BENGALURU, India — Unpredictable rains and increasing heat aren’t just making life more difficult for the people of Rayanpet, a village in India’s arid south. They’re also taking a toll on the thousands of acres of rice grown here. “We used to know when it would rain and for how long and we sowed our … Read more
ATLANTA — Residents east of Atlanta were again warned to take shelter where they are on Tuesday if a chemical cloud moves over their neighborhood, as winds shifted the plume from a fire at a chemical plant. A shelter-in-place order had just ended Monday evening for more than 90,000 people closest to the chemical plant … Read more
More than 40 trillion gallons of rain drenched the Southeast United States in the last week from Hurricane Helene and a run-of-the-mill rainstorm that sloshed in ahead of it — an unheard of amount of water that has stunned experts. That’s enough to fill the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium 51,000 times, or Lake Tahoe just once. … Read more
BILLINGS, Mont. — A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court determination that a Montana health clinic submitted hundreds of false asbestos claims on behalf of patients. A jury decided last year that the clinic in a town where hundreds of people have died from asbestos exposure submitted more than 300 false asbestos claims … Read more
NEW YORK — A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water because high levels could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower … Read more
NEW YORK — Dressed in a sequin-laced, sleeveless top and puffy pink skirt, drag queen Pattie Gonia strides around the stage in white high-heeled boots that come up to the knees, telling the crowd that nature must be a woman. “She is trying to kill us in the most passive-aggressive way possible,” joked Gonia, lip-syncing … Read more
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly approved a blueprint Sunday to bring the world’s increasingly divided nations together to tackle 21st-century challenges from climate change and artificial intelligence to escalating conflicts and increasing inequality and poverty. The 42-page “Pact of the Future” challenges leaders of the 193 U.N. member nations to turn promises into … Read more
NEW YORK — Activists geared up Friday for protests around the world to demand action on climate change just as a pair of major weeklong climate events were getting underway in New York City. The planned actions in Berlin, Brussels, Rio de Janeiro, New Delhi and many other cities were being organized by the youth-led … Read more
K0TWA, Zimbabwe — Since childhood, Loveness Bhitoni has collected fruit from the gigantic baobab trees surrounding her homestead in Zimbabwe to add variety to the family’s staple corn and millet diet. The 50-year-old Bhitoni never saw them as a source of cash, until now. Climate change-induced droughts have decimated her crops. Meanwhile, the world has … Read more
The hallmarks of climate change — extreme heat and drought; larger, more intense wildfires and supercharged hurricanes, typhoons and rainstorms that lead to catastrophic flooding — are being seen and felt around the globe. Drought in Brazil. Wildfires in Portugal, Peru and the Western U.S. Severe flooding swamping Central Europe, Southeast Asia and Western Africa. … Read more
