On August 18, Donald Trump’s United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) officially proposed eliminating the national Roadless Rule. If finalized, the repeal would strip protections from 44.7 million acres of wild intact forest. The rule, passed in 2001, protects in total 58 million acres of forest from road building, logging, fossil fuel extraction, and other development.
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In 1965, a presidential advisory panel issued a report warning that pervasive chemical and carbon pollution was harming environmental health and changing the climate. Five years later, President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act. Since that 1970 law and its amendments were passed, combined emissions of a half dozen harmful air pollutants from vehicles and industrial sources have…
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As millions of acres burn across the western United States, some wildland fire veterans are fearful that aggressive fire suppression tactics ordered by the Trump administration — coupled with extreme, fast-moving blazes — could put firefighters in danger as conditions escalate this month. Those extreme weather conditions fueled disaster in Eastern Washington Saturday when a fast-moving…
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France and Spain are battling catastrophic wildfires that have forced more than 350,000 people to evacuate their homes. The fires began in the southwest of France on Wednesday before spreading to Spain, where they have consumed more than 120,000 acres in what is now the most destructive fire in Spain’s recent history. Meanwhile, a new heat wave is expected to hit Europe this week…
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The science used to attribute extreme weather events to climate change has advanced remarkably in recent years, allowing policy makers, judges, and the public to see clear links between disasters and the fossil fuel emissions driving climate crisis. Now, as the links become clearer, oil and gas lobbyists are scrambling to shield the industry from a wave of lawsuits and state laws seeking to hold…
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As wildfires raged across Canada on Thursday, sending dangerous smoke across the border into major US cities, climate advocates called for accountability for the fossil fuel industry, which knew for decades that its products were largely responsible for the climate crisis, yet chose to push climate denial instead. While fire is a natural part of the lifecycle of Canada’s boreal forests…
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