"“Make America healthy again” (Maha) movement leaders have put out a petition calling for Donald Trump to fire Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin, who, since being appointed in late January, has quickly moved to undo toxic chemical regulations and fast-track pesticide approvals."
Explore our 10th annual Journalists’ Guide to Environment + Energy, as we scour the beat to identify 15 top stories to put on your radar for 2026. Our updated format for the special report provides a quick read and a broad scope — with insights on climate change and environmental justice, bird and insect declines, data centers and deep sea mining, deregulation and PFAS and much more. Get started here [3].
When writer Gulnaz Khan saw how global warming drove both natural loss and spiritual breaks for surrounding human communities, it started her on a PBS documentary series exploring sacred sites around the world threatened by climate change. But she also undertook another odyssey, one from writer to visual storyteller. What she learned on her journey from text to screen, in the new EJ InSight column.
"On a jagged coastline in Central California, brown pelicans gather on rock promontories, packed in like edgy commuters as they take flight to feed on a vast school of fish just offshore. The water churns in whitecaps as the big-billed birds plunge beneath the surface in search of northern anchovies, Pacific sardines and mackerel."
"A geothermal startup said Thursday that it has hit gold in Nevada — metaphorically speaking. Zanskar, which uses AI to find hidden geothermal resources deep underground, says that it has identified a new commercially viable site for a potential power plant. The discovery, the company claims, is the first of its kind made by the industry in decades."
"After a long delay, the Interior Department’s Office of Government Ethics last week provided Public Domain the financial disclosure of Karen Budd-Falen, a high-ranking Trump appointee at DOI." "Karen Budd-Falen, a self-described “cowboy lawyer," owns ranch operations and real estate rentals. Her family has also had sizable investments in oil companies."
"Dozens of farmers drove their tractors in a caravan to Mexico City and blocked an entrance to Mexico’s Congress on Wednesday to protest a new national water law that imposes stricter controls on water use."
"Southeast Asia is being pummeled by unusually severe floods this year, as late-arriving storms and relentless rains wreak havoc that has caught many places off guard."
"As global warming accelerates, about 480 million people in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula face intensifying and in some places unsurvivable heat, as well as drought, famine and the risk of mass displacement, the World Meteorological Organization warned Thursday."
"In 2017, U.S. grid storage developers promised they could deliver 35 gigawatts by 2025. They beat their target and made batteries a key power-sector player."
Links
[1] https://www.sej.org/headlines/maha-v-maga-feud-grows-trump-epa-rolls-back-rules-toxic-chemicals
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/07/maha-maga-feud-chemicals-pesticides
[3] https://www.sej.org/publications/sej-news/top-environment-and-energy-topics-watch-2026
[4] https://www.sej.org/publications/ej-insight/words-frames-writer-learns-wield-power-visual-storytelling
[5] https://www.sej.org/headlines/feeding-frenzy-encouraging-sign-struggling-calif-brown-pelicans
[6] https://apnews.com/article/california-brown-pelicans-feeding-frenzy-coast-c7292ef7377c5c123eda38e4afe62110
[7] https://www.sej.org/headlines/startup-says-it-has-found-hidden-source-geothermal-energy-nev
[8] https://www.wired.com/story/startup-found-hidden-source-geothermal-energy/
[9] https://www.sej.org/headlines/interior-dept-finally-releases-high-official-s-financial-disclosure
[10] https://www.publicdomain.media/p/budd-falen-financial-disclosure-interior
[11] https://www.sej.org/headlines/farmers-block-mexico-s-congress-tractors-protest-water-law-proposal
[12] https://apnews.com/article/mexico-farmers-protest-water-law-a0e4d9f51e4e6d672a9240f4c5237aa8
[13] https://www.sej.org/headlines/deadly-asian-floods-are-no-fluke-they-re-climate-warning-scientists-say
[14] https://apnews.com/article/southeast-asia-climate-change-weather-floods-9baeb7e9656f6964d6496237130f87a6
[15] https://www.sej.org/headlines/new-report-warns-critical-climate-risks-arab-region
[16] https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04122025/arab-region-global-warming-farms-aquifers/
[17] https://www.sej.org/headlines/grid-storage-industry-set-wild-goal-2025-and-then-crushed-it
[18] https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/energy-storage/grid-storage-industry-crushes-2025-goal
[19] https://www.sej.org/search_results
[20] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=4
[21] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=1
[22] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=2
[23] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3
[24] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=6
[25] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=7
[26] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=8
[27] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=9
[28] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=4880