Category: Climate

In 2023, my husband and I bought our house in southwest Colorado, in part, because it backed up to open space. That was the dream: trails just past the fence, a scrubby network of oak and sage stretching out into the hills beyond. But a little over a year into homeownership, I was questioning the…

Scattered debris, including vehicles and equipment, are seen in Kerrville, Texas, on July 5, 2025, following severe flooding. | Eric Vryn/Getty Images In the wake of deadly flooding in Texas, my colleague Noel King, who cohosts the Today, Explained podcast spoke with CNN senior climate reporter Andrew Freedman about what we know about the impact of…

Kerrville resident Leighton Sterling watches flood waters along the Guadalupe River on July 4, 2025. | Eric Vryn/Getty Images At least 90 people have died in central Texas in extraordinary floods, the deadliest in the Lone Star State since Hurricane Harvey killed 89 people. A torrential downpour started off the July 4 weekend with several…

The Senate budget bill pares back incentives for renewable energy and aims to boost fossil fuels like coal. The first solar cell ever made was built in the United States. Tesla, based in the US, was once the largest EV manufacturer in the world. The lithium-ion battery was codeveloped in the US. But today, China…

The biting midge spreads Oropouche virus. Oropouche virus disease was a relatively rare illness for decades, lurking on the margins of tropical rainforests in the Caribbean and South America.  Sporadic reports of an infection causing fevers, coughs, chills, and body aches emerged among people living near or moving into the jungle. A tiny insect called…

President Donald Trump takes part in a press conference on recent Supreme Court rulings in the briefing room at the White House on June 27, 2025, in Washington, DC. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images The Republican Party’s saving grace is supposed to be its commitment to economic growth and consumer abundance.  Sure, the GOP may see…

A grizzly bear and her cub traverse a steep hillside in June 2024. in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. In the early 1900s, long before smartphones and selfie sticks, tourists flocked to Yellowstone National Park — not for the geysers or scenery, but for a grotesque show: A nightly spectacle of grizzly bears raiding cafeteria scraps…

Summer has officially begun with a blast of scorching temperatures across much of the United States. The National Weather Service is warning of “extremely dangerous heat” baking 160 million people under a heat dome stretching from the Midwest to the East Coast the rest of this week. It’s already proven fatal.  But while this is…

A puma, or mountain lion, seen by a motion-sensing camera near the border wall. | Courtesy of Ganesh Marín The border wall between the US and Mexico is, of course, a barrier meant to prevent human migrants from crossing into America as they seek work, family, or refuge from violence.   It’s also a significant…

A You’re Hot, Stay Cool sign with an AC unit and fan posted to a street light during a heat wave on 86th Street in Manhattan, New York. | Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Lee Kuan Yew, the iron-willed founder of modern Singapore, was once asked what the most important invention of the…