'The water, the sand, the mixing of the sand and the water’

PRESENTED BY STAGHORN SUMAC

As Kamala Harris campaigns in the Rust Belt with Liz Cheney, climate denier Donald Trump is wandering the Helene-ravaged Asheville region today to peddle racist lies about the Federal Emergency Management Agency and trash the state and local response.

“He does not care,” Harris climate staffer Camila Thorndike responds. “Climate change is not a problem for the distant future, it’s an emergency people are dealing with right now in their lives, and so many people have lost their lives over it.”

Last week, Trump was challenged by this question from a voter during a Univision town hall:

Trump rambled for three minutes, at one point praising himself for “the way I use the water, the sand, the mixing of the sand and the water.”

Wonkette’s Doktor Zoom breaks down Trump’s nearly incoherent word casserole. The closest he came to responding to the question was his claim that “they’re worried about the ocean rising an eighth of an inch or a quarter of an inch in 300 years,” which, no.

The great climate scientist Warren M. Washington, the second African American to earn a doctorate in atmospheric sciences, one of the first climate modelers in the world, and a White House advisor from the Carter to W administrations, passed away on Friday at the age of 88.

Washington advised on a 1974 federal report on energy use and climate which warned that the “continued use of fossil fuels” could cause climate change with “very serious consequences” for humanity.

Washington's long-time collaborator at NCAR, Akira Kasahara, died at the age of 95 on March 29, 2022. Washington and Kasahara began working together in 1964 to build global climate models on the Control Data Corporation 6600 supercomputer, programming by hand on paper tape. 

Sarah Honosky delivers powerful in-depth reporting on Asheville's Helene debris dumps in predominantly brown and black neighborhoods.

Evan Halper and Josh Dawsey drill into the 2025 policy blueprint of the American Exploration and Production Council, a front group for ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Hess, and other oil drillers backing Trump.

The BioLab chemical plant fire east of Atlanta is finally out. Rockdale County has filed suit against the company.

Microplastics found in dolphin breath for first time.

“For the first time in human history, we are pushing the global water cycle out of balance.”

A powerful fossil-fueled storm dropped a record amount of rain Saturday night in Roswell, New Mexico, causing flash flooding with two confirmed deaths.

Cuba’s oil-dependent electricity grid collapsed—then the oil-powered Hurricane Oscar struck, dumping punishing rains.

Tropical Storm Nadine pummeled Belize and the Yucatán with fierce rains before swirling over Guatemala.

Storm Ashley brought power cuts, fallen trees and cancelled flights as 60 mph winds battered Northern Ireland.

Extreme drought wrecks rivers and daily life in Amazon’s most burnt Indigenous land.

Wyoming rangers stop blowing up dead horses due to wildfire risk.

WIN FOR CLIMATE: The great climate-electoral group Lead Locally is looking for volunteers to canvass in Pennsylvania the last two weeks of the election to win on climate from the statehouse to the White House.

If you can’t make that kind of commitment, join a Lead Locally phonebank this Wednesday.

Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word. If you’ve got job listings, event listings, or other hot news, I want to hear it. Connect with me—@[email protected], @climatebrad on Threads, and @climatebrad.hillheat.com on BlueSky.