My heart goes out to everyone in Los Angeles and the surrounding area. Here’s an explainer from NOAA on the wildfire climate connection.
LA wildfire damages set to cost record $135bn (BBC, January 9, 2025)
Wildfires can contaminate drinking water systems with harmful chemicals − here’s what Los Angeles needs to know (The Conversation, January 10, 2025)
Generational Black Homes in LA Reduced to Ash Amid Growing Wildfires (Capital B, January 10, 2025)
No ‘water system in the world’ could have handled the LA fires. How the region could have minimized the damage (CNN, January 10, 2025)
A Lahaina Fire Survivor’s Step-by-Step Guide to Recovering From Tragedy and What to Do First (Hollywood Reporter, January 13, 2025)
On disinformation
Spreading like wildfire: How Trump’s misinformation about water and fire in Los Angeles inflames the situation (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January 9, 2024)
Now We’re Seeing a Conflagration of Lies and Disinformation (Mother Jones, January 8, 2025)
Disinformation and the Los Angeles Fires (Covering Climate Now, January 9, 2025)
Other climate impacts
Relentless warming is driving the water cycle to new extremes, the 2024 global water report shows (The Conversation, January 5, 2024)
2024’s extreme ocean heat breaks records again, leaving 2 mysteries to solve (The Conversation, January 9, 2025)
Politics
Big Oil’s Plan for GOP Control (Field Notes, December 3, 2024)
Eco-Roundup: Last Time Trump Was Elected, Tribal Nations Lost a Whole Town (Eco-Files, December 31, 2024
United Nations plastic treaty negotiations
Back in December, negotiations for a global treaty on plastics took place in South Korea.
Five charts: Why a UN plastics treaty matters for climate change (Carbon Brief, November 25, 2024)
Over 100 countries want an ambitious plastics treaty. Oil-producing nations are getting in the way. (Grist, December 2, 2024)
Indigenous peoples snubbed at plastic pollution summit (HEATED, December 5, 2024)
As Efforts on a Global Treaty Stall, Cities and States Are on the Front Lines of the Battle Over Plastic Pollution (Inside Climate News, December 11, 2024)
Everyday activism
3 things the U.S. climate movement must do differently (WBUR, December 10, 2024)
How does activism affect the climate debate? (Brookings, October 24, 2024)
Not news, but a nice summary consistent with research I’ve read:
Americans love nature but don’t feel empowered to protect it, new research shows (The Conversation, August 28, 2024)
AI
AI is guzzling gas (HEATED, December 19, 2024)
Air Pollution and the Public Health Costs of AI (Caltech News, December 10, 2024)
Air pollution from AI could surpass that of all the cars in California (Fast Company, December 27, 2024)
While Los Angeles Burns, AI Fans the Flames (Truthout, January 11, 2025)
Research
Tragic but fascinating:
Bear-leather shoes and Roman ‘good-luck’ coins: The lost worlds emerging from glaciers (BBC, December 2, 2024)
An article about climate proxies (sources of data for reconstructing past climate conditions), what they do and do not cover.
Proxies for Justice (Distillations, December 5, 2024)
This is a fun app (which works best in a browser rather than on your phone): Put in your city and select prehistoric eras from a dropdown menu to see where your part of the world was located 100 or 200 or 400 millions of years ago.
Ancient Earth
Some good news
Community, conservation groups successfully defend NM clean air rule from industry challenge (Western Environmental Law Center, December 4)
A River in Washington State Now Has Enforceable Legal Rights (Inside Climate News, December 5. 2024)
New York to fine fossil fuel companies $75 billion under new climate law (Reuters, December 26, 2024)
Supreme Court denies oil industry plea to block climate lawsuits filed by California, other blue states (LA Times, January 13, 2025)
Sara Davis 