by Julia Conley | Jun 2, 2026 | Article, Climate Change, Climate Crisis, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on June 02, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
In what a number of scientists suggested was the Trump administration’s latest effort to stop tracking the changing climate in hopes of convincing the public that the climate emergency isn’t happening, the National Science Foundation announced Monday that it was dismantling a crucial deep-ocean monitoring system that for years has helped researchers understand the impacts of the crisis on the world’s oceans.
The NSF said it plans to send ships this month to remove more than 900 instruments, part of a project called the Ocean Observatories Initiative. The project collects data on temperatures, currents, and the ocean’s absorption of carbon dioxide off the coasts of Oregon, Alaska, Washington, and North Carolina, as well as in the Irminger Sea between Iceland and Greenland.
A spokesperson for NSF told The New York Times that the dismantling of the initiative will help the NSF in “prioritizing support for evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies as well as a deliberate approach to smart life cycle management within its portfolio of research infrastructure.”
The reasoning given for the shuttering of the project, said Tara Blume, a journalist at Oklahoma City NBC affiliate KFOR, was “a master class in obfuscation and doublespeak.”
Genevieve Guenther of the group End Climate Silence shared her own interpretation of why the $368 million ocean observation system is being discontinued, despite the fact that it had been set to collect data for 25 years.
“We need to track ocean currents to assess how close we are to climate tipping points that will essentially destroy the world as we know it,” said Guenther. “The GOP doesn’t want us to be able to do that. That’s why
by Shireen Akram-Boshar | Jun 2, 2026 | AI, Climate Crisis, data centers, Donald Trump, Environment and Health, Michigan, News, Sam Altman, Trump Administration
On Monday, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined tech CEOs and businessmen at a groundbreaking ceremony for a $16 billion data center in rural Michigan. The data center — the first OpenAI data center in the Midwest — is already under construction, despite facing pushback from local residents. It is located in Saline Township, a rural agricultural community just 10 miles southwest of Ann Arbor…
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by C.J. Polychroniou | Jun 2, 2026 | Climate Crisis, Economy, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Interview, Just Transition
The evidence for rapid human-caused climate change keeps piling up, yet the world continues to flood the atmosphere with greenhouse gases amid a political backlash against the struggle for a future free of fossil fuels. Greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow, which means humans are continuing to make the climate crisis worse. Global average temperatures are expected to stay at record levels for…
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by Maximillian Alvarez | Jun 1, 2026 | Article, Climate Crisis, Economy and Inequality, sacrifice zones, video
What the hell is going on with all these toxic disasters in the news?
Over the past week, we’ve had a terrifying crisis at the GKN Aerospace facility in Garden Grove, CA, involving a pressurized tank of toxic chemicals on the verge of spilling or exploding for days and the evacuation of 50 thousand people in Orange County.
At the same time, right up the road in LA, we had a spill of thousands of gallons of crude oil that got into the LA River
Then, news broke of the horrifying tank rupture and explosion at the Nippon Dynawave paper mill in Longview, Washington, involving hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic liquid and 11 workers who were killed.
People have been asking me all week, “What the hell is going on?” And that’s because I’m a professional editor and an award-winning journalist who’s been covering toxic disasters like this for years. Also, I’m from Orange County, and my family lives in Garden Grove, about 10 minutes from the GKN Aerospace facility, so I’ve been watching all of this very closely.
If you haven’t been obsessively investigating these kinds of stories like I have, the recent rapid-fire bombardment of headlines can make it seem like all these toxic disasters are coming out of nowhere. An explosion here, a toxic spill there, a fire there. “Why is this happening? And what the hell do we do?”
So, right off the bat, the most important thing to understand is that this is not all just happening now. It’s been happening, and most of the time you just haven’t been hearing about it.
Did you hear about the toxic explosion
by Adam Mahoney | Jun 1, 2026 | Climate Crisis, Climate Gentrification, Florida, Gentrification, Miami, News
By the time Latonya Floyd came outside, the photographer’s lens was already pointed toward her family’s home. There was “no knock, no hello,” she said. When she asked what he was doing, he replied that he was “just getting pictures of the property,” for his boss, a real estate investor. The Floyds had lived in that house for three generations, through racial uprisings in the 1960s…
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by Maximillian Alvarez | Jun 1, 2026 | Climate Change, Climate Crisis, Military Industrial Complex, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, The Empire Files, video, War
We sit down for an hour-long discussion with legendary independent journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin to discuss her new blockbuster documentary, Earth’s Greatest Enemy, and the existential threat that US empire in general—and the US military specifically—poses to humanity and to our planet.
Editor’s Note: This conversation was recorded on Jan. 29, 2026, before the beginning of the illegal US-Israeli War in Iran.
Guests:
Abby Martin is an Izzy-Award-winning independent journalist, filmmaker, and host of The Empire Files. She is the director of the 2019 documentary Gaza Fights for Freedom and the 2026 documentary Earth’s Greatest Enemy.
Additional links/info:
Watch Earth’s Greatest Enemy on The Empire Files YouTube channel.
Credits:
Studio Production / Post-Production: David Hebden
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
We’re here in the Real News Network studio in downtown Baltimore and I could not be more excited to have legendary independent journalist and filmmaker, the one and only Abby Martin here with me in person. Now, some of you may not know this, but Abby is actually a Real News alumnus. And Sister Abby, I know it’s been a minute since you’ve been back here in your old stomping grounds, but I just wanted to start by saying on behalf of the entire team here, welcome back to Baltimore. Congratulations on all the incredible essential work that you’ve done and we are all just so proud of you and so honored to be in this struggle for truth with you.
Abby Martin:
Oh my gosh. Well, the feeling’s more than mutual, Max. I mean, just being here back in the studio just
