccines and tropical medicine at Baylor University, found Twitter to be “a useful and at times almost essential tool for timely and important exchange of information.” The platform banned the […]
RENO, Nevada, 3 September 2023 (AP) – Authorities in Nevada were investigating a death at the site of the Burning Man festival where thousands of attendees remained stranded Saturday night as flooding from storms swept through the Nevada desert. [Related: Carbon footprint of Burning Man: 27,000 tons of CO2 per year –Des] Organizers closed vehicular […]
BEIJING, 17 August 2023 (AP) – Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for measures to mitigate the effects of this year’s disastrous flooding which has left scores dead and inflicted massive damage on crops, homes and infrastructure, including in and around Beijing. At least 90 rivers have risen above warning levels and 24 have already overflowed their […]
By Samantha Kuzma, Liz Saccoccia, and Marlena Chertock 16 August 2023 (WRI) – New data from WRI’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas show that 25 countries — housing one-quarter of the global population — face extremely high water stress each year, regularly using up almost their entire available water supply. And at least 50% of the world’s population […]
By Holly Yan, Amanda Jackson, Jamiel Lynch and Chris Boyette 9 August 2023 (CNN) – The wildfires raging out of control in Maui are so catastrophic, some residents are hurling themselves into the ocean to escape the flames. Even emergency crews might not be able to help as the infernos – fueled in part by […]
By Aryn Baker 3 August 2023 GEORGIA (TIME) – Just after dawn on a recent July day in Rochelle, Ga., Silvia Moreno Ayala steps into a pair of sturdy work pants, slips on a long-sleeved shirt, and slathers her face and hands with sunscreen. She drapes a flowered scarf over her wide-brimmed hat to protect […]
By Steven Monacelli 6 July 2023 (Texas Observer) – As a part of a bill critics have dubbed the “Death Star” bill—an expansive law that preempts legislation in eight key areas of local government—the Legislature has overridden local ordinances that require giving workers water breaks. Otherwise known as House Bill 2127, it was signed into […]
By Ian Duncan 27 July 2023 (The Washington Post) – With $14 billion in new federal funding, the infrastructure law was supposed to jolt efforts to protect the U.S. highway network from a changing climate and curb carbon emissions that are warming the planet. New records show the effort is off to an unsteady start […]
By Tessa Koumoundouros 20 July 2023 (ScienceAlert) – If the United States of America had the same mortality rates as other wealthy countries, more than 1 million people would have avoided death in 2021, a new study found. Researchers have termed these excess deaths the Missing Americans. “The number of Missing Americans in recent years is unprecedented […]
By Martín Tocar 15 July 2023 (The Guardian) – More than half of Uruguay’s 3.5 million citizens are without access to tap water fit for drinking, and experts say the situation could continue for months. Some had predicted the crisis years ago when pointing out the vulnerability of the single reservoir supplying water to the […]
