Climate Point: Swarms of mice invade Australia. And does your make-up contain toxics?

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. I'm Janet Wilson from Palm Springs, California, where temperatures hit a record high of 120 degrees on Tuesday. 

A blistering early heatwave that's blanketed the West isn't letting up. From the Canadian border to Texas, more than 50 million people in eight states — an eighth of the U.S. population — were on alert this week, as the National Weather Service urged people to drink water and stay indoors.

"You do not want to ignore the potential for harm," USA Today's Elinor Aspergen writes, with the heat smashing records from Salt Lake City to Denver to Billings, Montana.

And blackouts of all types are possible. Texas and California energy officials want customers to reduce electricity use. The first time my iPhone overheated in the triple-digit desert, I'd just eased into my suffocatingly hot older Prius, carefully wrapped paper towels around the scalding steering wheel, and tried to call up the maps app. Nothing appeared except a black screen with a red thermometer and the words: "Temperature. iPhone needs to cool down before you can use it." 

Where the hell am I, I thought. Marooned at the southwestern edge of a continent on the verge of stupendous, human-caused global warming, that's where, I thought. The air conditioning kicked in and a veneer of normalcy returned.

This pre-summer heat wave and severe drought in the Southwest are part of a damaging feedback loop enhanced by climate change, experts tell CNN. The hotter it gets, the drier it gets; the drier it gets, the hotter it gets. That means more dangerous fire weather, strained electric grids, and potential harm from the heat itself. 

I was right about those paper towels. As the blistering heat continues, doctors in Arizona and Nevada burn centers are warning of injuries from contact with super-heated roadways and other surfaces. Bob Christie with the Associated Press fills us in.

Here are some other stories that may be of interest.

MUST READ STORIES

Eye-opening. About half of all make-up products in North America, including mascaras, lipsticks and foundations, contain toxic "forever chemicals," new research concludes. On Tuesday, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Debby Dingell (D-Mich) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced legislation to ban adding the chemicals to cosmetics. As Tik Root with the Washington Post reports, makeup also washes down drains or gets tossed in landfills, where it can leach into soil and waterways. 

The new study doesn't name brands, but Environmental Working Group's SkinDeep database has info on which companies are still using the ingredient in Teflon, a top forever chemical. California became the first state to ban toxics in cosmetics last year.  Maryland did the same this month. The laws take effect in 2025.

Breathing room. For a lot of animals, the pandemic was a break from people, notes Laura Bliss with Bloomberg CityLab. Birds sang louder. Whales could relax in quieter oceans, and lions lounged on empty golf greens. Poaching and deforestation did climb. But in the U.S., shelter-in-place orders likely saved millions of animals, per a recent study that found daily roadkill on highways in California, Idaho, Maine and Washington fell 34%, as driving dropped 71%. Mountain lions in California saw a 58% drop in highway mortality. The declines were unprecedented, and they quickly reversed as vehicle traffic picked up in the spring. 

Experts say the pandemic reprieve underscores the need for offering safe ways for animals to cross the road. They may get some help. Transportation bills proposed by the Senate and the House dedicate $350 million and $400 million, respectively, for the creation of wildlife passages across roads.

ALL ABOUT WATER

Drought and quake. If it's not one thing, it's another. California is known for its natural disasters, and in the Silicon Valley, two potential calamities — drought and earthquake risk — are converging to dry up water supplies in the state’s tech hub, as Susanne Rust with the Los Angeles Times writes.

On Wednesday, the Santa Clara Valley Water District unanimously declared a water emergency — in part because a key reservoir was drained last year to reduce earthquake risks. County officials had warned that emptying Anderson Reservoir would imperil the region's water supplies, but were forced to do it since it sits atop the Calaveras fault, which could trigger a high-magnitude earthquake.

Parched. It's one example of deepening drought across the West that is here to stay. NBC News' Ben Kesslen offers a great overview, noting this is the driest it's been in 1,200 years, and explaining how modern-day Phoenix was built near ancient aqueducts. 

POLITICAL CLIMATE

Bears ears back? Interior Secretary Haaland in a confidential report asked President Joe Biden to restore national monuments in Utah and off coastal New England created by President Barack Obama and downsized by President Donald Trump. Juliet Eilperin and Joshua Partlow with the Washington Post fill us in.

Not taking your lumps. Biden and six other leaders of the wealthy Group of 7 nations on Sunday promised to halve collective greenhouse emissions by 2030 and to try to stem the rapid extinction of animals and plants. But energy experts said the failure of  G7 to set a specific end date for their use of polluting coal weakens their ability to pressure China to curb its growing coal use.

“It’s very disappointing,” Jennifer Morgan, the executive director of Greenpeace International, told The New York Times. “This was a moment when the G7 could have shown historic leadership, and instead they left a massive void.”

ENERGY HOT TAKES

Building blocks. From Brooklyn to New Mexico, "cool" roofs and other energy-efficient building features are all the rage, and should be, architects say. 

Thumbs down. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up oil companies' appeals of Oakland and San Francisco's suits for damages due to climate change.

Louisiana way. A federal judge in Louisiana has blocked the Biden administration’s suspension of new oil and gas leases on federal land and water, ordering plans continue for lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska waters and elsewhere onshore.  

AND ANOTHER THING

It's raining mice. Before I scurry off, one more thing. Seeking to cool down, I read stories on ice sheets collapsing, methane from old coal plants powering ski resorts, and even the almost biblical tale, first reported by the Cape Cod Times's Doug Fraser, about a fisherman swallowed then spit out by a whale.  In the end, mice invading Australia won out. Outlets worldwide have reported on mice raining from the sky in Australia. A phenomenal package from the Washington Post explains how drought followed by floods (remember those?) can unleash swarms of cannibalistic rodents.

That's it for now. Hope you have a chill week. You can follow me on Twitter @janetwilson66 or sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here.