"Lower-income residents and people of color are more likely to live in the hottest neighborhoods in cities across the country, putting them at greater risk of heat-related illnesses and death. A trio of studies presented yesterday at the American Geophysical Union's annual fall meeting underscored that sobering point."

"Washington state could electrify almost all of its 56,000 public vehicles by 2035, according to a new study that might have lessons for the incoming Biden administration."

"One of the transition team's top candidates to lead either NOAA or NASA doesn't want the job, and another contender for NOAA chief is married to President-elect Joe Biden's chief of staff. But there are more — a lot more — people out there competing for a range of climate science positions at NASA, NOAA and elsewhere, sources said."

"News that President-elect Joe Biden has picked former Obama administration Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to run the agency anew has drawn disappointment from some who felt he was too aligned with major agriculture corporations during his previous stint."

"California’s redwoods, sequoias and Joshua trees define the American West and nature’s resilience through the ages. Wildfires this year were their deadliest test."

"Today, an unusually broad coalition of environmental groups, numbering more than 550, called on the incoming Biden-Harris administration to address plastic pollution alongside fossil fuels, releasing an eight-point platform that largely focuses on ways the next administration could act without a Democratic majority in the Senate."

"The Gulf of Mexico is littered with tens of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells, and toothless regulation leaves climate warming gas emissions unchecked."

"A new survey shows arsenic levels in public water are disproportionately high in certain U.S. communities, despite national regulatory standards designed to protect people from the harmful chemical."

"Many of the U.S. states with bold commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions are on track to miss their targets, according to an analysis published on Tuesday by green group Environmental Defense Fund."

"Get poisoned or get on board. That’s the choice soybean farmers such as Will Glazik face. The past few summers, farmers near Glazik’s central Illinois farm have sprayed so much of the weedkiller dicamba at the same time that it has polluted the air for hours and sometimes days."