"At 90% of the state historical average, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is nothing like record-smashing 2023. But it ‘s the third year in the row with near-average or above-average snowpack."
With many states dominated by a few powerful industries — whether oil, mining or agriculture — the influence of campaign dollars can have an outsize effect on legislation, even to the point of corruption, notes the latest Reporter’s Toolbox. So while the U.S. Congress may be languishing, environmental journalists can dig up stories on lobbying at the state level using a powerful data source.
"In Uganda’s Mbale district, famous for its production of arabica coffee, a plague of plastic bags locally known as buveera is creeping beyond the city."
"The Federal Emergency Management Agency has frozen nearly $10 billion in disaster aid for nonprofits including hospitals as it seeks to identify funding that could be used to help undocumented migrants, according to agency documents obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News."
"On Wednesday, lawmakers on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held the first hearing on President Trump’s nomination to lead the US Fish and Wildlife Service. If confirmed, Brian Nesvik, a former game warden turned Wyoming Game and Fish director, would lead the federal agency whose primary charge is to protect the plants and animals most in need of conservation."
"Long Beach residents near companies that use methyl bromide are angry that air quality officials didn’t notify them for years and haven’t assessed their health risks. Now officials say more facilities are operating in San Pedro and Compton."
"Earth has lost enough soil moisture in the last 40 years to change the planet’s spin and shift the location of the North Pole, according to a new study published today in Science that tracks how human activities have disrupted the global water cycle. The persistent loss of water from land to oceans has dried out huge portions of every continent and may be irreversible, scientists describing the new research said this week."
"When Leslie Stewart moved to her home in a rural expanse of Lincoln County outside of Oklahoma City more than 20 years ago, she thought she’d found a slice of heaven. ... But several years ago, her neighbor began applying sewage sludge, which consists largely of human waste left over from municipal wastewater treatment facilities, as a fertilizer on his farmland, causing a rancid smell so powerful it nearly took her breath away."
"After decades of pressure from farmworkers and their allies, California launched a statewide system to warn communities before they’re exposed to toxic pesticides. But health concerns remain."
"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, although battered by Trump administration attempts to impose massive staff and budget cuts on the agency, nevertheless continues to publish critical climate information, including some dire drought warnings in the spring outlook published March 20 by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center."
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