Climate Desk

read the whole newsletter here: link.motherjones.com/view/68c9ad0...

Climate Desk Newsletter STORIES FROM MOTHER JONES AND ITS PARTNERS As a veteran science reporter, I have long tracked how research can be distorted for profit. The tobacco industry may be the most famous practitioner, but efforts to besmirch independent evidence of a product’s potential harm as “junk science” have been financed by the chemical, fossil fuel, pharmaceutical, and sugar industries, among others. Now Republican power players are taking things even further by censoring science they dislike. Notably, last month, the Federal Judicial Center—an educational agency Congress created in 1967 to serve the judicial branch—deleted a chapter on climate science from an influential reference manual federal judges have long used to parse complex science issues in the courtroom. The deletion was orchestrated by 27 Republican attorneys general who called for the chapter’s immediate withdrawal in order to retain the “judiciary’s impartiality” in climate and energy cases.

Our latest newsletter explores a type of censorship that may have gone under the radar. The federal government has erased climate change from the scientific manual judges reference.

From @lizagross.bsky.social at @insideclimatenews.org

Fukushima at 15: Living with radioactive hot spots and stigma as Japan's government pushes for more reactors Fifteen years later, the lived experience of people resettling the evacuation zone reveals an ongoing disaster at Fukushima—one filled with radioactive hot spots, injustices, and stigma.

Three nuclear reactors melted down at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant on March 11, 2011.

That was 15 years ago. What has happened since then? @thebulletin.org explores.

Key questions of reliability and accountability emerge in military AI use in Iran The deployment of AI in military raises questions related to human accountability, ethics, and pre-deployment evaluation processes.

In conflicts, "the capacity to act with AI-enabled tactical and operational speed should not be confused for solid strategy and clear political goals," writes Ian Reynolds @ijreynolds.bsky.social of @stanfordcisac.bsky.social.

The feds pulled $1.5B from tribal clean energy. Tribes are finding another way. With federal funding gone, tribes are turning to philanthropy, alternative lenders, and their own institutions.

The feds pulled $1.5B from tribal clean energy. Tribes are finding another way.

Fossil fuels, logging and Carney's old employer: meet the Canadian companies backing election denialists Sixteen of Canada's largest corporations donated to the political campaigns of US politicians who supported Trump's false claim the 2020 election was "stolen" by voting against certifying the results,...

The companies whose PACs donated to election deniers include natural gas giants Fortis and Enbridge; the Canadian National Railway Corporation (CN), the Bank of Montreal (BMO), forestry and paper giant Domtar and Brookfield, the Canadian investment firm.

Heavily contested pumped hydro-storage project gets federal go-ahead - High Country News The project in the Columbia Gorge would involve tunneling through a Ḱamíłpa sacred mountain.

Despite heavy opposition from tribes and enviro ngos, the fed govt licensed a $2-3 billion pumped hydro-storage project on Pushpum, a sacred mountain where N8Vs gather wild foods. FERC expressed excitement at the permitting meeting, which opponents called “appalling.”

www.hcn.org/articles/hea...

As Californians electrify, can this tech combo prevent grid overload? Utility PG&E is piloting two devices that strategically throttle power use so that new EVs and heat pumps don’t mean costly home and grid upgrades.

California utility PG&E is testing how self-throttling home power controls from startup Span and grid-balancing smart meter controls from Itron can help customers install more EVs and heat pumps without costly grid upgrades. Here's how it works: www.canarymedia.com/articles/uti...
#energysky

Desalination, water, and war Attacks on civilian systems, including water systems, must be condemned and punished under the laws of war.

"A dangerous precedent is being set in Trump's new Middle East war: targeting critical and highly vulnerable desalination plants that provide vital freshwater resources for the region," writes Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social.

A food bank cut costs with solar. A local Goodwill noticed. After a North Carolina nonprofit put up rooftop solar, a nearby Goodwill headquarters did too, a move that will save energy and boost a job training…

When this North Carolina food bank installed rooftop solar, its neighbors noticed. Now, a nearby Goodwill headquarters is building its own array.

Trump may send US troops to neutralize Iran's highly enriched uranium. There are no good options Deploying US troops to seize or destroy Iran's highly enriched uranium would bring significant chemical, logistical, and tactical hurdles.

Deploying US troops to seize or destroy Iran's highly enriched uranium would bring significant chemical, logistical, and tactical hurdles, writes Bulletin nuclear editor François Diaz-Maurin @francoisdm.bsky.social.

War Brings Black Rain to a Parched Iran

As U.S. and Israeli forces pummel Iran, oil installations and a desalination plant have come under fire.

Attacks on key infrastructure threaten the supply of fresh water in a country already coping with a brutal drought.

‘A sobering preview’: extreme heat now affects one in three people globally, study finds Rising temperatures making it hard even for young, healthy people to safely do normal physical tasks in many regions

‘A sobering preview’: extreme heat now affects one in three people globally, study finds

- “Hundreds of millions of people can no longer safely go about their daily lives outside during hottest parts of the year” says @lukeaparsons.bsky.social

#climatecrisis
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘A sobering preview’: extreme heat now affects one in three people globally, study finds Rising temperatures making it hard even for young, healthy people to safely do normal physical tasks in many regions

‘A sobering preview’: extreme heat now affects one in three people globally, study finds

A Warmer Climate Means Bigger Hail - Inside Climate News New attribution research shows how extra heat in the atmosphere can turn thunderstorms into factories for dangerous, softball-size hail.

Scientists can now find a global warming fingerprint on killer hail.

These reforms could transform criminal justice for people — and they cost almost nothing Crime is falling to historic lows. This economist knows how to make it plunge even faster.

Crime is falling to historic lows. This economist knows how to make it plunge even faster. www.vox.com/future-perfe...

Trump's Iran War is driving sky-high energy prices. Here's who is profiting. The fighting spells trouble for consumers and a potential windfall for some of the president's biggest backers.

Trump's Iran War is driving sky-high energy prices. Here's who is profiting.

The Latest Tactic for Silencing Ecuador’s Environmental Defenders: Shuttering Their Bank Accounts - Inside Climate News As the country moves to intensify mining and oil operations, environmental and Indigenous leaders’ bank accounts are being frozen or closed. Such “debanking” cuts them off from financial support and p...

The Latest Tactic for Silencing Ecuador’s Environmental Defenders: Shuttering Their Bank Accounts

insideclimatenews.org/news/1003202...

Why US LNG firms stand to profit from Iran war fallout Countries may tap into America’s booming liquefied natural gas exports as Middle Eastern suppliers shutter. But renewables are a safer bet in the long run.

Turmoil in the Middle East could land U.S. LNG exporters a massive windfall.

‘Everyone feels like they are being scammed’: can Central America’s small coffee growers survive as global prices fall? Family-run farms in El Salvador and Honduras face mounting losses, rising costs – and the need to adapt or be left behind

‘Everyone feels like they are being scammed’: can Central America’s small coffee growers survive as global prices fall?

Scrapping North Sea windfall tax would not reduce UK energy bills, say experts Rachel Reeves said to be considering levy cuts for oil and gas firms, but economists say this would just fatten profits

Scrapping North Sea windfall tax would not reduce UK energy bills, say experts

The strange reason why bears are attacking people in Japan And what it reveals about wildlife encounters in the years to come.

And what it reveals about wildlife encounters in the years to come. www.vox.com/climate/4820...

The Guardian view on the Iran crisis exposing Britain’s energy vulnerability: clean power offers protection | Editorial Editorial: The war reveals Britain’s exposure to volatile fossil fuel prices. More North Sea drilling will not shield households, building domestic green energy will

The @theguardian.com view on the Iran crisis exposing UK’s energy vulnerability: clean power offers protection

- The war reveals UK’s exposure to volatile fossil fuel prices. More North Sea drilling will not shield households, building green energy will

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Bombing of Iran’s oil infrastructure to have major environmental fallout, experts warn Monitors admit they are struggling to keep track of the environmental disasters arising from widening war

Bombing of Iran’s oil infrastructure by Israel to have toxic environmental fallout, experts warn

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Heavily contested pumped hydro-storage project gets federal go-ahead - High Country News A pumped hydro-energy storage facility proposed outside of Goldendale in south-central Washington has taken a major step forward, even though, if

A pumped hydro-energy storage facility proposed outside of Goldendale in south-central Washington has taken a major step forward, even though, if

Trump’s BLM is going all-in on resource extraction - High Country News The agency’s new plan for ecologically significant areas of western Oregon is not responsible forest management.

The agency’s new plan for ecologically significant areas of western Oregon is not responsible forest management.

A Warmer Climate Means Bigger Hail - Inside Climate News New attribution research shows how extra heat in the atmosphere can turn thunderstorms into factories for dangerous, softball-size hail.

Might be time to add death-by-giant-hail to your climate change bingo card.

Country diary: Orchids, plums and pine cones – all bursting out of cathedral walls | Nic Wilson St Albans Cathedral, Hertfordshire: The chapel here is a wonderful curiosity, thanks to its restoration by a green-fingered Victorian sculptor

Country diary: Orchids, plums and pine cones – all bursting out of cathedral walls | Nic Wilson

Bombing of Iran’s oil infrastructure to have major environmental fallout, experts warn Monitors admit they are struggling to keep track of the environmental disasters arising from widening war

Bombing of Iran’s oil infrastructure to have major environmental fallout, experts warn

Clean energy technologies threaten to overwhelm the grid. Here’s how it can adapt. The centralized, top-down power grid is outdated. Time for a bottom-up redesign.

One of my favorite pieces I ever wrote, with cool illustrations.