Climate Point: Marshall Islands fallout, and smog correlated to crime
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and environment news. I'm Janet Wilson, writing to you from Palm Springs, Calif.
Sometimes, a story stays with you. For me, that's this week's package from the L.A. Times on how the United States used the Marshall Islands and its people for nuclear weapons testing. Now a dome of radioactive waste left behind threatens residents anew because it could be swamped by rising seas due to climate change.
Here are some other stories that may be of interest:
MUST-READ STORIES
Smog correlated to crime. That's the conclusion of a new Colorado State University study, which finds for every uptick in dirty air, there's an increase in violent assaults, per Jacy Marmaduke with the Fort Collins Coloradoan. Reducing smog and soot by 10% could save $1.4 billion in crime costs each year, the researchers say.
Hard NOx. New satellite data show nitrogen oxide, a key smog ingredient, lingering.
The kids are not all right. Drought and disease exacerbated by climate change are harming children's health worldwide, and that trend will worsen if we don't slash emissions to levels set in the Paris agreement, reports Doyle Rice with USA Today.
No plan. Arizona climate summit highlights state's lack of planning, other woes.
POLITICAL CLIMATE
Home green home. What do public housing and climate change have in common? The Green New Deal. Presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) this week unveiled a $180 billion plan to make housing cheaper and more environmentally friendly. As USA Today's Ledyard King tells us, the bill would repair and electrify all public housing with solar panels and other renewable energy. But chances of passage are dim.
Get moving. Hundreds of Bureau of Land Management employees this week were given 30 days to agree to leave D.C. and move out west to new offices, or face losing their jobs, as Eric Katz with Government Executive reports.
ALL ABOUT ENERGY
Oil man. President Donald Trump this week contradicted Pentagon officials who said the reason U.S. troops would remain in Turkey after all was to fight ISIS terrorists. "We left troops behind only for the oil," Trump told reporters during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the White House, reports Politico's David Brown.
Livid. Anger is propelling officials from California to Maine, including Chicago and New York City, to eye taking control of big, investor-owned electric utilities that have spent millions on executive bonuses while often ignoring critical maintenance, unleashing massive blackouts and raising customers' rates. I report for The Desert Sun.
AND ANOTHER THING
Butterfly blues. A Las Vegas ski area expansion, including miles of new mountain biking, skiing and hiking trails, threatens to leave a pretty butterfly.in the dust, reports Benjamin Spillman with the Reno Gazette Journal. The Mount Charleston Blue Butterfly was listed as endangered in 2013, and the plans to expand the popular outdoor area run right over its habitat, critics say.
Going up. Last month was the second-hottest October since at least 1880, according to NASA data visualized by UC Irvine's Zack Labe.
That's all for this week. For more climate, energy and environment news, follow me on Twitter @janetwilson66. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here.