Disasters

"Western wildfires pose a much broader threat to human health than to just those forced to evacuate the path of the blazes."
 

"Thousands of families sickened and forced from their Los Angeles homes after the nation’s largest-known natural gas leak have reached a settlement of up to $1.8 billion with a utility, attorneys said Monday."

"Colorado saw its worst fire season last year, with the three largest fires in state history and more than 600,000 acres burned. But some of the effects didn’t appear until this July, when heavy rain pushed sediment from damaged forests down mountainsides, causing mudslides that shut down sections of Interstate 70 for almost two weeks."

"When Hurricane Ida barreled into the Louisiana coast with near 150 mile-per-hour winds on Aug. 30, it left a trail of destruction. The storm also triggered the most oil spills detected from space after a weather event in the Gulf of Mexico since the federal government started using satellites to track spills and leaks a decade ago."

"Prosecutors in Northern California on Friday charged power utility Pacific Gas & Electric with four counts of manslaughter and other felonies, alleging it failed to cut down a sickly tree that fell onto power lines and sparked a deadly wildfire."

"People born today will suffer many times more extreme heatwaves and other climate disasters over their lifetimes than their grandparents, research has shown. The study is the first to assess the contrasting experience of climate extremes by different age groups and starkly highlights the intergenerational injustice posed by the climate crisis."

"New federal flood insurance rates that better reflect the real risks of climate change are coming. For some, premiums will rise sharply."

"Speaking at Sequoia National Park, where firefighters have toiled for the past two weeks to keep wildfires from killing some of the largest trees in the world, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed a package of bills providing $15 billion for a wide range of climate, wildfire and water projects — from thinning forests to building electric car charging stations and encouraging the development of offshore wind farms."

"Russian Arctic oil is moving north into territories previously untouched by man. The latests lands up for industrial expansion might be the shorelines and delta areas of several Arctic rivers and bays."

"Nations, companies and foundations pledged billions of dollars to feed the world in connection with an ambitious United Nations food summit Thursday, while some grassroots anti-hunger groups and food experts blasted the event as too corporate, tech-focused and top-down."