Detailed data is useful for understanding and addressing environmental effects on people’s lives in ways that become difficult or impossible if only the broadest and blurriest picture is developed.

Landowners can now turn certain farms and timberland into business parks, suburbs despite local objections.

An industry-backed state law that takes effect July 1 will make it easier for developers to turn farmland into suburban subdivisions over the objections of local governments and communities.

The National Park System, which will be flooded with visitors this summer, has a bipartisan pedigree. Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service law that established our system, but Teddy Roosevelt’s setting aside millions of acres of public lands gave it substance. Ulysses Grant signed the law creating the first national park, Yellowstone. There have been tensions between the parties over parks.

James G. Watt, Ronald Reagan’s first secretary of the Interior, was a zealous religious sagebrush rebellion conservative who tried to ban the Beach Boys from performing on the National Mall on July 4 because he thought they’d bring in a bad crowd. (Ron and Nancy loved the California band, and Watt became a goner.) No wonder Ken Burns named his documentary series on our national parks “America’s Best Idea.”

It took the klepto-genius of Donald Trump to see the National Park Service as a pile of cash, as he continues his campaign to redo Washington in fetid neo-autocratic style.

A comprehensive report on Trump’s raiding of the National Park Service's funds to pay for his gaudy, gold-leaf D.C. makeover.

Michael Scherer unveils part of the scam in The Atlantic.

Autonomous-driving startup Wayve is riding a tide of investor interest.

The London-based company has pulled in $2.8 billion from a roster of investors and strategic partners that includes big names across the technology and automotive sectors, from Nvidia to Mercedes-Benz and Nissan. In June, Wayve said it will deploy its system in robotaxis from Jeep maker Stellantis, to go on Uber’s ride-hailing network.

“We can take power from a plasma,” Kieran Furlong, co-founder and CEO of Realta Fusion, told TechCrunch. The milestone shows “what’s possible,” he added.

For fusion startups, the hard part is over: Thanks to a groundbreaking experiment in 2022, we know that controlled nuclear fusion reactions can generate more power than they consume. But now companies need to prove their reactors can make enough electricity to be profitable.

One option is to simply turn up the temperature, generating more heat to produce more steam to spin a bigger turbine. Another is to harvest electricity directly from the fusion reactions themselves, an approach that promises to be more efficient.

The ruins, which have become an illicit tourist destination, may reopen soon.

The Palos Verdes Peninsula has received a lot of attention in recent years because of accelerated land movement, but one landslide in the area has been a draw for decades because of its dystopian state with fractured streets.

Nearly 100 years ago, residents of San Pedro’s Point Fermin neighborhood had a dream of living by the ocean, but the cliffs became their undoing. A landslide slowly ripped Point Fermin apart. This southernmost part of Los Angeles County was given a new nickname to fit its troubled state: Sunken City.

“It’s time to turn the heat on the fossil fuel giants that caused this heatwave but are doing nothing to cover the costs."

West Texas is becoming a test case for one of the biggest questions facing the AI economy: who can deliver power fast enough to keep it growing?

Chevron will supply dedicated power to a Microsoft-operated data center in West Texas under a 20-year agreement. Project Kilby is expected to deliver Chevron will supply dedicated power to a Microsoft-operated data center in West Texas under a 20-year agreement. The agreement sits under Energy Forge One LLC, a wholly owned Chevron subsidiary.

New study shows America’s largest underground water source is depleting fast, raising risks for farming, food supply and price volatility.

The largest underground water supply in the United States—responsible for sustaining a vast share of the nation’s farming—is steadily running dry, raising concerns about future food production and price volatility as supplies come under strain.

The Ogallala Aquifer, which lies beneath eight Great Plains states from South Dakota to Texas, provides roughly 30 percent of the groundwater used for irrigation in the U.S. and supports around a fifth of the country’s agricultural output.

Looking at the ingredient labels on foods lining supermarket shelves, it's common to see names such as “potassium sorbate,” “citric acid,” and “L-ascorbic acid (vitamin C).” These substances are food additives used to prevent spoilage and preserve quality, and they are widely incorporated into industrially produced processed foods.

According to Open Food Facts, the world's largest open food database, more than 20 percent of the processed foods and beverages in its database contain at least one preservative.

A large-scale study demonstrates that preservatives widely used in everyday processed foods may exacerbate common health risks.

Gov. Ron DeSantis characterized the clean energy goals the law bans as “radical climate policies,” although experts say the law will not necessarily upend the plans.

A new state law limits Florida communities’ aims to offset greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the global climate and intensifying disasters such as hurricanes.

Specifically, HB 1217 prohibits local governments from pursuing net-zero emissions goals. At least 10 cities and counties have implemented such policies, including Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando and Leon County, where Tallahassee, the state capital, is located. But the new law will not necessarily upend these policies, said Bradley Marshall, senior attorney at Earthjustice, an advocacy group.

BOURNE, MA — Gov. Maura Healey’s office announced Wednesday that the Cape Cod Bridges replacement project has reached a major milestone after receiving federal approval of its Final Environmental Impact Statement and a Record of Decision from the Federal Highway Administration.

The approval completes the federal environmental review process required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), allowing the project to move into its next phases of permitting and design while bringing Massachusetts closer to securing more than $1 billion in federal funding for construction.

Three electric school buses will kick-start the state’s groundbreaking vehicle-to-grid pilot program once school's out, with more EVs to be added in the coming months.

The company may finally be ready to try to deliver on Elon Musk's years-long promise of launching a robotaxi network of its own.

Tesla has begun testing a production version of its Cybercab that has two seats, but no steering wheel or pedals, in Austin, Texas. For now, the testing is being done with a safety monitor in the right passenger seat, according to a video posted on X, the social media platform owned by the electric car maker’s CEO Elon Musk.

This test is happening nearly two years after Tesla revealed the design of the Cybercab, which is meant to be a fully autonomous robotaxi that can be hailed through Tesla’s app. Roughly a year ago, Tesla began testing a Tesla Robotaxi service in Austin with Model Y SUVs that have, at times, used safety monitors.

Europe’s mortuaries are overflowing, America’s watchdogs are being leashed, public lands are being opened to more drilling, and the control room is still pretending this is a messaging problem.

There are days when the metaphor arrives wearing a little hat, waving politely from the edge of the news, asking if it may please be included somewhere between the congressional dysfunction and the latest judicial renovation of American democracy.

Then there are days when the metaphor is a mortuary in Paris with no room left.

Europe is in the grip of record heat, the kind that makes the old maps look quaint and the old warnings sound less like warnings than apologies issued too late. In France, funeral homes have reportedly been overwhelmed by the number of dead, especially older people, as temperatures pushed past 104 degrees and the heat settled into cities like a verdict. One mortuary owner told reporters, “We’re facing a really catastrophic situation,” which is the kind of sentence that should stop a government in its tracks, make every serious person in a serious office look up from the latest polling memo, and begin moving with the urgency of people who understand that reality doesn’t negotiate.

Some environmental movements, like Earth Day, have been around for decades. But have you ever heard of Plastic Free July?

Environmental groups across L.A. and Orange counties — such as Heal the Bay, L.A. Waterkeeper and the Surfrider Foundation — are all gearing up for the month-long challenge to raise awareness about the prevalence of single-use plastics in our lives, and how we all can take steps to reduce our usage.

I had so many questions. Why hadn’t I come across this initiative before? How come I hadn’t seen it on my social media? What does this challenge entail? So I got to researching.

Permitting delays pushed by the Trump administration threaten to derail 92 gigawatts of clean power, even as electricity demand from AI data centers skyrockets.

Already, permitting changes and federal funding withdrawals have led to the cancellation of 7 gigawatts of generating capacity on federal land in 2025, according to a new study from consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. The additional scrutiny could cancel another 12 gigawatts on federal land and 80 gigawatts on private property.

The Trump administration's moves threaten $121 billion in new solar and wind power, two energy sources that are the biggest contributors to new capacity in the U.S.