The corn is sweating and the EV perks are sunsetting

Welcome to Climate Point, your guide to climate, energy and the environment. Thanks to vacation schedules, we've got a jam packed two-week edition from me, Janet Wilson from Palm Springs and my great Paste BN colleague Dinah Voyles Pulver.

Corn sweat? Really? Wicked summer weather has hit full stride, with 200 million Americans likely to experience triple digit "Real Feel" temps on July 25 alone, reports Paste BN's John Bacon, as a heat dome blankets much of the South and the Midwest and spreads east. So how hot is it? So hot that even the millions of acres of crops in the Plains and Midwest are "sweating" out extra humidity, per Paste BN's Doyle Rice, adding extra stickiness to already muggy misery.

The California desert of all places is being spared, barely hitting 100 degrees as of July 23, well below typical triple digits this time of year. But as I report for The Desert Sun, we're still above average for the month, the decade and the century, as climate change combined with urbanization gradually takes hold, raising health risks for humans and wildlife alike.

The threats are so dire that the United Nations' highest court on July 23 said countries must comply with climate change treaties to address the "urgent and existential threat," in an opinion set to determine future environmental litigation. The ruling by the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, was welcomed by environmental groups, writes Reuters' Stephanie van den Berg. Legal experts said it was a victory for small island and low-lying states that asked the court to clarify nation states' responsibilities.

"Climate change treaties establish stringent obligations on states," Judge Yuji Iwasawa said, adding that failing to comply with them was a breach of international law.

Feeling crabby. Horseshoe crabs, actually relatives of spiders, have been around since the age of the dinosaurs, writes the Providence Journal's Alex Kuffner in a fascinating piece about the thorny beach stalwarts. Yet their numbers have slumped across their range, including in Rhode Island, where they are harvested both for their unique, copper-colored blood, useful for vaccine testing and other biomedical purposes, and as bait for eel and whelk fishermen.

But NOAA scientists concluded the 450 million-year-old horseshoe crab species’ risks are now high due to climate change, concluding that sea-level rise will reduce spawning habitat and warming waters will harm the survival of eggs and larvae. The International Union for Conservation of Nature also rated the remaining species' chances of a future recovery at zero under current management practices.

Pay up. In New Jersey, days after two violent storms in as many weeks that left four dead, state and local leaders are pushing legislation that would create a dedicated state fund to support infrastructure upgrades and climate resilience projects, funded by damages collected from companies most responsible for the climate crisis. As local governments struggle to cover the costs of rebuilding, advocates argue that polluters, not taxpayers, should bear the financial burden of climate change impacts.

Melt down. In the Great Lakes region, a grim new report update finds climate change is accelerating more extreme heat, less winter ice, more ticks and fewer fish, in an area some had thought would experience less impacts because of the huge bodies of water.

Getting fierce. Government meteorologists say critical improvements to forecasts are needed as fiercer disasters ramp up, but they worry that with more planned federal cuts, the nation's weather and climate research programs won't be able to keep up. The latest blow, reports Pulver, was the announcement by the U.S. Navy that it would no longer transmit data from the aging satellites past June 30, roughly 15 months earlier than expected. Later, the department extended the deadline to July 31.

Without those satellite images, hurricane forecast accuracy could be compromised, current and former NOAA scientists say. In any other year, notes Pulver, the satellite announcement might not have gathered attention. But this summer, it exacerbates mounting concerns expressed by more than a dozen industry and government veterans who spoke with Paste BN about the accuracy of weather prediction amid contract cancellations, layoffs and other Trump administration cuts.

Beep beep. Thinking of buying an electric car or truck to do your part to help the planet? Better do it by Sept. 30, as Congress and President Trump have slashed generous incentives after that. And make sure you read the fine print on your model to ensure that it qualifies.

In other clean car talk, Rivian is rolling out enhanced Google Maps technology in some models. Meanwhile Tesla, which has experienced protests worldwide from consumers angry over owner Elon Musk's ties to deep government cuts as a Trump White House advisor, is offering EV charging, burgers and fries at its futuristic new California diner.

Crunch time. The once mighty Colorado River is having another mega-bad year, with poor spring runoff that is crucial to fruit trees and other crops, and to refill already dangerously low reservoir levels that Western cities depend on. Interior Department officials are once again warning seven states to work together to reach agreement on how to better manage the parched water system moving forward, or they'll step in.

Any good news to kick the summertime blues? Yep. Once ranked among worst in nation, a Milwaukee County beach is now clean, safe and healthy, and will likely open to beachgoers within a week. The $8 million project was decades in the making, and moved the popular and often E.coli infected beach further south along Lake Michigan, improving recreation areas and rehabilitating coastal habitat. It's part of a larger effort to clean up the Milwaukee River Estuary, one of the most degraded sites in the Great Lakes region.

Read on for more, including tips to stay safe during high heat if you're pregnant. If someone forwarded you this email and you'd like to receive Climate Point in your inbox once a week, sign up here.