Excepts on Climate articles from The New York Times .
Bloomberg News has statistics showing the World increasing spending on renewable energy by 10%, while the US has decreased spending in renewable energy by 36% in our 2 nd half of the year.
The Trump Agenda is not pro people or humane. Trump supports policies for personal gain and more money for GOP who vote for his agenda. Republicans who voted for fossil fuels made $105 million from Lobbyists.
- Global investment in new renewable energy projects hit a record $386 billion in the first half of 2025, up 10 percent from the previous year, according to a new report from BloombergNEF, a research firm. In the U.S., however, investment fell 36 percent from the second half of last year.
U.S. Forest Service firefighters from the Sierra Interagency Hotshot Crew battling the Gifford fire this month in rural San Luis Obispo County, Calif. Loren Elliott for The New York Times
Smoke is making wildfire crews very sick
By Claire Brown
As wildfire season starts earlier in California and climate change is leading to more extreme fires, tens of thousands of firefighters across the country are heading into weekslong shifts to battle the blazes. In many cases, they are breathing toxic smoke and ash for days on end.
As investigative reporter Hannah Dreier reported last week, unmasked firefighters in the United States are developing serious illnesses at young ages and dying of cancers that typically afflict much older people.
As Dreier writes, “it would be unthinkable for urban firefighters — those American icons who loom large in the public imagination — to enter a burning building without wearing a mask. But across the country, tens of thousands of people who fight wildfires spend weeks working in toxic smoke and ash wearing only a cloth bandanna, or nothing at all.”
Some of the health risks could be avoided if they wore protective masks, like half-face respirator masks with replaceable filters, or disposable N95 masks. But the Forest Service, which employs the country’s largest share of firefighters, won’t allow them to be worn.
I spoke with Dreier about her recent article on the health risks firefighters face from smoke inhalation.
Tell me how you got interested in this story.
Like a lot of people, I was glued to the coverage of the Los Angeles fires in January. One thing I noticed was that in all of this footage, you can see firefighters in thick, black smoke, and none of them seem to be wearing masks. That really got me wondering about the health risks that these firefighters are taking on. Why is it that they’re out there without any apparent protection from the smoke?
And what did you learn?
I started by just talking to as many people who fight wildfires as I could find. In the end, I talked to more than 200 firefighters. So many of them told me stories of the respiratory damage they had sustained, and colleagues they knew who had died of cancer.
I talked to one firefighter who was 41 and had just been told that he was going to need a double lung transplant. It just became clear that these firefighters were getting very sick, and a lot of the illnesses seemed related to smoke exposure.
At what point did you start thinking about this as a climate story?
It was obvious from the start that these workers are on the front lines of climate change. The nature of this job has really shifted in the past several decades. Fires are burning hotter, they’re bigger and the fire season is lasting much longer.
Firefighters told me that in the early 2000s, they might experience just a few really bad smoke days each season. By September, fire season would be over and they could go home and recover.
But now, because of climate change, fire season is almost year round. And so, these firefighters are out in that toxic smoke almost continuously.
Some younger firefighters told me they were starting to see themselves as climate workers, because changing weather is making this job more and more extreme.
Your reporting found that the Forest Service has actually worked against providing masks for workers. Why is that?
This was one of the things that was most shocking to me. I sort of assumed that if firefighters weren’t wearing masks it was probably because of a macho culture. You know, maybe they didn’t want to be wearing them. And it is true that there is that stigma around masks. But what I found is that they’re also actually not allowed to wear masks on the fire line.
The Forest Service told me that the agency doesn’t want firefighters to wear masks when they’re working because they could overheat.
But when I looked outside of the United States, I found that basically every other country with a major wildfire season is now giving crews masks to protect against smoke. And they have not seen an increase in heat stroke. Firefighters are not collapsing because they’re getting too hot. They basically just take off the mask if they’re starting to overheat.
My sources at the Forest Service told me what’s really going on here is a fear of admitting how dangerous smoke is. They said if the Forest Service were to acknowledge how risky it is to work in smoke, the agency might have to start taking on a lot of extra costs. It might have to start paying for more health care. Or hiring more firefighters so that workers could take breaks. And it could also just become harder to recruit for these jobs that are already pretty grueling and low-paying.
What kind of response have you gotten to the story?
We’re watching closely to see if the Forest Service is going to issue new guidance around masks. And in the meantime, I’ve been hearing from so many firefighters and firefighter families just thanking us for putting this part of their experience in the newspaper.
I think this is something that’s not talked about openly on the fire line because everybody wants to seem strong and tough. Even some of the people I talk to who have severe lung damage or who have cancer diagnoses say they’ve never told other people in the firefighting world about it. They’ve been saying that it’s validating to see some of that made public.
I’ve also been hearing from people who work in local fire departments that often get pulled into wildfires that they’re going to now try to get masks for their departments.
Source: Ember By Harry Stevens/The New York Times
RENEWABLE ENERGY
China’s solar exports to Africa are surging
Over the course of the past year, Chinese companies shipped out solar equipment to a vast range of countries in Africa, according to an analysis of Chinese export data by Ember, an energy tracking group.
All told, solar imports from China rose 60 percent between July 2024 and June 2025, according to Ember’s analysis, which was published on Tuesday.
It’s part of China’s global ascendance in the manufacture and sale of renewable energy technologies. Its companies make the vast majority of solar panels, along with the cells and wafers that go into them. Its influence in the world rests, in large part, on persuading people in the developing world that they can produce cheap electricity from the sun. — Somini Sengupta
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
FEMA employees warn that Trump is gutting disaster response
Employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency wrote to Congress on Mondaywarning that the Trump administration had reversed much of the progress made in disaster response and recovery since Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast two decades ago.
The letter to Congress, titled the “Katrina Declaration,” runs counter to President Trump’s plan to drastically scale down FEMA and shift more responsibility for disaster response, and more costs, to the states. It came days before the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest and costliest storms to ever strike the United States.
“Our shared commitment to our country, our oaths of office, and our mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters compel us to warn Congress and the American people of the cascading effects of decisions made by the current administration,” the FEMA employees wrote in the letter. — Maxine Joselow
OTHER NYT CLIMATE NEWS
Annabelle Chih/ReutersIn a Hotter World, Some People Age Faster, Researchers FindExposure to heat waves over just two years could add up to 12 extra days of age-related health damage.By Sachi Kitajima MulkeyPhoto Illustration by The New York Times; ShutterstockASK NYT CLIMATEShould I Get a Portable Induction Cooktop?If you’re cooking with gas, it might help your health and the environment. Here’s why.By Sofia QuagliaCJ Gunther/EPA, via ShutterstockLaw Firm Pressures Brown University to Erase Research on Anti-Wind GroupsThe firm, which represents opponents of offshore wind, said it would complain to Brown’s federal and private funding sources.By Lisa FriedmanCRITIC’S NOTEBOOKCan a 3.5-Acre, $296 Million Park Save Lower Manhattan?Two new parks fortifying the city’s coastline survived a bureaucratic gantlet that reveals why progress so often feels stuck.By Michael Kimmelman and Daniel ArnoldSaskatchewan Public Safety Agency via Agence France-PresseAn Unusual Sight Over Canada’s Arctic: Wildfire SmokeOnce rare, wildfire smoke is becoming more prevalent in Arctic communities as Canada faces harsh wildfire seasons.By Vjosa IsaiPeace Portal Photo/AlamyTrump’s Cuts May Spell the End for America’s Only Antarctic Research ShipThe decommissioning would leave the United States with no icebreaker to study the southern seas and cede scientific leadership to rival countries like China.By Raymond Zhong
More climate news from around the web:
- Rest of World investigatesIndia’s e-waste recycling industry, which they found relies on exploitative labor practices and exacts a significant environmental toll.
- The wildfires in Europe are now the worst on record, The Guardian reports.
- Bloomberg examines the toll of heat stress in India where, “almost three-quarters of the work force labors either outside or in indoor settings that have little to no cooling.”
- Pakistan evacuated at least 150,000 people in areas along three rivers to escape flooding, Reuters reports. This comes during a period of intense rain and after warnings on Monday from India that it intends to release water from a reservoir behind the Madhopur Dam, which is rapidly filling up.
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