The United States has nearly 100,000 miles of coastline and much of it is at risk of flooding. But what that inundation looks like varies widely from place to place. From storm surges to land subsidence, the latest Backgrounder details the different types of flooding and the threats they pose to coastal communities, especially sea level cities.
"Tsunami waves reached Hawaii and the West Coast after one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history, a magnitude 8.8 temblor, struck off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on July 29 and triggered alerts across the Pacific, Alaska and the entire U.S. West Coast."
"Closing Mauna Loa and three other U.S. sites that track greenhouse gases would disrupt a decades-long record of the planet’s changing atmosphere."
"Eric Huntington built his dream cabin nestled in the wilderness of central Alaska, eventually raising two daughters there. But over the years, he learned that living in this quiet, remote village came with a hefty cost."
"The Trump administration announced Monday it is moving ahead with plans to reopen millions of acres of undisturbed public land to oil and gas drilling, amid a visit by top officials to Alaska this week." "The plan would open up 11 million acres to drilling and remove conditions, including protections for sensitive ecological areas, on oil and gas leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska."
"Environmentalists are challenging in court President Trump’s executive order that they say strips core protections from the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument and opens the area to harmful commercial fishing."
"Indigenous peoples are navigating the slow collapse of winter roads — and an even slower pace of help."
With wildfires becoming more extreme in every way, reporters covering them face new challenges along with familiar hazards. A pair of experienced wildfire journalists and others on the front lines offer advice on dealing with access restrictions, on-the-ground dangers, toxic exposure risks and traumatized survivors — as climate change speeds up the news cycle and misinformation muddies the reporting landscape.
"The Trump administration is moving to rescind two key Biden-era rules finalized by the Bureau of Land Management last year that advanced protections for millions of acres across the West and Alaska’s North Slope."
"Trump officials said they would open up areas of Alaska that Joe Biden had made off-limits to oil and gas production, and allow for a gas pipeline to be built across the state."
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