The Wayback Machine - http://web.archive.org/web/20240515061627/https://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

Climate

FILE - A woman watches the sun set on a hot day, Aug. 20, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo. A new study on Tuesday, May 14, 2024, finds that the broiling summer of 2023 was the hottest in the Northern Hemisphere in more than 2,000 years. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

Hot history: Tree rings show that last northern summer was the warmest since year 1

A new study finds that the broiling summer of 2023 was the hottest in the Northern Hemisphere in more than 2,000 years.
 
FILE - Parking attendant Andy Tinto uses laundry clips to put a blue towel over his cap to protect himself from the sun in Manila, Philippines on Monday, April 29, 2024. Sizzling heat across Asia and the Middle East in late April that echoed last year’s destructive swelter was made 45 times more likely in some parts of the continent because of human-caused climate change, a study found. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Sweltering heat across Asia was 45 times more likely because of climate change, study finds

 
This drone photo shows the damage at a village affected by a flash flood in Agam, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Rescuers on Tuesday searched in rivers and the rubble of devastated villages for bodies, and whenever possible, survivors of flash floods that hit Indonesia's Sumatra Island over the weekend. (AP Photo/Sutan Malik Kayo)

Indonesian rescuers search through rivers and rubble after flash floods that killed at least 52

 
A Sweetgreen sign is displayed on Thursday, May 9, 2024, in New York. The announcement of Sweetgreen that it’s adding beef to its menu led to strong reactions online, with customers questioning the company’s carbon neutral plans. (AP Photo)

Sweetgreen says a cleaner farming method will offset adding steak to its menu. What is it?

 
B Rosas, left, Lucia Everist, center, and Libby Kramer, of Climate Generation, speak to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. The advocates called on the council, a liaison between young people and state lawmakers, to support a bill requiring schools to teach more about climate change. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

High school students, frustrated by lack of climate education, press for change

 

FEATURED

Residents in Machakos County, Kenya, construct a sand dam on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. Building sand dams, a structure for harvesting water from seasonal rivers, helps minimize water loss through evaporation and recharges groundwater. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

To make water last year-round, Kenyans in dry regions are building sand dams on seasonal rivers

 
Joseph Katumba, a caretaker at Kitara Farm, works near Mbarara, Uganda, on March 8, 2024. Katumba said the property has become something of a demonstration farm for people who want to learn more about bamboo. (AP Photo/Dipak Moses)

In Uganda, bamboo has government’s backing as a crop with real growth potential

 
Nguyen Thi Thuy, a vendor who sells steamed buns on a floating market, paddles her boat in Can Tho, Vietnam, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. On good days she makes about $4 — hardly enough to put food on the table. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, the lure of moving to the city grows even stronger amid climate shocks

 
Lance Martin holds a jug of maple syrup as light shines through it, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024, in Rhinelander, Wis. In many parts of Wisconsin and the Midwest this year, the warmest winter on record drove farmers and hobbyists alike to start collecting tree sap for maple syrup a month or more earlier than they normally would. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Maple syrup season came weeks early in the Midwest. Producers are doing their best to adapt

 
Lisa McGuire stands near her former walkway on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, as she describes a fire that engulfed her home, killing her two dogs, in a Prichard, Ala., neighborhood with a history of severe water loss. When a neighbor called her about the fire, she said she rushed home to find firefighters with an empty hose attached to a hydrant. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Trillions of gallons leak from aging drinking water systems, further stressing shrinking US cities

 
Annie Kopacitino holds her daughter, who she says has been affected by the pollution caused by oil drilling, in her village of Tshiende, Moanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023. The country is looking to expand the oil drilling. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

As Congo seeks to expand drilling, some communities worry pollution will worsen

 

Surfing in Tahiti: 2024 Paris Olympics

Kids surf small waves along the beach after school in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, French Polynesia, Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Hundreds are set to descend on Tahiti for Olympic surfing. Can locals protect their way of life?

 
Naiki Vaast spearfishes along the coral reef in Vairao, Tahiti, French Polynesia, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

In Teahupo’o, Tahiti, coastal village life thrives among powerful waves

 

The demise of the Aral Sea

Graves are visible near the dried-up Aral Sea outside Aralsk, Kazakhstan, Monday, July 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

On the Aral Sea, graves rise above the dust. They’re reminders of the life its waters once sustained

 
Light is reflected on part of the Aral Sea outside Muynak, Uzbekistan, Sunday, June 25, 2023. The destruction of the Aral Sea in Central Asia has been labeled by the U.N. as the most staggering disaster of the 20th century. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Climate change is fueling the disappearance of the Aral Sea. It’s taking residents’ livelihoods, too

 
Ali Shadilov, left, and Anvar Saimbetov pose in front of an old boat in the area where the Aral Sea once was in Muynak, Uzbekistan, Tuesday, June 27, 2023. The Associated Press interviewed Shadilov and others in Muynak, Uzbekistan – all residents in their 60s and 70s who’ve long been tied to the sea, or what remains of it. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

These men once relied on the Aral Sea. Today, the dry land is a reminder of lost livelihoods

 
A child plays inside a rusted dilapidated car along the dried-up Aral Sea, in the village of Tastubek near Aralsk, Kazakhstan, Monday, July 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

The Aral Sea has all but disappeared. But in small towns and villages, signs of life are popping up

 

Gulf oil spill: Workers left behind

FILE - A cleanup worker picks up blobs of oil in absorbent snare on Queen Bess Island at the mouth of Barataria Bay near the Gulf of Mexico in Plaquemines Parish, La., June 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Once praised, settlement to help sickened BP oil spill workers leaves most with nearly nothing

 
FILE - A worker pulls an oil boom that a current pinned against a pier in Caminada Pass in Grand Isle, La., May 22, 2010. When a deadly explosion destroyed BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, tens of thousands of ordinary people were hired to help clean up the environmental devastation. These workers were exposed to crude oil and the chemical dispersant Corexit while picking up tar balls along the shoreline, laying booms from fishing boats to soak up slicks and rescuing oil-covered birds. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Takeaways from AP’s story on the BP oil spill medical settlement’s shortcomings

 
John Maas poses for a portrait Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, in Sparta, Tenn. Thousands of people who helped clean up after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico say they got sick, including Maas. Attorneys familiar with the issue say he's the only one who has received a settlement after suing. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

BP defeated thousands of suits by sick Gulf spill cleanup workers. But not one by a boat captain

 

Read more

A vendor selling used remote controls for various home appliances takes a nap in Nhat Tao market, the largest informal recycling market in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

E-waste is overflowing landfills. At one sprawling Vietnam market, workers recycle some of it

 
Mark Woodruff operates a planter in a soybean field, Monday, April 22, 2024, in Sabina, Ohio. As climate change drives an increase in spring rains across the Midwest, it can mean more anxiety for farmers eager to carry out the ritual of spring planting. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

For farmers, watching and waiting is a spring planting ritual. Climate change is adding to anxiety

 
A water truck worker fills a container outside the homes of residents who use it for drinking, cooking and cleaning, in the Pamplona Alta area in Lima, Peru, Friday, March 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Drought, heat and mismanagement make getting fresh water an increasingly tough task

 
Billy Barr holds his canister with newly fallen snow Wednesday, March 13, 2024, in Gothic, Colo. So-called “citizen scientists” like Barr have long played important roles in gathering data to help researchers better understand the environment. His once hand-recorded measurements have informed numerous scientific papers and helped calibrate aerial snow sensing tools. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson)

Citizen scientist measured Rockies snowfall for 50 years. Two new hips help him keep going

 
A periodical cicada nymph is held in Macon, Ga., Wednesday, March 27, 2024. This periodical cicada nymph was found while digging holes for rosebushes. Trillions of cicadas are about to emerge in numbers not seen in decades and possibly centuries.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Invaders from underground are coming in cicada-geddon. It’s the biggest bug emergence in centuries

 
A worker surveys Vo Van Van's rice fields after spraying fertilizer over the fields using a drone in Long An province in southern Vietnam's Mekong Delta, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. Using less water and using a drone to fertilize are new techniques that Van is trying and Vietnam hopes will help solve a paradox at the heart of growing rice: The finicky crop isn't just vulnerable to climate change but also contributes uniquely to it. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

In Vietnam, farmers reduce methane emissions by changing how they grow rice

 
Scientific diver Morgan Murphy-Cannella holds bull kelp with a dark patch of reproductive spores as she surveys a reforestation project, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, near Caspar, Calif. Kelp forests play an integral role in the health of the world’s oceans, one of the issues being discussed at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

From urchin crushing to lab-grown kelp, efforts to save California’s kelp forests show promise

 
(AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin)

How did humans get to the brink of crashing climate?

 

Fossil fuel influence at UN climate talks
Capuava oil refinery owned by Petrobras sits in Maui, on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. Petrobras specializes in deep water exploration, drilling and extraction. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Oil companies attending climate talks have minimal green energy transition plans, AP analysis finds

 
Happy Cardinal, right, looks at what remains of his cabin, destroyed by wildfires, near Fort Chipewyan, Canada, on Sunday, Sep. 3, 2023. Wildfires are bringing fresh scrutiny to Canada's fossil fuel dominance, its environmentally friendly image and the viability of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

Canada says it can fight climate change and be major oil nation. Massive fires may force a reckoning

 
FILE - The coal-fired power plant Uniper Scholven and a nearby BP refinery shine in the evening behind illuminated appartments in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. Environmental activists say the lobbying of fossil fuel interests are the reason why climate talks have yet to produce an agreement to phase out coal, oil and natural gas, as scientists have repeatedly said must happen to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, like extreme weather events. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)

Fossil fuel interests have large, yet often murky, presence at climate talks, AP analysis finds

 

Verdict in for wildlife mystery in Nevada where DNA tests show suspected wolves were coyotes

The verdict is in. The latest wildlife mystery in Nevada has been solved. Scientists who set out on a trail through the snow near the Idaho line to gather evidence relied on the scat and fur samples they collected to determine a trio of animals spotted during a helicopter survey in March were not wo
 
President Joe Biden speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, May 14, 2024, announcing plans to impose major new tariffs on electric vehicles, semiconductors, solar equipment and medical supplies imported from China. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

New US tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, batteries and solar cells could raise consumer prices

New tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and batteries, solar cells, medical equipment and other goods are intended to protect U.S. jobs and manufacturers.
 
This photo provided by the BC Wildfire Service shows a view of the Parker Lake wildfire near Fort Nelson, B.C. on Monday, May 13, 2024. (BC Wildfire Service/The Canadian Press via AP)

A wildfire has forced out hundreds of residents in Canada’s oil sands hub of Fort McMurray

Hundreds of residents in four neighborhoods in the southern end of Canada’s oil sands hub of Fort McMurray, Alberta have been ordered out.
 

Utilities start work on power line crossing in Mississippi River wildlife refuge

Utility companies have started construction on a contentious power line crossing in a Mississippi River wildlife refuge.
 
Whistleblower Robert Kroutil poses for a photo Monday, May 13, 2024, in Olathe, Kan. Kroutil, who worked supporting an EPA program to collect aerial data, is questioning the agency's efforts to collect data with a specialized airplane after a 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Whistleblower questions delays and mistakes in way EPA used sensor plane after fiery Ohio derailment

The U.S. government has a specialized plane loaded with advanced sensors that the EPA brags is always ready to deploy within an hour of any kind of chemical disaster.
 
FILE - An Aerial view of Gibraltar rock seen from the neighbouring Spanish city of La Linea, Oct. 17, 2019. The ramming of a small boat by an orca in the Strait of Gibraltar prompted authorities in Spain to recommend Tuesday May 14, 2024 that small vessels stick to the coastline in that region to avoid often-scary interactions with killer whales. (AP Photo/Javier Fergo, File)

Spain warns boats of possible orca run-ins near the Strait of Gibraltar this summer

Spanish authorities are recommending small vessels stick to the coastline around the Strait of Gibraltar after an orca rammed a boat that later sank.
 
The decorative lighthouse is destroyed following Monday nights storm at Pat's Fisherman's Wharf restaurant, dance hall and hotel Tuesday, May 14, 2024 in Henderson, La. (Leslie Westbrook/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

Storms kill a pregnant woman in Louisiana, adding to the region’s recent weather woes

Storms that slammed several Southern states have added to the region’s recent string of weather-related destruction and death.
 
FILE - The University of Maine's first prototype of an offshore wind turbine is seen in this Sept. 20, 2013 file photo, near Castine Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, files)

New industry readies for launch as researchers hone offshore wind turbines that float

Researchers around the world are racing to create large wind turbines and floating platforms as upcoming lease auctions bring offshore wind closer to reality.
 
A windmill draws water for livestock in Leupp, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation, Saturday, March 9, 2024. A proposed water rights settlement for three Native American tribes that carries a price tag larger than any such agreement enacted by Congress took a significant step forward late Monday, May 13, with introduction in the Navajo Nation Council. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)

Proposed settlement is first step in securing Colorado River water for 3 Native American tribes

A proposed water rights settlement for three Native American tribes in Arizona has taken a big step forward with the introduction before the Navajo Nation Council.
 
In this image provided by Kpop4Planet, demonstrators pose at Maengbang Beach in Samcheok, South Korea, as part of the #SaveButterBeach campaign in September 2021. The group paired with climate groups in South Korea to raise awareness about plans for a coal-burning power plant. The plant site is near the beach of the photo shoot location for album artwork for one of K-pop band BTS’s hit songs. (Soojung Do/Kpop4Planet via AP)

K-pop fans around globe rally for climate and environment goals

Fans of Korean pop bands around the world are increasingly channeling their millions-strong online community into climate and environmental activism.
 
Rescuers look for victims under a billboard that collapsed following heavy rain and thundershowers in Mumbai, India, Monday, May 13, 2024. Scores of people were thought to be trapped after the collapse in the suburb of Ghatkopar, Mumbai police said on social media platform X. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Billboard that collapsed in Mumbai storms killed at least 14 and injured 75

A large billboard that collapsed amid raging thunderstorms in Mumbai killed at least 14 people and injured 75 others, reports said on Tuesday.
 
FILE - Motor vehicle traffic moves along the Interstate 76 highway in Philadelphia, March 31, 2021. Dozens of Republican attorneys general on Monday, May 13, 2024, took legal action against the Biden Administration and California over new emissions limits for trucks. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

GOP attorneys general sue Biden administration and California over rules on gas-powered trucks

Dozens of Republican attorneys general are suing the Biden Administration and California over new limits on truck emissions.
 
Destiny Ray, right, of YouthUnited for Climate Crisis Action, speaks at a rally outside the New Mexico Statehouse against rules for the treatment and recycling of oil-industry fracking water, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Santa Fe, N.M. Environmental officials in the nation's No. 2 state for petroleum production are taking initial steps toward regulating the treatment and reuse of oil-industry fracking water. New Mexico has been grappling with scarce water supplies, and fossil fuel producers are confronting shrinking opportunities for water disposal. The state's Water Quality Control Commission opened a weeklong series of hearings on Monday, May 13. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee)

New Mexico forges rule for treatment and reuse of oil-industry fracking water amid protests

Environmental officials in the nation’s No. 2 state for petroleum production are taking initial steps toward regulating the treatment and reused of oil-industry fracking water.
 
FILE - A car sits in a flooded parking lot at Widgery Wharf in this Jan. 10, 2024, in Portland, Maine. Maine's government is making tens of millions of dollars available to rebuild the state's working waterfront communities after a series of devastating winter storms pummeled the state's docks, wharfs and coastal businesses. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Maine to spend $25 million to rebuild waterfront after devastating winter storms and flooding

Maine’s government will spend tens of millions of dollars to rebuild the state’s working waterfront communities following a series of devastating winter storms.
 
FILE - The Wisconsin Capitol is seen, Oct. 24, 2023, in Madison, Wis. Republicans said Monday, May 13, 2024, that the state Senate would be voting to override the governor's veto of three dozen bills on everything from fighting PFAS pollution to doing away with work permit requirements for teenagers, moves that Democrats derided as desperate election-year stunts. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer, File)

Wisconsin Senate plans to vote on overriding Evers veto of PFAS funding, other bills

Republicans say the Wisconsin Senate will be voting to override the Democratic governor’s veto of at least five bills.
 
FILE - Homes leveled by the Camp Fire line a development on Edgewood Lane in Paradise, Calif., Nov. 12, 2018. New Mexico is standing in for California in a new film as Jamie Lee Curtis’ production company and others tell the story of a bus driver and a school teacher who rescued students during the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

New Mexico to stand in for California as McConaughey stars in film about a 2018 deadly wildfire

New Mexico is standing in for California in a new film as Jamie Lee Curtis’ production company tells the story of a bus driver and a school teacher who rescued students during the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history.
 
FILE - Wind turbines work in Livermore, Calif., Aug. 10, 2022. Federal energy regulators on Monday, May 13, 2024, approved a long-awaited rule to expand the amount of renewable energy such as wind and solar power that is transmitted to the electric grid, a key part of President Joe Biden’s goal to decarbonize the economy by 2050. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)

US energy panel approves rule to expand transmission of renewable power

Federal energy regulators have approved a rule to expand the amount of renewable energy such as wind and solar power that is transmitted to the electric grid.
 
This photo provided by the Loggerhead Marinelife Center on Monday, May 13, 2024, shows Finley, a subadult loggerhead turtle found with a hook in the shoulder area in late April, at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, Fla. The turtle received a round of antibiotics to ward of possible infection. Finley was released into the Atlantic Ocean on Monday morning. (Loggerhead Marinelife Center via AP)

2 injured loggerhead turtles triumphantly crawl into the Atlantic after rehabbing in Florida

JUNO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A crowd cheered and took photos as two loggerhead sea turtles slowly made their way through the sand and into the Atlantic Ocean on Monday after rehabbing at a Florida marine life center.
 
Caution tape blocks the path to Florida State University's Flying Circus bleachers that were damaged when the tent above them collapsed during strong weather in Tallahassee, Friday, May 10, 2024. Powerful storms bringing the threat of tornadoes continued to slam several southern states early Friday, as residents cleared debris from deadly severe weather that produced twisters in Michigan, Tennessee and other states. Some of the strongest storms early Friday rolled into Tallahassee. (AP Photo/Phil Sears)

Severe storms blitz the US South again after one of the most active tornado periods in history

More than 15 million people from Texas to Florida are under threat of severe storms and the potential for more tornadoes.
 
FILE - Groundhog Club handler A.J. Dereume holds Punxsutawney Phil, the weather prognosticating groundhog, during the 138th celebration of Groundhog Day on Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa., Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. Phil's human handlers took the occasion of Mother's Day, Sunday, May 12, 2024, to announce that the two kids born earlier this spring to Phil and his partner, Phyllis, are named Sunny and Shadow. Sunny is a female, Shadow a male. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger, File)

Punxsutawney Phil’s babies are named Shadow and Sunny. Just don’t call them the heirs apparent

Punxsutawney Phil’s offspring have names that just might help the famed weather-forecasting groundhog to predict when spring will begin.