31 December 2017 (Desdemona Despair) – This photo, by Hal Bernton of The Seattle Times, captures the zeitgeist of 2017: humans blithely golfing while their immediate environment burns. Behind the golfers, the Eagle Creek Fire rages on both sides of the Columbia River Gorge, in Washington and Oregon, on 4 September 2017.You might think this […]
30 December 2017 (IndiaSpend) – A bumper harvest crashing prices, pollution worsening in Delhi and other north Indian cities due to crop stubble burning and power plants, and the lack of infrastructure and manpower in public health centres leading to deaths of children across the country. These were the key points of worry for India […]
By Aruna Chandrasekhar 29 December 2017 (The Wire) – In 2017, weather reports were bumped up to the front page because the impact of climate change was becoming more visible than ever. Devastating cyclones, thousands lost to floods and drought in South Asia, thousands more displaced, infernal heat-waves sweeping cities, air pollution stealing hundreds of […]
By Alana Semuels 29 December 2017 HEMET, California (The Atlantic) – Many cities across America are doing better today than they were before the recession. This is not one of them. A decade after the start of the Great Recession, it struggles with pervasive crime and poverty. “We’re still recovering—we were really hit hard on […]
By Marshall Shepherd 28 December 2017 (Forbes) – If you are reading or watching the news, winter weather is the current headline. Negative wind chills, feet of lake effect snow in the Great Lakes region, and possibly the coldest New Year’s Eve ball drop in almost a half century are on tap. Forecasts are suggesting […]
By Alice Hill 20 December 2017 (CNN) – As this year comes to a close, 2017 is on track to set the all-time record for the most billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in any single year in US history. There were 15 in the first nine months (equal to all of 2011, which set the […]
28 December 2017 (MSNBC) – Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz of San Juan, Puerto Rico, talks with Joy Reid about the challenges the island is still dealing with months after catastrophic hurricanes, problems made worse by the Trump administration’s bungling of the response and the new Republican tax law. Puerto Rico crisis lingers as Trump administration […]
By Danica Coto 28 December 2017 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Thousands of police officers are calling in sick every day in Puerto Rico, partly to press demands for unpaid overtime pay for hurricane recovery efforts as concerns grow over people’s safety in a U.S. territory struggling to restore power. The increase in absences […]
By Mark Kelly 26 December 2017 (CNN) – In 2001, I flew my first flight into space aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour. Roughly a decade later, I commanded that same space shuttle on its final flight. That trip was my fourth journey — and at least for now, my final one — from this planet into […]
By Tim Craig 15 December 2017 NOYES, Minnesota (The Washington Post) – Chad Cosley tracks them as if they were deer. He looks for footprints and frequently checks his network of trail cameras, which had been documenting wildlife along the U.S.-Canada border but now also capture would-be refugees fleeing the United States under President Trump. […]
