Disasters

"For the past three years, a sinkhole in a Mooresville parking lot has released coal ash into a tributary of Lake Norman, in part because of a legal impasse about who is responsible — the property owners or Duke Energy — for repairing the damage."

"Two days after jurors in Multnomah County found that the utility PacifiCorp was to blame for wildfires in 2020, they ordered the company to pay punitive damages. That’s in addition to the more than $70 million already owed to the plaintiffs in the case."

"Using chainsaws, heavy machinery and controlled burns, the Biden administration is trying to turn the tide on worsening wildfires in the U.S. West through a multi-billion dollar cleanup of forests choked with dead trees and undergrowth."

"Wildfires burning through large swathes of eastern and western Canada have released a record 160 million tonnes of carbon, the EU's Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service said on Tuesday."

"As thick smoke from Canadian wildfires coated Chicago and the surrounding areas Tuesday, weather officials warned more bad air is expected Wednesday."

"Record-setting heat in Texas has sent hundreds of people to emergency rooms in recent weeks, according to state health officials."

"Rescued from the beach, a sick sea lion and her newborn pup are now on the mend with dozens of others at a marine mammal care center, part of effort by California wildlife experts responding to a sudden surge in animals falling ill to a neurotoxin."

"Live by the sun, die by the sun. So it goes in Texas, where a surge in solar power generation is helping the state’s primary grid operator navigate an ongoing and stifling heat wave."

"As climate change intensifies severe rainstorms, the infrastructure protecting millions of Americans from flooding faces growing risk of failures, according to new calculations of expected precipitation in every county and locality across the contiguous United States."

"Extreme heat kills more people in the United States than any other weather hazard, and the risk of longer and more frequent heat waves is only expected to increase as climate change worsens."