Greta Thunberg attends a Senate climate change task force meeting in Washington DC, 17 September 2019. Photo: Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Climate activist Greta Thunberg tells U.S. Congress: “I know you are trying but just not hard enough. Sorry.” – Barack Obama meets with Greta: “You and me, we’re a team”

By Lauren Gambino 17 September 2019 WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Guardian) – At a meeting of the Senate climate crisis task force on Tuesday, lawmakers praised a group of young activists for their leadership, their gumption and their display of wisdom far beyond their years. They then asked the teens for advice on how Congress might […]

Map showing 2014-2018 global temperature change, compared with 1880-1899 temperatures. Data: Berkeley Earth. Graphic: The Washington Post

Dangerous new hot zones are spreading around the world

By Chris Mooney and John Muyskens 11 September 2019 LA CORONILLA, Uruguay (The Washington Post) – The day the yellow clams turned black is seared in Ramón Agüero’s memory. It was the summer of 1994. A few days earlier, he had collected a generous haul, 20 buckets of the thin-shelled, cold-water clams, which burrow a […]

Cover of TIME magazine, 12 September 2019, “2050: The Fight for Earth”. Graphic: TIME

2050: The Fight for Earth – Why TIME magazine devoted an entire issue to climate change

By Edward Felsenthal 12 September 2019 (TIME) – This issue, if civilization can get its act together, might just mark a midpoint in TIME’s coverage of the biggest crisis facing our planet. Three decades ago—at a moment when much of the world was only beginning to wake up to the damage humanity had been wreaking […]

Aerial view of the Amazon rainforest burning out of control in the municipality of Colniza, Mato Grosso state on 24 August 2019, just days before nine Amazon state governors met with Bolsonaro to discuss pkans to continue destroying the rainforest and assimilating the indigenous peoples of Amazonia. Photo: Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace

State governors support Bolsonaro’s plan to continue destruction of Amazon rainforest for mining and agribusiness – Indigenous peoples of Amazonia to be assimilated

By Jenny Gonzales 9 September 2019 (Mongabay) – It is not only President Jair Bolsonaro who views rainforests and indigenous people as obstacles to Brazilian economic development. Seven of the nine Amazon state governors are in line with the policies of the chief executive, as attested to at an August 27 meeting between the president and representatives […]

The Organ Pipe Cactus national monument, in southern Arizona, is a federally protected wilderness area and Unesco-recognized international biosphere reserve. Trump’s border wall will traverse the entirety of the southern edge of Organ Pipe Cactus national monument. Photo: Marek Zuk / Alamy

Trump administration begins border wall construction in Organ Pipe Cactus national monument – “Walling off these precious places would be a colossal mistake and a national tragedy”

By Samuel Gilbert 13 September 2019 TUCSON, Arizona (The Guardian) – Construction of a 30ft-high section of Donald Trump’s border barrier has begun in the Organ Pipe Cactus national monument in southern Arizona, a federally protected wilderness area and Unesco-recognized international biosphere reserve. In the face of protests by environmental groups, the wall will traverse the entirety of […]

Adult obesity in the U.S. by state in 2018, with top ten states highlighted. Graphic: Trust for Americas Health

U.S. obesity rates hit historic highs in 2018 – Nine states reach adult obesity rates of 35 percent or more – “These latest data shout that our national obesity crisis is getting worse”

WASHINGTON, DC, 12 September 2019 (Trust for America’s Health) – Nine U.S. states had adult obesity rates above 35 percent in 2018, up from seven states at that level in 2017, an historic level of obesity in the U.S., according to the 16th annual State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America report [pdf] released today by the […]

Angela Johnson (center) celebrates with people in Fox Town on Little Abaco Island, the Bahamas, who were stranded by Hurricane Dorian, 15 September 2019. Photo: Angela Johnson

Helicopter pilot discovers villagers stranded in debris in the Bahamas

By Suzanne Ciechalski 15 September 2019 (NBC News) – A helicopter pilot volunteering in the Bahamas in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian was shocked to discover this week that an area full of debris from the storm was inhabited by up to 40 people. Justin Johnson, who owns Timberview Helicopters in Destin, Florida, with his […]

U.S. federal budget deficits and discretionary spending, 2009-2019. Data: Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget / U.S. OMB / CBO. Graphic: CNN

U.S. deficit tops $1 trillion in 11 months, highest in 7 years – “Absent more responsible budgets, the deficit and interest costs will continue to grow rapidly, diminishing America’s future”

By Niv Elis 12 September 2019 (The Hill) – The U.S. government deficit surpassed $1 trillion in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year, over $100 billion more than the same period last year, according to official Treasury figures released Thursday. Last week, data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that the […]

Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), speaks at a meteorological convention, Tuesday, 10 September 2019, in Huntsville, Alabama. Jacobs both defended the administration and thanked a local weather office that contradicted Trump’s claims about Hurricane Dorian threatening Alabama. Photo: Jay Reeves / AP Photo

In agency-wide email, NOAA chief moves to regain scientists’ trust after defending incorrect Trump tweet

By Jason Samenow 13 September 2019 (The Washington Post) – Neil Jacobs, the acting head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sent an all-staff email Friday afternoon in an apparent effort to repair damage from an unusual 6 September 2019 statement that sided with President Trump rather than agency weather forecasters. The controversial NOAA […]

A herd of musk ox graze in an area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Photo: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge / AP

Trump administration opens huge wildlife refuge in Alaska to drilling – “This destructive, unlawful plan would sell off one of America’s last great wildlands to the highest bidder”

By Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin 13 September 2019 (The Washington Post) – The Trump administration on Thursday said it would seek to open up the entire coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration, picking the most aggressive development option for an area long closed to drilling. In filing […]

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