Matt Herbert

E.P.A. Plans to Loosen Mercury Rules for Coal Plants, Documents Show

The EPA plans this week to loosen restrictions on coal-burning power plants, allowing them to emit more hazardous pollutants including mercury, a powerful neurotoxin that can impair babies’ brain development, internal agency documents show.

Trump’s EPA repeals landmark climate finding in gift to ‘billionaire polluters’ Rollback of government’s ability to limit climate-heating pollution will make families ‘sicker and less safe’, environmental advocate says * US politics live – latest updates The Trump administration has revoked the bedrock scientific determination that gives the government the ability to regulate climate-heating pollution. The move was described as a gift to “billionaire polluters” at the expense of Americans’ health. The endangerment finding, which states that the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere endangers public health and welfare, has since 2009 allowed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to limit heat-trapping pollution from vehicles, power plants and other industrial sources. Continue reading...

Trump’s EPA repeals landmark climate finding in gift to ‘billionaire polluters’

Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change

"...the administration is essentially saying that the vast majority of scientists around the world are wrong and that a hotter planet is not the menace that decades of research shows it to be.

It’s a rejection of fact that had been accepted for decades by presidents of both parties..."

Gift link.

Trump's EPA will stop regulating greenhouse gases, setting up a legal fight The Environmental Protection Agency is eliminating a Clean Air Act finding from 2009 that is the basis for much of the federal government's actions to rein in climate change.

Update: The Environmental Protection Agency is eliminating a Clean Air Act finding from 2009 that is the basis for much of the federal government's actions to rein in climate change.

they should make a movie series about how it’s irresponsible to use technology to mess with the natural order of things for profit

Here's a time-lapse from yesterday as thousands of people marched through downtown Minneapolis to protest ICE.

📷️: Sydney Lewis/The Minnesota Star Tribune

Large brick wall with a tiny white signat the base of the wall that says "Slavery was real"

"Slavery was real"

Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington.

Presidents House, Philadelphia.

Tomorrow’s front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 23, 2026

From Trump’s first term in 2018. RIP

Seeing spots: 2025 ends with new footage of endangered ocelots in Arizona Recently released footage shows two different ocelots in Southern Arizona, including just the second detection in the Santa Rita Mountains and another cat that might be new to the state.

Despite ongoing border wall construction, a new ocelot & a new jaguar have arrived in AZ.

“We may be the last Arizonans to share mountains where jaguars & ocelots still roam” McSpadden said. “I think history will judge us... if we fail to protect this rare, wild freedom.” tucson.com/news/local/s...

The data center rebellion is here, and it’s reshaping the political landscape Backlash over the proliferation of data centers has entered the national political conversation and could affect voters of all political persuasions in this year’s midterm elections.

Many cities across the country where companies seeking to build massive data centers to win the AI race with China are coming up against the reality of local politics.

Cheap Solar Is Transforming Lives and Economies Across Africa

China building geopolitical power w/energy tech of the future, while US pursuing military lawlessness for energy tech of the past. (1/x)

Trump May Give SpaceX Some Land In A Texas Wildlife Refuge In exchange for the land in Texas, the rocket and satellite company would give the government some of its own property nearby, documents show.

The Trump administration is considering giving nearly 800 acres of land in a federal wildlife refuge in Texas to SpaceX, the rocket and satellite maker run by Elon Musk, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.

11 States That Stepped Up on Disaster Resilience in 2025 As the destruction and costs from weather- and climate-related disasters in the U.S. continued to rise in 2025—the Los Angeles wildfires alone caused over $60 billion in damage, the most expensive wil...

As the destruction and costs from weather- and climate-related disasters in the U.S. continued to rise in 2025, more states are cultivating resilience expertise and investing in projects to reduce risk.

More from my @pewtrusts.org colleagues ⤵️
www.pew.org/en/research-...

👀

How Much More Can the U.S. Travel Industry Take?

How Trump has wrecked domestic tourism: Steep new fees, travel restrictions, visa hurdles, uncertainty at the border, and his aggressive language toward Canada and other countries. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...

Hope for tigers grows as Thailand safeguards a key link in their habitat KANCHANABURI, Thailand — Following the path of the tiger isn’t easy. Yet the three rangers, clad in camouflage, move lithely through the steep bamboo thicket, tracking the muddy hoofprints of a…

Tiger conservation in Thailand is a rare bright spot.

The country’s Western Forest Complex has helped grow the Indochinese tiger population from ~40 in 2007 to 140+ today, with new evidence of breeding in the south as corridors open up.

Zillow Removes Climate Risk Scores From Home Listings

Realtors know that, in many parts of the country, if you educate people about climate risk, the housing market will collapse.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/c...

SD-AL 🚜🌽🦬

In One Week, Trump Moves to Reshape U.S. Environmental Policy

ICYMI: Last week was “the week from hell for environmental policy in the United States.”

More in @nytimes.com: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/22/c...

First, the frogs died. Then people got sick. An emerging area of research is uncovering hidden links between nature and human health.

First, the frogs died. Then people got sick. wapo.st/47Slsij

I stopped listening to Bill Gates talk about climate change a long time ago.

You should stop too.

Through the first six months of 2025, disasters across the United States caused more than $100 billion in damage -- the most expensive start to any year on record.

Fourteen disasters each caused at least $1 billion in damage through the first half of the year.

In First Six Months, Cost of Weather Catastrophes Escalated at a Record Pace

The Trump administration stopped updating a federal database that tracked the cost of extreme weather disasters, including hurricanes, wildfires and other events, that each caused at least $1 billion in damage.

A group of scientists has revived it. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/c...

Donald Trump is scrapping a 2001 rule that protects 58m acres of the most prized forests in the US "so we are allowed to take down trees and make a lot of money."

I went to the forest where the roadless rule was unveiled to find out what's at stake www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Breaking News: Jane Goodall, one of the world’s most revered conservationists, died at 91. Her discoveries in the 1960s about how chimpanzees behaved in the wild broke new ground and represented what was called “one of the Western world’s great scientific achievements.” nyti.ms/42kpGxt

Energy Dept. tells employees not to use words including 'climate change' and 'green' The banned words list applies to all work done at the largest federal funder of clean energy technology.

The banned words list applies to all work done at the largest federal funder of clean energy technology. n.pr/4nQ9sEq

After Trump’s Cuts, ‘Crippled’ NPR and PBS Stations Must Transform

"On the windswept prairie of South Dakota, a tribal public radio station is selling off its old records to pay the bills.”

The federal funding cuts to public broadcasting are reshaping the airwaves in rural and tribal communities across America.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/u...

Trump Administration Moves to Dismantle Conservation as an Official Use of Public Lands - Inside Climate News The decision means nearly 245 million acres of federal public land would be ineligible for conservation or restoration use designations.

A rule granting the Bureau of Land Management authority to set aside public lands for conservation took effect less than a year ago. The Trump administration is moving to dismantle it.

The Rainforests Being Cleared to Build Your R.V.

Kudos to @earthsight.bsky.social and @mightyearth.org for the research behind this NYT exposé showing how global demand—like for RVs—is fuelling deforestation in Borneo. It's a stark reminder of all that is at stake if we don't demand better supply-chain rules and transparency