People & Population

"In the most remote parts of Alaska, staying in touch can involve a bit more effort than sending a text. Cell service is spotty, highways are nonexistent, and the postal service remains a vital lifeline, delivering supplies and mail by plane. But for anyone who wants to broadcast a different kind of message — a reminder to pick up milk, for example, or birthday wishes — there’s always the Muktuk Telegram."

"USDA’s staffing cuts, scuttled conservation programs, and misdirected crop insurance are hitting farmers hard."

"A group of experts says Western states urgently need to cut water use to avert a deepening crisis on the Colorado River. The river’s major reservoirs are less than one-third full, and another dry winter would push reservoirs toward critically low levels."

"A billion-dollar seawall may shield the city’s wealthy core — but not the vulnerable communities beyond it. Who will be forced to move?"

"Cuts to SNAP and farm-to-school programs under the Trump administration risk worsening childhood disease, nutrition experts warn."

"Researching air quality is key to improving kids’ health, according to a new strategy from the Make America Healthy Again Commission unveiled Tuesday by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. There’s just one problem: EPA, under Zeldin’s leadership, has shuttered the preeminent laboratory in the country studying air pollution’s impact on people."

"A long-awaited and highly controversial report issued on Tuesday by the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) Commission provides a few “crumbs” for public and environmental health advocates, but big wins for powerful food and chemical industries seeking to skirt limits on their products and practices."

"Brazil brought the U.N.’s COP30 climate conference to the Amazon. Then the price frenzy began." "The idea had seemed symbolically fitting at first — a global climate summit set on the edge of the threatened Amazon rainforest."

"Fifty-five heat waves over the past quarter-century would not have happened without human-caused climate change, according to a study published Wednesday."

"Herbicides in forestry kill broadleaf vegetation that compete with softwoods, which are more flammable"