Some galvanizing words from Emily Atkin. I too sometimes feel that my focus on the environment is not what the moment calls for, or that it is somehow a distraction from more pressing political violence. This is a reminder: environmental issues are also political violence, and it is all pressing.
I don’t know how to do this (HEATED, January 26, 2026)
And some more from Amy Westervelt:
” I’ve always been quite vocal about the fact that if you want to see climate action, you should also want democracy and equality, peace and justice. All of these fights are the same fight, not left to right but top to bottom, all of it a fight for survival.”
Yes, Climate Still Matters. Here’s How It Connects to Every Other Crisis in the World Today. (Drilled, February 10, 2025)
Okay. Let’s get to it.
What the White House is up to
Where were we? Well, 2026 started off with the “regime change” in Venezeula.
Trump taking ‘drill, baby, drill’ plan to Venezuela ‘terrible’ for climate, experts warn (The Guardian, January 7, 2026)
The US withdrew from UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Trump withdraws US from key climate treaty and dozens of other groups (BBC, Thursday, January 8, 2026)
The EPA, led by Lee Zeldin, continued to look for ways it can deregulate industrial pollution…
EPA to stop calculating deaths avoided and health care savings from air pollution rules (NBS News, January 14, 2026)
Air pollution denial is now EPA policy (HEATED, January 13, 2026)
…and break the information stream…
EPA’s December website edits cap off yearlong assault on climate info (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January 6, 2026)
…and then it revoked the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which found that the atmospheric concentrations of six key greenhouse gases threatens both the public health and the public welfare of current and future generations. In 2026, the EPA simply said “No it doesn’t.”
The Fight Over US Climate Rules Is Just Beginning (WIRED, February 12, 2026)
Trump’s EPA revokes scientific finding that underpinned U.S. fight against climate change (WHYY, February 12, 2026)
Health and Climate Consequences of EPA’s Endangerment Finding Repeal ‘Cannot Be Overstated’ (Inside Climate News, February 21, 2026)
On Tuesday, February 24, the US President gave a State of the Union address in which he lied his face off about just about everything and reiterated hsi promise to drill, baby, drill.
Read NPR’s annotated fact check of President Trump’s State of the Union (NPR, February 24, 2026)
Trump’s Climate Silence at the Longest-Ever State of the Union (Atmos, February 2026)
Climate impacts
Protecting forests is not just about biodiversity—it is now about protecting rain. (Anthropocene, January 23, 2026)
A Winter Storm Fueled by Global Warming Tests U.S. Disaster Response (Inside Climate News, January 26, 2026)
As a Colorado River deadline passes, reservoirs keep declining (LA Times, February 13, 2026)
Trash
The global plastics treaty can be saved — here’s how to break the deadlock (Nature, February 3, 2026)
Microplastics have reached Antarctica’s only native insect (Science Daily, February 16, 2026)
AI and Climate
AI chatbots share climate disinformation and recommend climate denialists to susceptible personas (Global Witness, December 18, 2025)
From Energy Use to Air Quality, the Many Ways Data Centers Affect US Communities (World Resources Institute, February 17, 2026)
Big Tech Says Generative AI Will Save the Planet. It Doesn’t Offer Much Proof (WIRED, February 18, 2026)
Climate media
WaPo sacked a bunch of climate reporters:
What is lost when environmental coverage is cut (Mongabay, February 6, 2026)
Consistent with the trend:
Climate change media coverage fell 14% in 2025 (CU Boulder, February 16, 2026)
Climate and culture
The climate symbolism in Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance (Yale Climate Connections, February 10, 2026)
Wrapping snow in blankets. Can it save the ski season? (NPR, February 18, 2026)
People Never Suck in Just One Way: On Epstein, Climate, and the Hubris of the Ultra-Wealthy (Drilled, February 2026)
Something good
Once of my favorite oceanography assignments asked us to plot the latitude and longitude of several Yosemite hotspots over the course of a decade. And they moved! Nearly twelve inches! So I loved reading this wonderful long read about the woman geologist whose research helped us understand plate tectonics and continental drift–a fairly recent paradigm shift.
How plate tectonics revolutionized our understanding of Earth (High Country News, January 2026)
The Women Saving America’s Climate Data (TIME, January 17, 2026)
Sara Davis 