I volunteered at a hydration station during Philadelphia’s No Kings rally last month. This turned out to be an excellent way to combat my protest ennui: I could hear the rally speakers and experience the swells of emotion and outrage they drummed up in the crowd, but the water tent was set slightly apart, so we were able to chat comfortably amongst ourselves and with people who came to use the nearby portajohns. It was a cool and drizzly day, so the cans of flat water weren’t needed so desperately; some people took them politely, others took them gratefully, but most people had their own water. Someone has donated two thousand copies of On Tyranny, and we ran out of those much faster–quite a few people exclaimed “I’ve been meaning to read this!” and took copies for their friends. Either way, my interactions with people were friendly and pleasant, which had a much more galvanizing effect on me than marching has had lately.
My enjoyment was somewhat mitigated when the rally dispersed, and I recognized cans of the free water discarded along the sidewalk and in the green lawns outside of the art museum–there were trash cans along the street, but not many and not in obvious locations. There was also a horrifying moment when we learned that there wasn’t a plan for storing or donating any remaining cartons of water, and we thought they’d be trashed until our coordinator managed to donate them to the Streets department’s summer cleanup crew.
Justice has many faces. Ideally, we would serve them all. In practice, limited resources and community power sometimes means that we choose which darlings to save. That seems to be the theme this spring: win some, lose some. But we are not losing all, not yet.
What the White House has been up to
I was a little slow to finalize and push out my climate roundup this spring, so this is…. really too many links, but I don’t want to delete any, so buckle up for the annotated guide.
To begin somewhere: the US is seeing the impacts of the budget and staff cuts the White House made in its first 100 days. The environmental impacts are numerous.
The funding cuts impact our ability to prepare for environmental disasters.
White House Proposal Could Gut Climate Modeling the World Depends On (ProPublica, April 24, 2025)
How Trump’s National Weather Service Cuts Could Cost Lives (Scientific American, May 13, 2025)
The Republican Plot to Let People Die of Heatstroke (The New Republic, May 29, 2025)
Hot (ha) tips:
How to Prepare for a Climate Disaster in Trump’s America (Wired, June 5, 2025)
The repeal of environmental protections and regulations will impact public health.
Stripping federal protection for clean water harms just about everyone, especially already vulnerable communities (The Conversation, April 22, 2025)
People who actually know things have resigned, lost their jobs, or are constrained by outrageous demands.
White House dismisses authors of major climate report (WHYY, April 29, 2025)
But there’s a follow-up: Scientific societies to do climate assessment after Trump administration dismissed authors (The Guardian, May 3, 2025)
Trump Asked EPA Employees to Snitch on Colleagues Working on DEI Initiatives. They Declined. (Propublica, May 16, 2025)
Major US climate website likely to be shut down after almost all staff fired (The Guardian, June 11, 2025)
A majority conservative Supreme Court continues undoing decades of environmental law, case by case,
Supreme Court limits environmental reviews of infrastructure projects (NPR, May 29, 2025)
And, as usual, the US is contributing–directly and indirectly–to war crimes in the Middle East.
Up to 98 Percent of Cropland in Gaza Destroyed (Yale Environment 360, June 6, 2025))
And then there is H.R. 1, a monster “budget reconciliation” bill that included a pile of resolutions designed to accelerate the worst of the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways predicted by the ICCC. The Senate passed it, although they chipped away some of its harms (in particular, proposals to public land and implement a 10-year moratorium on AI regulation). The House also passed it–not without some protest and theatrics of dissent, but Republicans have a slim majority and evidently can be bought. And, of course, the President signed the bill into law on July 4.
Unbreaking is a good resource for breaking down some (not all) of the services and issues impacted by the bill.
House passes Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” after stamping out GOP rebellion (Axios, July 3, 2025)
Oceana Condemns Passage of the Worst Environmental Bill in U.S. History (Oceana, July 3, 2025)
Why is all this happening? Money, I guess.
Fossil fuel billionaires are bankrolling the anti-trans movement (HEATED, June 10, 2025)
Trump got the Big Oil cash he wanted — so now he’s killing the planet (Philadelphia Inquirer, June 5, 2025)
Climate impacts
How weather conditions set the stage for the deadly Texas flash floods (AP News, July 5, 2025)
In the 12-month period ending on May 1, the U.S. spent an estimated $1 trillion on disaster recovery and other climate-related needs.
The $1 Trillion Climate Problem Republicans Are Ignoring (The New Republic, June 19, 2025)
April storms that killed 24 in US made more severe by burning fossil fuels – study (The Guardian, May 9, 2025)
Why are all of America’s biggest cities sinking? (Grist, May 8, 2025)
Running blind: The silencing and censoring of environmental threats to US national security (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May 12, 2025)
Groundwater is rapidly declining in the Colorado River Basin, satellite data show (Los Angeles Times, May 27, 2025)
After the smoke clears, a wildfire’s legacy can haunt rivers for years, putting drinking water at risk (The Conversation, June 23, 2025)
It’s hot. Fossil fuels made it hotter. (HEATED, June 23, 2025)
Swiss village almost entirely destroyed after collapse of glacier buries it in mud (Guardian, May 28, 2025)
Solutions, sort of
Planting more trees in cities could have saved 1.1 million lives in two decades, study suggests (Euro News, February 5 2025)
Battling a hungry beetle, this Mohawk community hopes to keep its trees — and traditions — alive (The Narwhal, April 28, 2025)
Newtok, Alaska, Was Supposed to Be a Model for Climate Relocation. Here’s How It Went Wrong. (ProPublica, May 29, 2025)
AI, ugh
There was a link going around earlier this spring that was like “I’m some guy, and I tallied up how much energy it takes to run a ChatGPT prompt and it’s really not that bad!” Meanwhile, every macro look at the AI race is very clear: it actually is that bad.
Elon Musk’s xAI in Memphis: 35 gas turbines, no air pollution permits (E&E News, May 1, 2025)
Project Ludicrous: Will nuclear energy power the AI boom? (Baffler, April 29, 2025)
AI is draining water from areas that need it most (Bloomberg, May 8, 2025)
Alabamians Want Answers About a Four-Million-Square-Foot Data Center Coming to Their Backyards (Inside Climate News, May 11, 2025)
AI Is Eating Data Center Power Demand—and It’s Only Getting Worse (Wired, May 22, 2025)
How Much Energy Does AI Use? The People Who Know Aren’t Saying (Wired, June 19, 2025)
Consumer culture
Many people believe climate change is happening, but most don’t act. Why? (Anthropocene, March 27, 2025)
Car use and meat consumption drive emissions gender gap, research suggests (The Guardian, May 14. 2025)
The promise and risks of deep-sea mining (Reuters, November 15, 2023)
The world’s biggest companies have caused $28 trillion in climate damage, a new study estimates (AP News, April 23, 2025)
Climate in the arts
NEORSD is my favorite utility social account, and it’s because they know how to have fun.
What Tom Holland’s historic lip-sync showcase taught us about stormwater management (Northest Ohio Regional Sewer District, May 7, 2025)
Extinction Rebellion hold funeral for Paris Agreement 1.5°C climate target (Extinction Rebellion, May 10, 2025)
This is extremely cool: The Welikia Project lets you explore the island of Manhattan and its ecosystems before it was developed.
Some good news
The county is Austria: This country is slowing climate action. Its capital city is stepping up (NPR, May 13, 2025)
Solar panels’ shade helps boost Colorado grassland productivity in dry years (The Conversation, May 30, 3035)
Make it expensive for them!
A Class-Action Lawsuit Aims to Restore Climate and Environmental Grants (Inside Climate News, June 28, 2025)
In “It’s never too late to do better”:
First Time in 100 Years: Young Kayakers on a Ride for the Ages (New York Times [gift link], June 17, 2025)
‘If we can come back from that, we can come back from anything’: The burning river that fuelled a US green movement (BBC, May 1, 2025)
It’s never too late to do better. Let’s keep trying to do better.
Sara Davis 
