More heat pumps than ever are going into homes and businesses in the United States these days. But they are just one small-scale use of geothermal energy, a promising utility-scale technology that is growing worldwide — and with a minimal carbon footprint to boot. But there are drawbacks as well. The new Issue Backgrounder explains how it all works.
"Decades of water depletion, dam building and repression of scientists and environmentalists have driven Iran toward ecological crises that are fueling protests rocking the country."
"Strong winter winds collapsed walls onto flimsy tents for Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, killing at least four people, hospital authorities said Tuesday."
"Iraq’s famed Tigris is heavily polluted and at risk of drying up. Unless urgent action is taken to save the river, life will be fundamentally altered for the ancient communities who live on its banks."
"While Israel restricts lifesaving aid and multiple reports show it violating the ceasefire, Gazans suffer flooded tents, starvation, pollution and disease."
"As global warming accelerates, about 480 million people in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula face intensifying and in some places unsurvivable heat, as well as drought, famine and the risk of mass displacement, the World Meteorological Organization warned Thursday."
"In western Chad, villagers are desperately trying to hold back the sand as the climate crisis wreaks havoc on one of the hottest countries in the world"
"Arizona’s lax water laws let corporate farms pump unlimited groundwater to grow alfalfa for cattle overseas, even as local families spend their savings drilling new wells."
"Israeli strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza killed five journalists Monday, according to health officials, including one who days earlier had reported for The Associated Press on children being treated for starvation at the same facility."
August 13, 2025 — The Society of Environmental Journalists joined the Committee to Protect Journalists and other press organizations in condemning Israel’s killing of six journalists in a targeted air strike in Gaza on Sunday. Read SEJ's full statement.
Advertisement 
