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"As Los Angeles firefighters battle ongoing blazes, prominent rightwing figures are spreading bigoted criticism of the response and lies about who is to blame, including that the fire is raging because of diversity within the fire department."
"The sight of celebrity mansions and movie landmarks reduced to ashes can make it seem like the wildfires roaring through the Los Angeles area affected a constellation of movie stars. But a drive through the charred neighborhoods around Altadena shows that the fires also burned through a remarkable haven for generations of Black families avoiding discriminatory housing practices elsewhere."
"Los Angeles has experienced some of the world’s worst air quality this week as smoke from massive wildfires blankets the region and threatens the health of far more people than the fires themselves. And that will end up adding to the economic toll."
"2024 was the hottest year on record, producing intense, long-lasting heat waves. Climate change-intensified extreme events last year included the formation of vast heat domes — areas of high pressure that stalled and persisted above continental land masses in Asia, Africa, South and North America, and Europe."
"Helping drive the wildfires in the US city of Los Angeles are the so-called Santa Ana winds, a weather phenomenon known to dry out "the hills and the nerves to flash point."
"Nearly all major global climate datasets agree that, in 2024, human-caused global warming for the first time pushed Earth’s average surface temperature to more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average for a full calendar year, a level that countries around the world had agreed to do all they could to avoid."
"The deadly Los Angeles area wildfires were turned into a political conflagration on Wednesday as President-elect Donald Trump rekindled past threats to withhold disaster aid to Democratic opponents in California."
"Although Commercial Development Co. and its affiliates have pledged to revive the former industrial sites they purchase, residents are often stuck looking at undeveloped acreage for years."
"Thousands of firefighters are working to contain the blazes of multiple fires across Los Angeles. Months from now when the fires are extinguished and the rain comes, however, a hidden threat could put communities at risk once again."
"President-elect Trump said he will create an environmental advisory group lead by his former environmental consultant."
"Bird flu outbreaks have been detected at three poultry operations in Maryland and Delaware, impacting more than 500,000 chickens and leading to heightened alert among officials in the Washington region."
"President-elect Donald Trump’s breezy rollout this week of a Dubai real estate developer’s $20 billion pledge shows the chasm between tech’s bold aspirations and electricity supplies."
"Microplastics and other human-made particles are widespread in the seafood that we eat and could be damaging our health."
"As far as the Biden administration is concerned, a proposed Alaska mining road through a U.S. national park and adjacent federal land is kaput. Rejected. Case closed."
"Around the globe, Associated Press photographers in 2024 documented what scientists on Friday said was the hottest year on record, the latest in a long string of heat milestones that have been shattered in recent years as the burning of gas, coal and oil accelerate global warming.
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