"California regulators said Tuesday that they have streamlined the state’s permit process to make it faster to approve tree-thinning projects designed to slow massive wildfires that have devastated communities in recent years."

"Tens of thousands of holiday makers fled seaside towns on Australia’s east coast on Thursday ahead of advancing bushfires, as military ships and helicopters began rescuing thousands more trapped by the blazes."

"In early March, people who live along Mozambique's long coastline began to hear rumors about a cyclone."

"Disaster appeared imminent at the nation's tallest dam on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017....Catastrophe was averted. But the event awakened the public to the risks posed by the country's aging dam infrastructure."

"Thousands swarmed to beaches on Australia’s east coast on Tuesday to escape fierce wildfires bearing down on several seaside towns, as the government readied naval vessels and military helicopters to aid firefighting and evacuations."

"A coalition of environmental groups is suing the Trump administration over its easing of chemical plant safety regulations following a recent plant explosion in Texas that injured several people."

"Scientists fear climate change will drive a surge in the number of supersized and dangerous bushfires that become coupled with the atmosphere and create their own violent thunderstorms."

"A federal bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved two Pacific Gas & Electric settlements totaling $24.5 billion to help pay the losses suffered by homeowners, businesses and insurers in the aftermath of catastrophic Northern California wildfires that sent the nation’s largest utility into a financial morass."

"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."

"The acting chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who backed the agency for siding with President Trump over its own scientists when the president claimed Alabama was in the path of Hurricane Dorian is being nominated for a position at the Department of Commerce, the White House said Wednesday."