Wildfires - Inside Climate News

Texas Panhandle Wildfires Wreak Havoc on the State’s Agriculture Industry

By Kiley Price — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 20:36:50 +0000

Fires in the Texas Panhandle are expected to kill thousands of cattle, putting the state’s agriculture industry at risk.

By Kiley Price

For the past week, the Texas Panhandle has been covered in flames. The ongoing inferno—the largest wildfire in the state’s history—has burned up nearly 1.3 million acres of land, and firefighters have only managed to contain 15 percent of it as of Sunday.

Record Winter Heat, Dry Air Helped Drive Panhandle Fire Risk

By Emily Foxhall, The Texas Tribune — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 09:30:00 +0000

Texas has a wildfire season in winter, but climate change is extending it, scientists say.

By Emily Foxhall, The Texas Tribune

This article was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans—and engages with them—about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

A medida que aumentan las temperaturas, más trabajadores mueren en el campo

By Liza Gross, Peter Aldhous — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 09:30:00 +0000

Decenas de trabajadores agrícolas en California están muriendo por el calor en regiones con contaminación ambiental persistente, incluso en un estado cuyas normas sobre el trabajo a la intemperie están entre las más estrictas del país.

By Liza Gross, Peter Aldhous

Read this article in English.

Indictment of US Forest Service ‘Burn Boss’ in Oregon Could Chill ‘Good Fires’ Across the Country

By Grant Stringer — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 10:05:00 +0000

The unprecedented “reckless burning” charge came in a conservative county with a long history of tension between landowners and federal authorities, including the 2016 takeover of a nearby wildlife refuge by armed protesters.

By Grant Stringer

A “burn boss” with the U.S. Forest Service is facing unprecedented criminal charges for an escaped prescribed burn in rural Oregon, which may complicate nationwide goals to set low-intensity fires that can thin out excess vegetation and dead wood in overgrown forests to improve forest health and lower the risk of uncontrollable wildfires igniting.

Converging Climate Risks Interact to Cause More Harm, Hitting Disadvantaged Californians Hardest

By Liza Gross — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Exposure to extreme heat and wildfire smoke together leads to far more cardiac and respiratory hospitalizations than either hazard alone, new research shows. California’s marginalized communities face the highest risks.

By Liza Gross

“The future happens in California first” long referred to the state’s reputation as an environmental leader. It’s come to describe the Golden State’s front row seat to a rotating list of overlapping extreme events that are appearing with ever more frequency and ferocity as the climate warms.

In Oregon, a New Program Is Training Burn Bosses to Help Put More “Good Fire” on the Ground

By Grant Stringer — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 13:00:00 +0000

More states and private landowners recognize the importance of prescribed burns to improve forest health and reduce the severity of wildfires, but the lack of firefighters trained to ignite and manage the blazes has slowed progress.

By Grant Stringer

In July 2021, the massive Bootleg fire in southern Oregon burned 650 square miles and left vast swaths of forest littered with dead trees.

Dying in the Fields as Temperatures Soar

By Liza Gross, Peter Aldhous — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Scores of California farmworkers are dying in the heat in regions with chronically bad air, even in a state with one of the toughest heat standards in the nation.

By Liza Gross, Peter Aldhous

Lea este artículo en español.

Biden Administration Takes Historic Step to Protect Old-Growth Forest

By Marianne Lavelle — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 11:00:00 +0000

Environmental advocates say action is still needed to protect “mature” trees, while industry views the move as hindering timber harvests that provide wildfire protection.

By Marianne Lavelle

In an unprecedented step to preserve and maintain the most carbon-rich elements of U.S. forests in an era of climate change, President Joe Biden’s administration last week proposed to end commercially driven logging of old-growth trees in National Forests.

2023 in Climate News: Did Renewable Energy’s Surge Keep Pace With a Radically Warming Climate?

By ICN Staff — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

The push and pull of progress and catastrophe made 2023 one of the most discordant—and consequential—years for the world’s climate.

By ICN Staff

In 2023, clean energy progress and the horrors of a radically warming climate fought almost to a draw.

The Libertarian Developer Looming Over West Maui’s Water Conflict

By Anita Hofschneider and Jake Bittle, Grist — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 09:55:00 +0000

Peter Martin spent decades guzzling water around Lāhainā. Then came the fire.

By Anita Hofschneider and Jake Bittle, Grist

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.