Climate

It would be harder for insurers and scientists to study wildfires, storms and other “billion dollar disasters,” which are growing more frequent as the planet warms.

US agency will no longer update major weather database in latest showing of Trump’s influence on climate resources

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) will no longer track the cost of climate crisis-fueled weather disasters, including floods, heatwaves, wildfires and more. It is the latest example of changes to the agency and the Trump administration limiting federal government resources on climate change.

Noaa falls under the US Department of Commerce and is tasked with daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings and climate monitoring. It is also parent to the National Weather Service.

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The floating farms known as “chinampas” may have something to teach Venetians and the world.

Maryland has restricted use of the toxic fertilizer. A plan to send more to Virginia has sparked fears of contaminated farms and fisheries.

Lack of rain and floods both threaten crops. Ministers should heed the experts’ warnings

It is so ingrained in British culture to celebrate sunshine that unless you are a farmer or gardener, it is unusual to complain about the lack of rain. But alarms are being sounded by environmentalists and farmers after a very dry spring followed a winter during which parts of the country, including Northern Ireland, had only 70% of average rainfall.

Some crops are already failing, and worse will follow unless more rain arrives soon. Conditions at the moment are said to resemble 2022 – the last time that farms suffered significant losses due to drought. In certain regions, fields have had to be irrigated months earlier than usual. The National Drought Group, which coordinates management of scarce water resources, met on Wednesday. Long-range forecasts are predicting more warm, sunny weather, but the UK’s weather is changeable. Two years ago the driest June on record was followed by an exceptionally wet July.

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With less than a month before the start of the 2025 hurricane season, residents are still recovering from catastrophic damage from the past two years

Idalia. Debby. Helene.

Not visiting friends, not neighbors. All hurricanes that have not yet faded into memory for the residents of Taylor county in Florida, where all three powerful storms hit in just two years.

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From a New Forest giant inspiring an asthmatic teen to a herd of animal puppets walking to the Arctic Circle, theatre far and wide is taking action – but with energy and optimism, rather than doom-laden tales

Climate stories are typically defined by despair. The future we are told of is such a tragic, barren dystopia, it’s hard to look at head-on. But a flood of theatre-makers are writing their way past fear into something more useful, inspiring action through love, music, puppetry and folklore. “The ones who profit most from the idea that we’re doomed are the oil companies and the people massively polluting our planet,” reasons playwright Flora Wilson Brown. “If we allow ourselves to think there’s nothing we can do, we won’t do anything. There’s still time to act.”

Wilson Brown rejects this nightmarish narrative in her play, The Beautiful Future Is Coming, at Bristol Old Vic. Exploring the impact of the climate crisis through the eyes of three couples, the play jumps between 1856, 2027 and 2100. In the scenes set in the past, life is returned to Eunice Foote, the real scientist who discovered the greenhouse effect years before the man who took credit for it; in the future, we visit the Svalbard seed vault, where humanity has stashed the ambition of life on another planet. “It’s about making the impact emotional,” Wilson Brown says, “rather than statistical.”

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Study finds human-caused climate change made four-day rainfall across central Mississippi valley 40% more likely

The four-day historic storm that caused death and destruction across the central Mississippi valley in early April was made significantly more likely and more severe by burning fossil fuels, rapid analysis by a coalition of leading climate scientists has found.

Record quantities of rain were dumped across eight southern and midwestern states between 3 and 6 April, causing widespread catastrophic flooding that killed at least 15 people, inundated crops, wrecked homes, swept away vehicles and caused power outages for hundreds of thousands of households.

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Fossil fuel company retains chosen board members, with former Shell executive Ann Pickard re-elected at meeting interrupted by whistle-blowing activists

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Woodside Energy has withstood a rebuke by shareholders of its climate plans by garnering sufficient support to retain its chosen board members and approve executive pay plans at a fiery annual general meeting on Thursday.

A diverse group of investors, including fund managers and governance organisations, opposed the re-election of high-profile Woodside director Ann Pickard, a former Shell executive who chairs the committee responsible for overseeing climate risk at the Perth-headquartered oil and gas company.

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Fast and unplanned growth of cities providing ideal conditions for the creatures to thrive, say researchers

Scorpions are “taking over” Brazilian cities, researchers have warned in a paper that said rapid urbanisation and climate breakdown were driving an increase in the number of people being stung.

More than 1.1m stings were reported between 2014 and 2023, according to data from the Brazilian notifiable diseases information system. There was a 250% increase in reports of stings from 2014 to 2023, according to research published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.

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A lawsuit led by Washington, Colorado and California accuses the Trump administration of unlawfully withholding funds for new charging stations.

Exposure to small particulate matter from fires contributes to thousands of annual deaths in US, according to study

Wildfires driven by the climate crisis contribute to as many as thousands of annual deaths and billions of dollars in economic costs from wildfire smoke in the United States, according to a new study.

The paper, published on Friday in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment, found that from 2006 to 2020, the climate crisis contributed to about 15,000 deaths from exposure to small particulate matter from wildfires and cost about $160bn. The annual range of deaths was 130 to 5,100, the study showed, with the highest in states such as Oregon and California.

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Dozens of programs, many linked to climate change and diversity, have been designated for elimination by DOGE, according to people with knowledge of the plan.

Party intends to block projects despite net zero industries contributing nearly £1bn to local economy, analysis shows

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Reform UK’s plans to obstruct green energy projects in Lincolnshire put at risk almost £1bn in local investment and more than 12,000 jobs, analysis suggests.

No 10 said it would fight any attempt by the party to dismantle or block renewable investment in the area, after its deputy leader, Richard Tice, said Reform-controlled councils and its mayors would be able to block what he called “net stupid zero” infrastructure, including solar farms, pylons and battery storage systems.

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Trials will test ways to block sunlight and slow climate crisis that threatens to trigger catastrophic tipping points

Real-world geoengineering experiments spanning the globe from the Arctic to the Great Barrier Reef are being funded by the UK government. They will test sun-reflecting particles in the stratosphere, brightening reflective clouds using sprays of seawater and pumping water on to sea ice to thicken it.

Getting this “critical missing scientific data” is vital with the Earth nearing several catastrophic climate tipping points, said the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria), the government agency backing the plan. If demonstrated to be safe, geoengineering could temporarily cool the planet and give more time to tackle the root cause of the climate crisis: the burning of fossil fuels.

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Feeding the world sustainably is an incredibly complex challenge, yet some people are trying to sell us a bucolic fairytale

The fire that has just destroyed 500 hectares (1,230 acres) of Dartmoor should have been impossible. It should not be a fire-prone landscape. But sheep, cattle and ponies have made it so. They selectively browse out tree seedlings, preventing the return of temperate rainforest, which is extremely difficult to burn. In dry weather, the moor grass, bracken and heather covering the deforested landscape are tinder.

The plume of carbon dioxide and smoke released this week is one of the many impacts of livestock grazing. But several recent films, alongside celebrities, politicians, billionaires and far-right podcasts, seek to persuade us that cattle and sheep are good for the atmosphere and the living planet. This story, wrapped in romantic cottagecore, is now the most active and seductive frontier of climate-science denial. It is heavily promoted by the meat industry, which is as ruthless and machiavellian as the fossil fuel industry. It sows confusion among people desperately seeking to do the right thing in an age of misinformation.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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Paper in Nature Climate Change journal reveals major role wealthy emitters play in driving climate extremes

The world’s wealthiest 10% are responsible for two-thirds of global heating since 1990, driving droughts and heatwaves in the poorest parts of the world, according to a study.

While researchers have previously shown that higher income groups emit disproportionately large amounts of greenhouse gases, the latest survey is the first to try to pin down how that inequality translates into responsibility for climate breakdown. It offers a powerful argument for climate finance and wealth taxes by attempting to give an evidential basis for how many people in the developed world – including more than 50% of full-time employees in the UK – bear a heightened responsibility for the climate disasters affecting people who can least afford it.

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Data suggests pollution from energy is falling again after previously stalling, but experts say faster growth needed to achieve Labor goal of 82% renewable electricity by 2030

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Renewable energy generation rose substantially in Australia’s main power grid over the past year, producing 43% of electricity used across the five eastern states and the ACT between January and March.

The increase – from 39% last year – came as generation from black and brown coal-fired power plants fell to its lowest level on record for the first quarter, in part due to ageing stations being unavailable due to outages. Gas-fired electricity generation was also down.

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Employees were told that the popular energy efficiency certification program would be “de-prioritized and eliminated,” according to documents and a recording.

Imagine it’s June and a tropical depression has formed in the Atlantic Ocean. Over the course of a few days, it develops into a tropical storm over the Caribbean Sea, threatening coastal communities along the Gulf of Mexico.

The tropical storm then travels over warmer-than-usual Gulf waters, where it undergoes a rapid intensification cycle (or two), jumping to a Category 3 or 4 storm overnight. Ferocious wind speeds and catastrophic storm surge threaten homes and people across the Gulf. Communities in the hurricane’s path need to evacuate to safety, but reliable projections and forecasts of storm surge, precipitation, wind and storm movement speed, as well as estimates on where the storm will likely make landfall, aren’t available.  

First responders, emergency managers, regional authorities, businesses, and residential communities no longer have the critical information they need to protect vital infrastructure and safely evacuate people in harm’s way. It’s unavailable because of firings, downsizing, grounding of hurricane hunters and weather balloons, and shuttering computational infrastructure and data services at the National Weather Service (NWS), all of which is creating a void of life-saving information during the time of the year when climate change is making summers ever more dangerous and deadly. 

These dire circumstances have not yet come to pass, but the Trump administration’s extensive and ongoing attacks on science, including further cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) threatened in the President’s skinny budget, make it a likely scenario during this year’s Danger Season.

Danger Season runs yearly from May through October and is a time when extreme weather events, made worse each year by climate change, are at their peak in the US and increasingly likely to collide. But this year, on top of weather and climate dangers, we have the added risk of not having the best possible science that can warn and protect us from extreme weather events, due to the decimation underway of staff and resources at NOAA and the NWS.

Five former NWS directors have sounded the alarm about how dangerous this could be for the lives of people across the country. And as I wrote before these ill-advised cuts started, a strong and independent NOAA is essential to keep us safe from extreme weather and climate change. In this post, I examine how President Trump’s cuts are degrading extreme weather science and our ability to stay safe in a world made increasingly dangerous by ongoing fossil fuel use and climate change. 

1. Grounded weather balloons degrade weather forecasts 

The NWS relies on many different tools to monitor weather conditions, including sophisticated technology like Doppler radar, satellites, aircraft reports, and automated surface observation systems. Despite these advancements, weather balloons equipped with an instrument called a radiosonde remain the most effective method for measuring temperature, wind, relative humidity, and atmospheric pressure at higher altitudes. 

Since February 27, 2025, when the first suspension of weather balloon launches at the Kotzebue (AK) weather forecasting office (WFO) was announced, more cancellations of, or reductions in the number of weather balloons have taken place. As of this writing, the WFOs in Riverton (WY), Grand Junction (CO), North Platte (NE), Green Bay (WI), and Gaylord (MI) all have reduced the number of balloons to one per day. Rapid City (SD), Omana (NE), Albany (NY), and the Gray (ME) WFOs have suspended their balloon launches altogether. 

Weather balloon launches in many Weather Forecasting Offices have been reduced or suspended since late February 2025. Source: Union of Concerned Scientists

And the impact of their absence is not speculative; weather balloon cutbacks have already degraded forecasting. For example, in mid-April while tornado warnings across eastern Nebraska were ultimately issued in time, additional data that can only come from radiosondes could have helped identify the tornado threats sooner.  

When there are no additional data collected for rapidly-evolving events such as a tornado outbreak, forecasters may not have enough information to accurately update emergency alerts. In the same instance in Nebraska, staffing shortages limited what are usually multiple balloon launches to just one launch at 3PM, skipping a second one at 7PM.

“We didn’t get to see how the atmosphere had evolved between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. to understand how did the atmosphere evolve so that now we’re getting tornadoes instead of hail.”

Chris Vanasky, NWS

It is a truly frightening situation, and one we fear could play on repeat as the Trump administration carries out its anti-science, pro-fossil fuel agenda. 

2. MIC drops (not cool like literal mic drops) leave 78 million people at risk 

Meteorologists-in-Charge (MIC) bring senior operational leadership and expertise to the business of weather forecasting at NWS. They do quite a bit—from directing and managing staff, including those issuing weather warnings and providing forecast services, to serving as the main point of contact with local emergency managers before and during severe weather events. MICs make sure the quality of warnings and watches are up to standard. They also control communications between, for example, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center and local WFOs during severe weather. Just like any other place where experienced senior leadership is valued, their expertise is critical in keeping WFOs running smoothly.  

But the administration is dropping MICs across the country, and unlike literal and beloved microphone drops, MIC drops do not signal confidence in a great performance. On the contrary, firing MICs signals that people across the United States should expect to endure more uncertainty and degradation in the life-saving services that our NWS—paid for with our tax dollars—has provided to the public for decades. 

As of May 6, 2025, the Trump administration had fired Meteorologists in Charge (MIC) from 30 Weather Forecasting Offices covering 796 counties in the US. Union of Concerned Scientists.

As of early May, 30 out of the 122 WFOs did not have MICs on staff due to firings. This represents 25% of all WFOs, leaving nearly 78 million people in the 796 counties covered by these WFOs without the experienced leadership of MICs. That’s 23% of the 2021 US population, a number that is expected to increase as the Trump administration continues its scorched-earth approach to dismantling the federal scientific enterprise we all rely on daily whether we realize it or not.  

As of May 7, 2025, Weather Forecasting Offices without a Meteorologist in Charge due to Trump firings are depriving 78 million people across the country from critical expertise and leadership in weather forecasting. Union of Concerned Scientists, National Weather Service, and US Census Bureau. 3. Trump administration’s FEMA and HUD cuts are putting people in harm’s way 

Reduced weather balloon launchings and fired MICs are just two of the ways the Trump administration’s actions are endangering people as we head into Danger Season. The list is long and growing, as we learn more about the cuts and their implications for extreme weather forecasting.

Degradation of the NWS’ alert and response capacity is making it harder for everyday people to cope with the frequent heat waves, hurricanes, floods, and wildfires that threaten us during Danger Season.  And with similarly devastating, illegal, and ill-advised cuts at key agencies and offices such as FEMA and HUD, it will be harder for people to recover after these events or mitigate future risk.

As in previous years, this Danger Season state and local governments will be put under enormous financial pressure as they attempt to respond to increasingly extreme weather. At the household level, the financial precarity caused by disasters will be compounded by market instability sparked by tariffs and other political gamesmanship.  

Finally, the President’s “skinny budget” released last week threatens even further devastating cuts not just to NOAA, but to FEMA and HUD as well, which play key roles in helping people deal with climate disasters.  

4. Lying about climate change

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is denying and attempting to gaslight the public about the cause of worsening climate extremes through denial and disinformation about extreme weather and climate.

That’s because a key goal of Trump and his Congressional allies is to make the impacts of climate change less visible to the public in order to alleviate pressure on policymakers to curtail the use of fossil fuels and benefit that industry’s profit-making. The administration and the fossil fuel industry are undermining clean energy and resilience-building solutions at the expense of public safety and health.

As we see with the agency cuts, they are apparently willing to do tremendous harm to the American public in service of this goal.

We’re tracking extreme weather alerts—and making the connection to climate change

To keep the public informed about the connection between extreme weather and climate change, for the third year in a row we at UCS are tracking heat, flood, storm, and fire weather alerts issued by the NWS during May through October. In 2023, nearly 100% of the US population faced at least one of these four types of extreme weather, and by the end of the 2024 Danger Season, every single county and equivalent in the US had faced at least one such alert.  

This year, we integrated the EPA’s Air Quality Index (AQI) for fine particulates (PM2.5) into our Danger Season tracker tool. Air quality suffers greatly when smoke from wildfires pollute the air, and dangerous fine air particulates can travel long distances, far away from where wildfires burn. You can consult our tool daily to find out if your county is under any of these types of alerts, or if it has an air quality index that has reached a level deemed unhealthy for sensitive groups.

The tool also displays the number of people under extreme weather alerts, the percentage of people who have been under at least one extreme weather alert since May 1, the percentage of extreme heat alerts clearly influenced by climate change (thanks to Climate Central’s Climate Shift Index), and the percentage of people who live in disadvantaged communities under alerts.  

We have solutions—but they’re also under attack by the Trump administration 

This summer’s Danger Season is setting up to be even more risky and dangerous because of the Trump administration’s attacks on NOAA’s scientific resources that help with forecasting AND on FEMA and HUD programs and budgets for pre- and post-disaster response.  

As my colleague Shana Udvardy noted in a recent blogpost, there have been numerous attacks against FEMA in the first 100 days of the Trump administration, including gutting the agency’s staff and cutting popular programs like the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program that help communities become more resilient.  

The climate crisis and the affordable housing crisis are also increasingly intersecting, as my colleague Zoe Middleton points out, which is why cuts to staff, budgets and programs at HUD are also going to leave communities—especially those with the fewest resources—at heightened risk.   

Congress must step up and do its job to protect communities by: 

1. Halting attacks, reversing cuts and restoring staff and their functions:
   • Reversing the administration’s actions and restoring functions and staff at NOAA, NWS, FEMA, HUD, for example, will help the US government keep people safe during extreme weather and climate events and help recover and rebuild after disaster strikes. 
2. Boosting investments in resilience:
   • Government at all levels should invest further in common sense resilience-building measures that we know are badly needed, like climate-resilient affordable housing and grid resilience (see UCS’ Alicia Race’s sobering photo essay blog on the topic), as well as turning again toward the healthy, safe, and affordable clean energy future that people want. And we should make polluters pay their fair share for putting us in this situation. 
3. Following the money and holding bad actors accountable:
   • Fossil fuel interests are a main source of climate disinformation that deceives about the real causes of climate change. People-centric campaigns such as Summer of Heat on Wall Street are shining a light on their lies and deceit. Many large social media outfits and Big Tech pollute the information ecosystem by amplifying these lies. Both industries must be held accountable for their actions in perpetuating harmful lies.  

Danger Season is here. The relentless pace of unabated climate change is making extreme weather worse and more dangerous across the US. The Trump administration’s attacks on federal science are doubling down on the dangerous situation already created by runaway emissions and climate disasters. We need science-based solutions that will keep us safe.  

Please contact your members of Congress and urge them to protect NOAA and FEMA from unrelenting attacks from the Trump administration.  

Take action here:  

Stop the Trump Administration from dismantling FEMA

Protect NOAA: Our Safety in a Climate-Changed World Depends on It

Resources 

• Danger Season tracker tool (English): https://dangerseason.ucs.org/?lang=en 
• Danger Season tracker tool (Spanish): https://dangerseason.ucs.org/?lang=es 
• Danger Season 2024 wrap-up video (English):  https://s3.amazonaws.com/UCS_Videos/ds-2024-roundup-english.mp4 
• Danger Season 2024 wrap-up video (Spanish): https://s3.amazonaws.com/UCS_Videos/ds-2024-roundup-spanish.mp4 
• Danger Season 2023 wrap-up video (English): https://s3.amazonaws.com/UCS_Videos/ds-2023-roundup-english.mp4 
• Danger Season 2023 wrap-up video (Spanish): https://s3.amazonaws.com/UCS_Videos/ds-2023-roundup-spanish.mp4