Climate

An internal document describes how severe shortages of meteorologists and other staff members could affect forecasts and other operations.

Blazes in some parts of the country are up by 1,200% since last year, as charities warn about effects on wildlife

Entire ecosystems have been “decimated” and endangered species put at risk after one of the worst wildfire seasons on record in the UK, charities have warned.

Vast areas of habitat for animals including butterflies, beetles and falcons have been damaged, and some peat bogs may take “hundreds of years” to recover following one of the driest Marches in decades combined with warmer than average temperatures in April.

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The rulings are setbacks to Trump’s efforts to halt climate and environmental funding approved under the Biden administration.

Last week, hundreds of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) employees were fired for a second time (!) by the Trump administration. Since then, news reports have indicated that NOAA will face further drastic cuts in staffing and budgets soon, including potentially getting rid of the entire Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) division. Our nation’s foremost federal scientific agency for weather forecasting and climate research is under a full-scale assault—and that should alarm us all.

The cuts identified in news stories have not yet been publicly confirmed by NOAA or the Trump administration. In any other administration, one might be inclined to wait and see, hoping that rational choices safeguarding the public interest will prevail. But again and again, this administration has shown that it’s willing to engage in unbounded destruction and cares little about what it’s destroying or if their unilateral actions are even legal. Cut first and ask questions later, no matter the harm to people, seems to be the modus operandi.

And what they’re destroying is an incredibly rich and valuable scientific enterprise, built up over decades through investments made by US taxpayers, for the public’s benefit. NOAA belongs to all of us—communities, first responders, farmers, mariners, businesses, local decisionmakers—and we need to fight for what is ours. Congress needs to step up to do its job: reclaim its constitutional power and limit the worst excesses of this increasingly authoritarian administration.

Timing and scale of cuts to NOAA

Numerous news outlets have reported on a leaked document showing the president’s proposed budget for NOAA, which outlines significant cuts to the agency. As my colleague Marc Alessi points out, if those cuts go forward, they would significantly degrade the agency’s ability to provide lifesaving and economically beneficial data and forecasts.

Back in February, following from an executive order issued by President Trump, Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, (OPM) issued guidance requiring agencies to author and deliver reorganization plans by April 14. Specifically, it says:

Agencies should… submit a Phase 2 ARRP [Agency Reduction in Force and Reorganization Plans] to OMB and OPM for review and approval no later than April 14, 2025. Phase 2 plans shall outline a positive vision for more productive, efficient agency operations going forward. Phase 2 plans should be planned for implementation by September 30, 2025.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who heads the department that oversees NOAA, has presumably complied with this guidance but those decisions have not yet been made public.

It seems that the administration is determined to degrade NOAA’s capabilities, one way or another. Of course, decisions about the actual budget appropriated for agencies are made by Congress—and it should not just obediently rubberstamp these dangerous cuts.

Threat of eliminating NOAA’s Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) division

OAR, headquartered in Silver Spring, MD, provides the foundational research and data underpinning the work of other parts of the agency. In collaboration with various divisions at NOAA, OAR helps develop and advance scientific understanding of Earth systems to ensure more accurate weather forecasts, better early warnings for extreme weather events, and greater understanding of climate change within the US and across the globe.

From improved hurricane forecasting to better tornado modeling and warning systems, OAR science and scientists play a critical role in keeping people in every part of the country safe.

Yet, the leaked proposed Trump budget document calls for the elimination of OAR as a line office, and many of its career staff have already been laid off. While parts of its work and staff may be shifted to other divisions of NOAA, there’s no question that huge cuts like this would be devastating to its essential work, not to mention our country’s standing in the global scientific community.

NOAA’s satellite resources at risk

Just last week, NOAA celebrated 50 years of its Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) program. GOES satellites are the agency’s “eyes in the sky,” helping to monitor and track severe weather, environmental hazards and space weather. GOES-19, the latest model in the series, just became operational as GOES-East and is slated to provide critical new information to weather forecasters across the nation.

Just in the last month, this incredible satellite system has helped monitor two powerful storm system and tornado outbreaks—one that affected central and eastern US, and another that stretched from Texas to the Great Lakes—and provided early warnings to communities in their path that undoubtedly helped save lives. NOAA has plans to expand these capabilities through the Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite system, scheduled to begin operation in the early 2030s, which would provide enhanced information on emerging threats including climate change.

Yet, the leaked document indicates a plan to make major cuts in NOAA’s satellite program, including cancelling contracts associated with the GeoXO program and contracts for NASA collaboration on it. Unfortunately, it’s not too far-fetched to imagine that changes like this could be aimed at trying to deliberately gut agency capabilities so as to privatize critical satellite systems and hand large contracts to companies that will then take advantage of taxpayers financially in the years to come.

NOAA cuts are cruel, dangerous—and premeditated   

The Trump administration’s assault on NOAA—including the reckless mass firings of career scientists and other experts, targeting of climate-related work for elimination, and threats to precious, long-standing resources and data—are all reprehensible. They will harm people across the country and could leave the nation at a scientific disadvantage for decades to come.

Much of what is happening was previewed in Project 2025, whose chief architect, Russell Vought, is now executing his master plan from his powerful perch at the OMB. Project 2025 chillingly said:

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories.

It took specific aim at OAR, calling for it to be downsized and for its climate-related research to be disbanded, falsely disparaging it as “the source of much of NOAA’s climate alarmism.”

And here we are, not even three months into the term of this administration, watching the destruction unfold as planned.

Refusing to accept the scientific reality of climate change and gutting the nation’s ability to understand those changes won’t make climate impacts go away. Instead, cities, states and our country will be left flying blind into this oncoming disaster, without the information they urgently need to get out ahead in responding to worsening risks.

This is not efficiency; this is not going to save money. This is, quite literally, going to cost lives and lead to mounting, incredibly expensive damage to our economy. Congress, please stand up to these attacks and defend NOAA.

According to a leaked internal budget memo, the Trump Administration is planning to end climate research at both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). If this goes ahead, it would be an illegal escalation by the Trump Administration against the United States’ scientific enterprise and will directly hurt American livelihoods, leading to more deaths and greater economic damage from extreme weather events. Congress holds the power of the purse in our democracy and should step up to oppose harmful cuts to NOAA and NASA.  

While the proposed cuts claim to only be directed at climate change research, which would be disastrous on its own, the scientific institutions on the chopping block are imperative for the prediction and research of extreme weather events, including tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods. The memo proposes closing all 16 Cooperative Research Institutes in 33 states, every one of the 10 research labs, all 6 regional climate centers, slashing the budget for the NASA Goddard Space Institute, and ending $70 million in grants to research universities. Thousands of seasoned scientists, early career scientists, and young scientists in graduate schools will lose funding. These folks have spent their livelihoods conducting research that improves climate and weather prediction that directly affects every American. 

But what does this mean? Why should you care? Here are just some examples of how these cuts will affect you, if they go ahead: 

1. Significant decrease in hurricane forecasting accuracy

The proposed cuts include closing the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (CIMAS) at the University of Miami and the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML). This would end support for NOAA’s hurricane hunter missions as we know them, which provide invaluable data for hurricane forecasting models that predict the path and strength of hurricanes making landfall in the United States. Further, improvements in hurricane forecasting by these institutions have led to nearly $5 billion saved per major US-landfalling hurricane. The total budget cuts that would close these institutions? $485 million. These 2 institutions alone save the American taxpayer tens of billions of dollars annually, far more than what they cost. Closing them makes zero financial sense, and will cost us dearly, including in lives. 

2. An end to climate monitoring for farmers

If this budget passes, the NOAA Regional Climate Centers (RCC) would shut down operations, which provide critical decision tools for farming communities across the United States. This includes products that factor long-term climate data into decisions for frost, drought, extreme precipitation, and even turf grass for golf courses. The RCCs further archive weather and climate data that are used for understanding trends in temperature and precipitation extremes. 

3. Coastal communities will be left on their own

The memo calls for a slashing of the budget that supports the National Ocean Service, which provides information on tides, flood risk from extreme weather events, sea-level rise due to climate change, and water pollution for coastal communities. 

4. An end to US climate science leadership

The proposed budget would close the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) in Princeton, New Jersey, which is the birthplace of weather and climate modeling. If this occurs, the US would be abdicating its leadership in the advancement of our understanding of the atmosphere, especially under climate change. If we can no longer predict the effects of climate change, communities in the United States will be left on their own, with no help in how they should adapt to changes in extreme weather events. 

5. Young scientists under threat with nowhere to go

Graduate students and early career scientists across the country depend on funding from NOAA grants and Cooperative Institutes to conduct their research. These projects are vital for the future of the US economy and include anything from predicting tornado outbreaks using machine learning to studying how hurricanes undergo rapid intensification. If this funding is cut, we lose the ability to fund these projects that benefit every American, and we lose the ability to support curious young scientists who want to better the world with research. Furthermore, international graduate students and professors across the country are fearful of having their visas revoked due to small administrative errors or by exercising freedom of speech as is protected under the US constitution. In order for the US to attract the world’s brightest minds, we must be creating a space for scientists to flourish in, rather than causing panic and spreading fear through deportations.

On a personal note, my path to getting a PhD would not have been possible had these cuts been made previously. My undergraduate and master’s research was funded by the Northeast Regional Climate Center, where I conducted research on drought risk in the Northeastern United States and applied a statistical model to weather model forecasts for improved predictions of temperature and precipitation. And now, friends in the field who are just leaving graduate school are struggling to find jobs and worried about anything that’s federally funded. Scientists should feel safe and secure in their curiosity of the climate and weather system; that’s how it always used to be in the United States. 

The American scientific enterprise is under attack and being sabotaged by the Trump Administration. This is not about making the government more efficient, as it will drastically affect our ability to predict and research extreme weather events, which will have devastating effects on our country’s economy.

It is critical that we stand up and fight for these institutions at this crucial moment. We must contact our representatives and name how these institutions, which we’ve been investing in for decades, benefit our livelihoods. Luckily, we’ve seen some US Representatives stepping up: here is a letter organized by Representative Wesley Bell, press releases from Representative Tonko and Senator Cantwell, and a letter organized by UCS and signed by 2,500 scientists calling on US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to protect the work of NOAA.  

For decades, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, the federal government has recognized that safeguarding all communities requires a deliberate effort to enforce environmental regulations, monitor pollution, and implement programs aimed at those most affected by environmental harm. Despite decades of progress in environmental protections, the Trump administration aims to systematically roll back these safeguards. Upon taking office, President Trump immediately rescinded a suite of Executive Orders that directed federal agencies to prioritize environmental justice— including one that had been in effect for more than thirty years. 

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has doubled down on this effort by announcing plans to cut 65% of the agency’s budget. He further detailed his plan by announcing a suite of more than 30 actions aimed to weaken or eliminate longstanding protections for air quality, water quality, chemical safety, greenhouse gas regulation and much more. This plan undermines the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to fulfill its mission, to “protect human health and the environment.”  

The Role of Environmental Justice at the EPA 

As a former Environmental Health fellow at the EPA during the first Trump administration, I witnessed the importance of environmental justice programs in action. Environmental justice, as defined by the EPA, is “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race, color, culture, national origin, income, or educational levels, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of protective environmental laws, regulations, and policies.”  

The EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and Civil Rights (Office of EJ) advocates for community-led solutions to environmental issues, coordinating these efforts across the agency and enforcing civil rights protections. This office has played a crucial role in addressing environmental injustices in over-polluted communities, such as Cancer Alley in Louisiana, where high cancer rates are linked to the region’s petrochemical industry, and Flint, Michigan, which suffered from the infamous lead-contained water crisis.   

During my fellowship, I worked in the Office of Air and Radiation in the Indoor Environments Division. Our office integrated environmental justice and equity into programs that reduce asthma triggers indoors, reduce exposure to harmful gases such as radon, and improve air quality in schools.  On average, Americans spend 90 percent of their time indoors where concentrations of some pollutants can be as much as five times higher than outdoors. Older adults, children and people with cardiovascular and respiratory disease face a greater health risk from exposure to pollutants indoors. Black individuals in the US are 1.5 more likely to diagnosed with asthma. The EPA works to ensure that all communities have access to a healthy environment by reducing environmental risks and improving public health in overburdened areas.  

EPA’s Environmental Justice Efforts are Making Communities Healthier

EPA’s Office of EJ develops policies and provides guidance to help federal, state, and local agencies incorporate environmental justice principles into their programs. The office also addresses environmental disparities by identifying and rectifying areas with higher pollution levels or limited access to green spaces. One place where EPA’s intervention has helped to address community pollution is North Birmingham, Alabama. North Birmingham, Alabama has faced decades of residential contamination due to its close proximity to heavy industry. The area includes asphalt plants, cement facilities, coke production, and lumber manufacturing, many of which are located near homes and schools. The neighborhood’s population is predominantly Black, a direct result of racial redlining, a discriminatory practice that historically confined Black residents to certain areas.  

The contamination from these plants includes chemicals in soil such as Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), lead and arsenic which are known carcinogens. In 2011, EPA decided that immediate action was needed to address the contamination and underwent an effort to sample the soil in residential properties and at schools. Based on the results, the EPA Superfund program removed about 90,000 tons of contaminated soil and replaced it with clean soil to reduce residents’ exposure to harmful toxins.  

North Birmingham is just one example where the EPA has focused on improving public health by identifying and addressing areas with elevated pollution levels. By slashing environmental justice, the administration is cutting programs designed to ensure equal protection for clean air, water, and land, endangering vital research into environmental health risks. Furthermore, cuts to funding, resources, and community engagement jeopardize strategic efforts to address public health issues and promote local economic growth. 

EPA Programs Are Revitalizing My Community 

In addition to my role as Senior Campaign Manager at the Union of Concerned Scientists, I also serve as a County Commissioner in Macon County, Alabama. In this position, I am deeply committed to ensuring that our community, along with others across the country, receives the support needed to keep our governments functioning and our residents safe. This can be especially challenging for small, rural counties with limited budgets. The EPA’s justice programs and resources have been vital for counties like mine, providing grants, technical assistance, and enforcement support.  

Communities nationwide, including those in my home state of Alabama, have long struggled to access the funding and support needed for life-saving infrastructure upgrades. Alabama is home to several of the nation’s worst environmental disaster sites, along with numerous Superfund sites. As a result, federal resources have been crucial in helping us make the necessary improvements to our infrastructure.  

My hometown of Tuskegee, AL has experienced years of underinvestment and economic stagnation. We have benefitted from the EPA’s Brownfields Program, a program designed to assist communities, states and tribes in assessing, safely cleaning up and reusing contaminated properties. Known for its power to clean up and revitalize communities, the EPA Brownfields programs has received bipartisan support. As a part of a larger effort to “improve the environmental, public health, economic and social impacts associated with contaminated and abandoned sites,” Tuskegee applied for and received a $300,000 grant from the EPA Brownfield’s program. 

This award is intended to develop seven cleanup plans and conduct community engagement activities in the City of Tuskegee. Notably, the grant provides funding to assess the level of contamination in soil and groundwater for sites, including a former oil distribution center, former hotel, and former gas station. The funding will also support examining contamination on properties with dilapidated buildings. Rehabilitating properties like this is tough for local leaders like me because no one otherwise would want to take on the liability risks to redevelop them. This program, and programs like this, support communities in remediating and reusing sites with legacy pollution which can be vital for economic development and community improvement.

The Brownfields program is just one of the EPA’s countless programs revitalizing small communities while making people healthier across the country. While Brownfields has historically enjoyed bipartisan support, reports of the administration’s desire to slash the EPA’s funding by 65% amidst broader attacks on environmental justice leaves me deeply concerned for the future of vital programs like this.  

Counties across the country rely on many EPA funding programs to provide basic services and protect public health. To provide safe drinking water, we rely on the support of programs like the Clean Water State Revolving Funds program which is administered by the EPA to finance projects to upgrade wastewater treatment plants and/or repair old pipelines. A drastic reduction in funding could lead to delays in maintaining and upgrading these facilities, resulting in lower water quality or the unreliability or failure of critical infrastructure.  

The Enduring Need for Environmental Justice

It is clear that the Office of Environmental Justice and Civil Rights helps EPA connect people and communities to government resources needed to solve problems and protect health and the environment. Moreover, that EPA at large has an important mandate, to protect all people. Whether it is in my community or any other part of the country, EPA’s programs help communities and local officials by providing the technical support and funding needed to address long standing environmental pollution challenges.

There is broad cross-cutting support for the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and Civil Rights. Recently, 170 organizations signed-on to a joint letter to urge Congress and the EPA officials to reverse steps to dismantle the Office of Environmental Justice and Civil Rights. In a parallel show of support, more than 500 individuals from across the United States signed on to a similar letter urging the EPA to keep the Office of Environmental Justice.  

The environmental justice movement emerged as a response to years of evidence showing that low-income and communities of color were disproportionately affected by environmental and health harms. Industries that others were unwilling to have near their homes, such as toxic landfills, polluting fossil fuel plants, and hazardous chemical manufacturing companies, were often placed in marginalized communities of color lacking the political power or capital to block such decisions.  

The recognition of EJ in the federal government fulfilled a distinct need, backed by science. Without the safeguards, our nation is on track to exacerbate environmental issues that disproportionally impact low-income communities and communities of color and local officials around the country will have to figure out how to navigate the challenges without the support of the agency charged to lead the way. 

Researchers say urgent action needed to inform people about risks of heatwave temperatures and adapt homes

The number of UK homes overheating in summer quadrupled to 80% over the past decade, according to a study, with experts calling the situation a crisis.

Heat already kills thousands of people each year in the UK and the toll will rise as the climate crisis intensifies. Urgent action is needed both to inform people on how to cope with high temperatures and to adapt homes, which are largely designed to keep heat in during the winter, the researchers said.

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Cuts to disaster agency and deregulation of fossil fuels, plus rise of water-guzzling datacentres, highlighted in new report

The Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal climate disaster agency – and the full-throttle deregulation of fossil fuels and water-guzzling datacentres – could prove catastrophic for America’s endangered rivers, threatening the food, water and livelihoods of millions of people, according to a new report.

American Rivers’ annual most-endangered rivers list lays bare a myriad of human-made threats including floods, drought and other extreme weather events driven by the climate crisis, as well as industrial pollution and poor river management – all of which Trump’s regulatory rollbacks will almost inevitably make worse.

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Exclusive: Power outages in major cities would help build opposition to climate policies, Colin Boyce tells podcast

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The Coalition MP Colin Boyce says he believes the way to turn voters against renewable energy is to “let Rome burn for a while” and allow power blackouts to occur in major cities.

Guardian Australia reported on Wednesday that Boyce had described blackouts as a “big political opportunity” at a meeting of climate science deniers in late 2023.

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Exclusive: Absence of world’s biggest clean energy producer will be welcomed by US pushing oil and gas exports

China is to snub a major UK summit on energy security next week, the Guardian has learned, amid a growing row over the country’s involvement in UK infrastructure projects.

The US will send a senior White House official to the 60-country summit, to be co-hosted with the International Energy Agency. Leading oil and gas companies are also invited, along with big technology businesses, and petrostates including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

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Fast fashion retailers rely heavily on shipping by air. The president’s tariffs could change that.

Esta nota fue publicada originalmente en EFE Verde.

Es un disparate que con la temporada de huracanes a la vuelta de la esquina y con el alza en la frecuencia de desastres climáticos de gran magnitud, el gobierno del presidente Trump haya ordenado al Servicio Nacional de Meteorología (NWS por sus siglas en inglés) suspender la traducción de sus alertas meteorológicas al español y otros idiomas. Sumado a la reciente orden ejecutiva que declara el inglés como idioma oficial de Estados Unidos (y que de paso deroga una orden ejecutiva del año 2000 para impulsar el acceso a servicios gubernamentales para personas que no dominan el inglés), se le cierra el acceso a información vital a millones de personas en los Estados Unidos cuyo idioma principal no es el inglés.

Esta decisión–por una supuesta falta de presupuesto–no es un mero ajuste administrativo: es una movida cruel y peligrosa que pone en riesgo la vida de millones de hispanohablantes y otras comunidades en Estados Unidos cuyo idioma principal no es el inglés. ¿Cómo puede una familia prepararse ante un tornado, un huracán, un incendio forestal o una ola de calor si no entiende lo que dice una alerta?

Decisiones discriminatorias

Desde mis años como estudiante de geografía en Arizona hasta mi trabajo actual como científico social en la Unión de Científicos Conscientes, he estudiado cómo los peligros ambientales y las decisiones racistas y discriminatorias en materia de política pública afectan de forma desigual a comunidades de bajo ingreso y, en particular a las y los Latinos y a las personas de raza negra. Las acciones recientes para debilitar al NWS y suspender su servicio de traducciones forman parte de una tendencia alarmante: el abandono de los principios de equidad, transparencia y servicio público en favor de intereses económicos y políticos particulares.

El NWS ha sido, desde sus orígenes en 1849, un bastión de la seguridad pública. Sus pronósticos, alertas y datos meteorológicos son financiados con dinero público y tienen un propósito claro: salvar vidas. Sin embargo, el permitir el lapso del contrato con LILT (la empresa privada encargada de traducir las alertas al español, chino, francés, vietnamita y samoano) pone en riesgo esa misión, especialmente en estados y territorios como Arizona, Texas, Florida, California y Puerto Rico, donde millones de personas hablan español como su primer idioma.

Justicia ambiental

Esta suspensión no es un asunto menor. La capacidad de recibir una alerta por calor extremo, entender una advertencia de tornado o una orden de desalojo ante un huracán o inundación repentina puede depender, literalmente, del idioma en que se emite la información.

No se trata de una exageración. Es una cuestión de justicia ambiental y climática, tanto como de equidad en la preparación ante desastres. La eliminación del contrato de traducción ignora el impacto real sobre las comunidades que ya enfrentan barreras estructurales como bajos ingresos, discriminación y acceso limitado a servicios de emergencia y recuperación luego de un desastre.

Estas decisiones reflejan un patrón preocupante del desmantelamiento del NWS, en línea con presiones de ciertos sectores para privatizar el servicio y restringir el acceso libre y público a los datos meteorológicos. Peor aún, existe el riesgo de que esta información–generada con fondos públicos–acabe en manos privadas y nos pongan a pagar por segunda vez por un servicio por el cual ya pagamos con nuestros impuestos. Esto ampliaría una brecha ya existente: quienes pueden pagar por datos precisos estarían mejor preparados, mientras que el resto de nosotros quedaría desprotegido.

Poblaciones tradicionalmente desatendidas

La equidad no es un concepto abstracto. El propio exdirector del NWS, Ken Graham, fue muy claro al afirmar que el servicio de traducción “mejorará la equidad de nuestro servicio para las poblaciones tradicionalmente desatendidas y vulnerables que tienen un dominio limitado del inglés”. Esta visión es esencial, y su abandono es, francamente, aborrecible.

La ciencia del clima y la meteorología no reconocen fronteras ni idiomas; en cambio, las decisiones humanas sí. Y cuando esas decisiones priorizan la eficiencia económica sobre la salud y vida de la gente, las consecuencias caen más fuertemente entre quienes tienen menos voz y representación.

Sabemos que el cambio climático está intensificando los eventos meteorológicos extremos. Comunicar de manera clara, accesible y multilingüe es hoy más urgente que nunca para proteger nuestras vidas, nuestros hogares, nuestras escuelas y lugares de trabajo. El acceso equitativo y libre de costo a la información meteorológica no debe ser optativo: es tanto un derecho como necesidad pública. Después de todo, los contribuyentes en Estados Unidos ya han pagado por éste servicio público y tienen derecho al mismo.

El gobierno federal debe rectificar esta decisión cuanto antes y buscar soluciones sostenibles para garantizar que todos, sin importar el idioma que hablen, tengan acceso a la información que necesitan para estar a salvo del sin número de eventos meteorológicos extremos que nos acechan.

Energy watchdog cuts forecast for growth in demand by a third, and says a trade war could mean it falls further

The world will use less crude oil than expected this year due the “substantial risks” posed by Donald Trump’s trade tariffs to the global economy, according to the global energy watchdog.

The International Energy Agency slashed its forecasts for global oil demand growth by a third for the year ahead, and warned that it could make further downward revisions depending on whether a trade war develops.

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Parts of the state record their lowest rainfall on record, with devastating impacts on freshwater fish, butterflies, bees and even some hardy trees

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Usually hardy trees and shrubs are dying, waterways have turned to dust and ecologists fear local freshwater fish extinctions could be coming as historic dry conditions grip parts of South Australia.

Large swathes of the state – including the Adelaide Plains, the Fleurieu, Yorke and Eyre peninsulas and upper south-east – have seen the lowest rainfall on record in the 14 months since February 2024, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

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The White House has pulled federal webpages tracking climate and environmental justice data

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Green groups have sued the Trump administration over the removal of government webpages containing federal climate and environmental justice data that they described as “tantamount to theft”.

In the first weeks of its second term, the Trump administration pulled federal websites tracking shifts in the climate, pollution and extreme weather impacts on low-income communities, and identifying pieces of infrastructure that are extremely vulnerable to climate disasters.

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Climate experts say such storms are becoming more frequent and severe in the country. This was its worst of the year so far.

A severe sandstorm swept central and southern Iraq, reducing visibility, halting flights and causing respiratory problems for thousands, according to officials. Experts say such storms are worsening as drought and desertification increase, driven by climate change.

With extreme weather and Trump’s looming trade war, US farmers are reeling and resigned to needing another bailout

Farmers across the United States say they could face financial ruin – unless there is a huge taxpayer funded bail out to compensate for losses generated by Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts and chaotic tariffs.

Small- and medium-sized farms were already struggling amid worsening climate shocks and volatile commodities markets, on top of being squeezed by large corporations that dominate the supply chain.

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As part of Trump’s administrations ‘efficiency’ drive, staff running decades old program for energy assistance laid off

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), is facing new demands to release almost $400m allocated by Congress to help low-income US families keep the air conditioning on this summer.

The funds are under threat after the staff running a decades old program were fired – as part of the Trump administration’s so-called ‘efficiency’ drive.

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Las multitudes de turistas con destino a la Antártida han traído prosperidad a Ushuaia, la ciudad más meridional de Argentina, pero el auge también está poniendo presión sobre la población local y afectando al medio ambiente