"A national heat wave pushed high temperatures across the country on Tuesday to an average of 105.6 degrees. Even more heat is in the forecast." "It is so hot, birds are abandoning the sky."
"In a world where warming seas, pollution, and predation are killing coral around the world, an extensive survey of French Polynesia has found a ray of hope. On some atolls there, live coral covers 70% of the reef’s surface; on others, big fish such as grouper and barracuda that have almost disappeared elsewhere are thriving."
"Firefighters in Australia warned on Tuesday they would not be able to contain some of the 100 fires still ablaze in the country before conditions are expected to deteriorate later this week."
"The level of alarm is already high in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, as the Pacific island nation struggles with rising sea levels and the after-effects of decades of U.S. nuclear testing on its atolls."
"Scorched by days of unrelenting wildfires, parts of southeast Australia are facing 'catastrophic fire danger.' On Monday, officials declared a state of emergency for all of New South Wales, the country's most populous state."
"Five thousand miles west of Los Angeles and 500 miles north of the equator, on a far-flung spit of white coral sand in the central Pacific, a massive, aging and weathered concrete dome bobs up and down with the tide. Here in the Marshall Islands, Runit Dome holds more than 3.1 million cubic feet — or 35 Olympic-sized swimming pools — of U.S.-produced radioactive soil and debris, including lethal amounts of plutonium."
"Two Indonesian journalists who had reported on an illegal oil palm plantation in Sumatra while also allegedly trying to gain control of the crop have been found dead at the plantation."
As U.S. coal’s comedown continues, our latest Issue Backgrounder takes a close look at the factors behind the industry’s decline and finds a combination of economics, competition and shifting global markets, along with aging technology, politics and environmental pushback. What’s in store for coal in 2020?
"More than 40 racing teams from 21 countries left Darwin on Sunday to race across Australia to the southern city of Adelaide in the world’s fastest solar powered cars."
It’s poisoning fresh waters across the United States, as well as elsewhere in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. Blue-green algae is on the rise, lingering later and later into the year. Our new Issue Backgrounder explains the contributing factors behind the potent toxin’s scourge, its societal and public health ramifications, and the many angles and resources to tell the story.
