Disasters

"Half of the coral populations on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef — from “big mamas” to the little baby coral they spawn — have been wiped out in the warming ocean, a new study says."

"U.S. coronavirus cases are rising again, driven by rapid transmission in Midwestern states and sparking fears that a forewarned wave of infections this fall and winter has begun."

"This has been the 2020 pattern: Politics has thoroughly contaminated the scientific process. The result has been an epidemic of distrust, which further undermines the nation’s already chaotic and ineffective response to the coronavirus."

"There has been a 'staggering' rise in natural disasters over the past 20 years and the climate crisis is to blame, the United Nations said Monday."

"Thousands of farmed minks in Wisconsin and Utah have died from the novel coronavirus, which experts say they got from humans."

"LAKE CHARLES, La. — Ripping tarps from already damaged roofs and scattering debris piled by roadsides, Hurricane Delta inflicted a new round of destruction on Louisiana as it struck communities still reeling after Hurricane Laura took a similar path just six weeks earlier."

"Ariel Kinzinger had a headache. Clark Brinkman coughed and wheezed. LaNesha Collins, feeling physically fine, was frustrated by another day mostly trapped inside looking out at a sepia sun, in Portland, Ore."

"The Trump administration mismanaged its efforts to provide relief to oil and gas producers during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, failing to ensure aid went to those that needed it, according to a new congressional report.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan watchdog office of Congress, said the government flouted its own goals when giving struggling producers a break this spring on payments to the government for oil and gas pumped from federal lands.

"First, the wildfires came to California and Oregon, scorching hundreds of thousands of acres of national forests. Next, weeds will sprout on those blackened lands. They'll be followed quickly by chemical weedkillers like glyphosate, as the Forest Service tries to make trees grow again."

"Japanese fish industry representatives on Thursday urged the government not to allow the release at sea of tonnes of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant, saying it would undo years of work to restore their reputation."