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California energy regulators pause efforts to penalize oil companies for high profits
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Tag: Climate and environment
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Trump admin cancels $679 million for offshore wind projects as attacks on reeling industry continue
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WASHINGTON — The Transportation Department on Friday canceled $679 million in federal funding for a dozen offshore wind projects, the latest attack by the Trump administration on the reeling U.S. offshore wind industry.
Funding for projects in 11 states was rescinded, including $435 million for a floating wind farm in Northern California and $47 million to boost an offshore wind project in Maryland that the Interior Department has pledged to cancel.
“Wasteful, wind projects are using resources that could otherwise go towards revitalizing America’s maritime industry,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement. “Thanks to President Trump, we are prioritizing real infrastructure improvements over fantasy wind projects that cost much and offer little.”
The Trump administration has stepped up its crusade against wind and other renewable energy sources in recent weeks, cutting federal funding and canceling projects approved by the Biden administration in a sustained attack on clean energy sources that scientists say are crucial to the fight against climate change.
President Donald Trump has vowed to restore U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market and has pushed to increase U.S. reliance on fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas that emit planet-warming greenhouse gases.
California Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, called Duffy’s action “outrageous” and deeply disappointing.
Trump and his Cabinet “have a stubborn and mystifying hatred of clean energy,” Huffman said in an interview. “It’s so dogmatic. They are willing to eliminate thousands of jobs and an entire sector that can bring cheap, reliable power to American consumers.”
The canceled funding will be redirected to upgrade ports and other infrastructure in the U.S., where possible, the Transportation Department said.
Separately, Trump’s Energy Department said Friday it is withdrawing a $716 million loan guarantee approved by the Biden administration to upgrade and expand transmission infrastructure to accommodate a now-threatened offshore wind project in New Jersey.
The moves come as the administration abruptly halted construction last week of a nearly complete wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut. The Interior Department said the government needs to review the $4 billion Revolution Wind project and address national security concerns. It did not specify what those concerns are.
Democratic governors, lawmakers and union workers in New England have called for Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to reverse course.
Trump has long expressed disdain for wind power, frequently calling it an ugly and expensive form of energy that “smart” countries don’t use.
Earlier this month, the Interior Department canceled a major wind farm in Idaho, a project approved late in former President Joe Biden’s term that had drawn criticism for its proximity to a historic site where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II.
Last week, with U.S. electricity prices rising at more than twice the rate of inflation, Trump lashed out, falsely blaming renewable power for skyrocketing energy costs. He called wind and solar energy “THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY!” in a social media post and vowed not to approve any wind or solar projects.
“We’re not allowing any windmills to go up unless there’s a legal situation where somebody committed to it a long time ago,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Energy analysts say renewable sources have little to do with recent price hikes, which are based on increased demand from artificial intelligence and energy-hungry data centers, along with aging infrastructure and increasingly extreme weather events such as wildfires that are exacerbated by climate change.
Revolution Wind’s developer, Danish energy company Orsted, said it is evaluating the financial impact of stopping construction on the New England project and is considering legal proceedings.
Revolution Wind was expected to be Rhode Island and Connecticut’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, capable of powering more than 350,000 homes. In addition to hampering the states’ climate goals, losing out on all that renewable power could drive up electricity prices throughout the region, Democratic officials say.
Trump has made sweeping strides to prioritize fossil fuels and hinder renewable energy projects. Those include reviewing wind and solar energy permits, canceling plans to use large areas of federal waters for new offshore wind development and stopping work on another offshore wind project for New York, although construction was later allowed to resume.
Some critics say the steps to cancel projects put Americans’ livelihoods at risk.
“It’s an attack on our jobs,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said of the move to stop construction of Revolution Wind. “It’s an attack on our energy. It’s an attack on our families and their ability to pay the bills.”
Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, said his union is “going to fight (Trump) every step of the way, no matter how long it takes.”
Under Biden, the U.S. held the first-ever auction of leases for floating wind farms in December 2022. Deep waters off the West Coast are better suited for floating projects than those that are anchored in the seabed, officials said.
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Want to work for National Weather Service? Be ready to explain how you agree with Trump
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As the National Weather Service scrambles to hire up to 450 people to restore deep cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency, potential applicants are being asked to explain how they would advance President Donald Trump’s agenda if hired.
A posting from the weather service’s parent agency seeking meteorologists asks applicants to identify one or two of Trump’s executive orders “that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.”
It’s among screening questions added to government job applications as part of a “ merit hiring plan” that Trump announced at the outset of his second term, and it’s not unique to the weather service positions. But some experts said they are alarmed at the prospect that a candidate’s ideology could matter for jobs in science.
“The fundamental question is, will this make forecasts any better? That’s the job of the weather service,” said Rick Spinrad, who led the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the weather service, under former President Joe Biden.
“These people should be hired for their knowledge in meteorology or hydrology or information technology or physics — not civics. … Bottom line, I’d rather have a great forecaster who’s never read an EO than a policy muck who’s taken one meteorology class,” he said, referring to executive orders.
Spokespeople for NOAA didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.
Before Elon Musk left DOGE, it cut hundreds of NOAA forecasters and other employees soon after Trump took office. Experts warned that the vacancies could hurt forecasts and dangerous consequences for people if extreme weather warnings were slowed.
NOAA confirmed in early August that it had received approval to hire as many as 450 people for critical positions within the weather service after this spring’s deep cuts.
Trump has issued numerous executive orders, and applicants could presumably choose any to endorse — or none at all, since the application says responses aren’t required, only encouraged.
But Trump has consistently attacked clean energy and climate science while promoting fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal, which emit planet-warming gases. One of his first executive orders, which he dubbed “ unleashing American energy,” directed agencies to sweep away any “undue burden” to fossil fuel development. That order also canceled a series of orders from Biden that addressed climate change.
Under Trump, NOAA has stopped tracking the cost of weather disasters worsened by climate change. His administration has also moved to shut down two NASA missions that monitor a potent greenhouse gas and plant health — data seen as helpful for measuring the impacts of climate change.
Trump’s second term has been marked by accusations that he has politicized science, most recently with the ouster of the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for not being “aligned” with the president’s agenda. Separately, employees of the Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health and Federal Emergency Management Agency have issued declarations of dissent with agency actions. Some EPA and FEMA employees who signed those letters were put on leave.
Another screening question asks applicants how their “commitment to the Constitution and the founding principles of the United States” inspired them to seek the job. A third asks how they would use their skills to improve government efficiency and effectiveness.
Craig McLean, a former NOAA acting chief scientist under Biden and during Trump’s first term, said none of the questions are relevant to weather service positions. NOAA and the NWS are responsible for daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings and climate monitoring, among other tasks.
“Asking a meteorologist to define how they as a new employee, are going to make the government more efficient is ludicrous,” McLean said. “I’d rather understand how well they are prepared to use the forecast tools and make a timely and accurate forecast.”
Jeff Masters, a meteorologist for Yale Climate Connections and co-founder of Weather Underground, said the questions amount to a loyalty test that will discourage many qualified applicants from applying.
“Whether or not you support the President’s Executive Orders will not enable a meteorologist to make a better forecast or issue a more timely tornado warning, and should have no place on a job application for the National Weather Service,” Masters said by email.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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AI simulation of a Mount Fuji eruption is being used to prepare Tokyo for the worst
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TOKYO — Mount Fuji hasn’t erupted since 1707. But for Volcanic Disaster Preparedness Day, Japanese officials have released computer- and AI-generated videos showing a simulation of a potential violent eruption of the active volcano.
The videos, released this week, are meant to prepare the 37 million residents in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area for potential disasters.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s video warns an eruption could strike “at any moment, without warning,” depicting volcanic ash shrouding central Tokyo, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) away, within hours, paralyzing transportation, disrupting food and power, and causing long-term respiratory problems.
The video ends with the message: “We need to arm ourselves with facts and prepare for disaster in our daily lives.” It shows a family’s pantry stocked with canned food and a first-aid kit.
The Tokyo government said in a statement that there are currently no signs of Fuji erupting. “The simulation is designed to equip residents with accurate knowledge and preparedness measures they can take in case of an emergency,” it explained.
But the videos have caused anxiety and confusion among some residents.
“Are there actually any signs of eruption?” said Shinichiro Kariya, a 57-year-old hospital employee. “Why are we now hearing things like ‘10 centimeters of ash could fall,’ even in Tokyo? I’m wondering why this is happening all of a sudden.”
Hiromi Ooki, who lives in Mishima City, which has prime views of Fuji, said she planned to buy emergency supplies the next day. “Nature’s power is so great that maybe it’s better if it scares us a little,” she said.
Representatives of both the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Japan’s Cabinet Office Disaster Prevention Division said they had not received complaints from Tokyo residents about the videos.
University of Tokyo professor and risk communication expert Naoya Sekiya said the government has for years modeled scenarios for volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, but added that does not mean Fuji is about to erupt.
“There’s no particular significance to the timing,” Sekiya said.
Japan is highly vulnerable to natural disasters because of its climate and topography and is known for its meticulous disaster planning which spans earthquakes, typhoons, floods, mudslides and volcanic eruptions.
The Japan Meteorological Agency last August issued its first-ever “megaquake advisory” after a powerful quake struck off the southeastern coast of the southern main island of Kyushu.
Of the world’s roughly 1,500 active volcanoes, 111 are in Japan, which lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”
Fuji, Japan’s tallest peak, used to erupt about every 30 years, but it has been dormant since the 18th century.
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Video journalist Ayaka McGill contributed to this report.
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Oregon could join Hawaii in mandating pay-per-mile fees for EV owners as gas tax projections fall
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Oregon could become the second U.S. state to require electric vehicle owners to enroll in a pay-per-mile program as lawmakers begin a special session Friday to fill a $300 million transportation budget hole that threatens basic services like snowplowing and road repairs.
Legislators failed earlier this year to approve a transportation funding package. Hundreds of state workers’ jobs are in limbo, and the proposal for a road usage charge for EV drivers was left on the table.
Hawaii in 2023 was the first state to create a mandatory road usage charge program to make up for projected decreases in fuel tax revenue due to the growing number of electric, hybrid and fuel-efficient cars. Many other states have studied the concept, and Oregon, Utah and Virginia have voluntary programs.
The concept has promise as a long-term funding solution, experts say. Others worry about privacy concerns and discouraging people from buying EVs, which can help reduce transportation emissions.
“This is a pretty major change,” said Liz Farmer, an analyst for The Pew Charitable Trusts’ state fiscal policy team, noting “the challenge in enacting something that’s dramatically different for most drivers.”
Oregon’s transportation department says the budget shortfall stems from inflation, projected declines in gas tax revenue and other spending limits. Over the summer, it sent layoff notices to nearly 500 workers and announced plans to close a dozen road maintenance stations.
Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek paused those moves and called the special session to find a solution. Republican lawmakers say the department mismanaging its money is a main issue.
Kotek’s proposal includes an EV road usage charge that is equivalent to 5% of the state’s gas tax. It also includes raising the gas tax by 6 cents to 46 cents per gallon, among other fee increases.
The usage charge would phase in starting in 2027 for certain EVs and expand to include hybrids in 2028. Should the gas tax increase be approved, EV drivers either would pay about 2.3 cents per mile, or choose an annual flat fee of $340. Drivers in the program wouldn’t have to pay supplemental registration fees.
Drivers would have several options for reporting mileage to private contractors, including a smartphone app or the vehicle’s telematics technology, said Scott Boardman, policy adviser for the transportation department who works on the state’s decade-old voluntary road usage charge program.
As of May, there were over 84,000 EVs registered in Oregon, about 2% of the state’s total vehicles, he said.
Under Hawaii’s program, which began phasing in last month, EV drivers can pay $8 per 1,000 miles driven, capped at $50, or an annual fee of $50.
In 2028, all EV drivers will be required to enroll in the pay-per-mile program, with odometers read at annual inspections. By 2033, the program is expected to expand to all light-duty vehicles.
In past surveys commissioned by Oregon’s transportation department, respondents cited privacy, GPS devices and data security as concerns about road usage charges.
Oregon’s voluntary program has sought to respond to such concerns by deleting mileage data 30 days after a payment is received, Boardman said. While plug-in GPS devices are an option in the program, transportation officials anticipate moving away from them because they’re more expensive and can be removed, he added.
Still, not everyone has embraced a road usage charge. Arizona voters will decide next year whether to ban state and local governments from implementing a tax or fee based on miles traveled after the measure was referred to the ballot by the Republican-majority Legislature.
Many people don’t realize that “both your vehicle and your cellphone capture immense amounts of data about your personal driving habits already,” said Brett Morgan, Oregon transportation policy director for the nonprofit Climate Solutions.
Morgan added that road usage charges exceeding what drivers of internal combustion engines would pay in gas taxes could dissuade people from buying electric and hybrid cars. Already, federal tax incentives for EVs are set to expire under the tax and spending cut bill recently passed by the GOP-controlled Congress.
“We are definitely supportive of a road usage charge that has EVs paying their fair share, but they should not be paying extra or a penalty,” Morgan said.
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Oregon could join Hawaii in mandating pay-per-mile fees for EV owners
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Oregon could become the second U.S. state to require electric vehicle owners to enroll in a pay-per-mile program as lawmakers begin a special session Friday to fill a $300 million transportation budget hole that threatens basic services like snowplowing and road repairs.
Legislators failed earlier this year to approve a transportation funding package. Hundreds of state workers’ jobs are in limbo, and the proposal for a road usage charge for EV drivers was left on the table.
Hawaii in 2023 was the first state to create a mandatory road usage charge program to make up for projected decreases in fuel tax revenue due to the growing number of electric, hybrid and fuel-efficient cars. Many other states have studied the concept, and Oregon, Utah and Virginia have voluntary programs.
The concept has promise as a long-term funding solution, experts say. Others worry about privacy concerns and discouraging people from buying EVs, which can help reduce transportation emissions.
“This is a pretty major change,” said Liz Farmer, an analyst for The Pew Charitable Trusts’ state fiscal policy team, noting “the challenge in enacting something that’s dramatically different for most drivers.”
Oregon’s transportation department says the budget shortfall stems from inflation, projected declines in gas tax revenue and other spending limits. Over the summer, it sent layoff notices to nearly 500 workers and announced plans to close a dozen road maintenance stations.
Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek paused those moves and called the special session to find a solution. Republican lawmakers say the department mismanaging its money is a main issue.
Kotek’s proposal includes an EV road usage charge that is equivalent to 5% of the state’s gas tax. It also includes raising the gas tax by 6 cents to 46 cents per gallon, among other fee increases.
The usage charge would phase in starting in 2027 for certain EVs and expand to include hybrids in 2028. Should the gas tax increase be approved, EV drivers either would pay about 2.3 cents per mile, or choose an annual flat fee of $340. Drivers in the program wouldn’t have to pay supplemental registration fees.
Drivers would have several options for reporting mileage to private contractors, including a smartphone app or the vehicle’s telematics technology, said Scott Boardman, policy adviser for the transportation department who works on the state’s decade-old voluntary road usage charge program.
As of May, there were over 84,000 EVs registered in Oregon, about 2% of the state’s total vehicles, he said.
Under Hawaii’s program, which began phasing in last month, EV drivers can pay $8 per 1,000 miles driven, capped at $50, or an annual fee of $50.
In 2028, all EV drivers will be required to enroll in the pay-per-mile program, with odometers read at annual inspections. By 2033, the program is expected to expand to all light-duty vehicles.
In past surveys commissioned by Oregon’s transportation department, respondents cited privacy, GPS devices and data security as concerns about road usage charges.
Oregon’s voluntary program has sought to respond to such concerns by deleting mileage data 30 days after a payment is received, Boardman said. While plug-in GPS devices are an option in the program, transportation officials anticipate moving away from them because they’re more expensive and can be removed, he added.
Still, not everyone has embraced a road usage charge. Arizona voters will decide next year whether to ban state and local governments from implementing a tax or fee based on miles traveled after the measure was referred to the ballot by the Republican-majority Legislature.
Many people don’t realize that “both your vehicle and your cellphone capture immense amounts of data about your personal driving habits already,” said Brett Morgan, Oregon transportation policy director for the nonprofit Climate Solutions.
Morgan added that road usage charges exceeding what drivers of internal combustion engines would pay in gas taxes could dissuade people from buying electric and hybrid cars. Already, federal tax incentives for EVs are set to expire under the tax and spending cut bill recently passed by the GOP-controlled Congress.
“We are definitely supportive of a road usage charge that has EVs paying their fair share, but they should not be paying extra or a penalty,” Morgan said.
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Climate change made deadly wildfires in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus more fierce, study finds
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ATHENS, Greece — Climate change that has driven scorching temperatures and dwindling rainfall made massive wildfires in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus this summer burn much more fiercely, said a new study released Thursday.
The study by World Weather Attribution said the fires that killed 20 people, forced 80,000 to evacuate and burned more than 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) were 22% more intense in 2025, Europe’s worst recorded year of wildfires.
Hundreds of wildfires that broke out in the eastern Mediterranean in June and July were driven by temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (about 104 Fahrenheit), extremely dry conditions and strong winds.
WWA, a group of researchers that examines whether and to what extent extreme weather events are linked to climate change, called its findings “concerning.”
“Our study finds an extremely strong climate change signal towards hotter and drier conditions,” said Theodore Keeping, a researcher at Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College in London.
“Today, with 1.3 degrees C of warming, we are seeing new extremes in wildfire behaviour that has pushed firefighters to their limit. But we are heading for up to 3 degrees C this century unless countries more rapidly transition away from fossil fuels,” Keeping said.
The study found winter rainfall ahead of the wildfires had dropped by about 14% since the pre-industrial era, when a heavy reliance on fossil fuels began. It also determined that because of climate change, weeklong periods of dry, hot air that primes vegetation to burn are now 13 times more likely.
The analysis also found an increase in the intensity of high-pressure systems that strengthened extreme northerly winds, known as Etesian winds, that fanned the wildfires.
Gavriil Xanthopoulos, research director at the Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems of the Hellenic Agricultural Organization in Greece, said firefighters used to be able to wait for such winds to die down to control fires.
“It seems that they cannot count on this pattern anymore,” Xanthopoulos said. More study is needed to understand how the wind patterns are reaching high velocities more often, he said.
Flavio Lehner, an assistant professor in Earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University who was not involved in the WWA research, said its summary and key figures were consistent with existing literature and his understanding of how climate change is making weather more conducive to wildfire.
Climate change is “loading the dice for more bad wildfire seasons” in the Mediterranean, Lehner said.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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The call of a native frog is heard again in Southern California
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THE SANTA ROSA PLATEAU ECOLOGICAL RESERVE, Calif. — The scientist traipses to a pond wearing rubber boots but he doesn’t enter the water. Instead, Brad Hollingsworth squats next to its swampy edge and retrieves a recording device the size of a deck of cards. He then opens it up and removes a tiny memory card containing 18 hours of sound.
Back at his office at the San Diego Natural History Museum, the herpetologist — an expert in reptiles and amphibians — uses artificial intelligence to analyze the data on the card. Within three minutes, he knows a host of animals visit the pond — where native red-legged frogs were reintroduced after largely disappearing in Southern California. There were owl hoots, woodpecker pecks, coyote howls and tree frog ribbits. But no croaking from the invasive bullfrog, which has decimated the native red-legged frog population over the past century.
It was another good day in his efforts to increase the population of the red-legged frog and restore an ecosystem spanning the U.S.-Mexico border. The efforts come as the Trump administration builds more walls along the border, raising concerns about the impact on wildlife.
At 2 to 5 inches long (5 to 13 centimeters), red-legged frogs are the largest native frogs in the West and once were found in abundance up and down the California coast and into Baja California in Mexico.
The species is widely believed to be the star of Mark Twain’s 1865 short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” and their crimson hind legs were eaten during the Gold Rush. But as the red-legged frog declined in numbers, the bullfrog — with its even bigger hind legs — was introduced to menus during California’s booming growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The red-legged frog population was decimated by the insatiable appetite of the bullfrogs and the disease the non-native species brought in, but also because it lost much of its habitat to drought and human development in the shape of homes, dams and more.
Hollingsworth couldn’t estimate the number of red-legged frogs that remain, but said they have disappeared from 95% of their historical range in Southern California.
Robert Fisher of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative Program searched for the frog for decades across some 250 miles (400 kilometers) from Los Angeles to the border. He found just one in 2001 and none after that.
Scientists using DNA from red-legged frogs captured in Southern California before their disappearance discovered they were more genetically similar to the population in Mexico than any still in California.
In 2006, Fisher, Hollingsworth and others visited Baja where they had heard of a small population of red-legged frogs. Anny Peralta, then a student of Hollingsworth at San Diego State University, joined them. They found about 20 frogs, and Peralta was inspired to dedicate her life to their recovery.
Peralta and her husband established the nonprofit Fauna del Noroeste in Ensenada, Mexico, which aims to promote the proper management of natural resources. In 2018, they started building ponds in Mexico to boost the frog population that would later provide eggs to repopulate the species across the border.
But just as they were preparing to relocate the egg masses, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Peralta and the U.S. scientists scrambled to secure permits for the unusual cargo and a pilot to fly the two coolers of eggs closer to the border. The rest of their journey north was by road, after the eggs passed a U.S. border guard inspection.
Over the past five years, Hollingsworth and his team have searched for sounds to prove their efforts to repopulate ponds in Southern California worked.
On Jan. 30, he heard the quiet, distinct grunting of the red-legged frog’s breeding call in an audio flagged by AI.
“It felt like a big burden off my shoulder because we were thinking the project might be failing,” Hollingsworth said. “And then the next couple nights we started hearing more and more and more, and more, and more.”
Over the next two months, two males were heard belting it out on microphone 11 at one of the ponds. In March, right below the microphone, the first egg masse was found, showing they had not only hatched from the eggs brought from Mexico but had gone on to produce their own eggs in the United States.
Conservationists are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to monitor animals on the brink of extinction, track the breeding of reintroduced species and collect data on the impact of climate change and other threats.
Herpetologists are building on the AI-powered tools already used to analyze datasets of bird sounds, hoping that it might help build audio landscapes to identify amphibians and track their behavior and breeding patterns, said Zachary Principe of The Nature Conservancy, which is working with the museum on the red-legged frog project. The tools could also help scientists analyze tens of thousands of audio files collected at universities, museums and other institutions.
Scientists working to restore the red-legged frog population in Southern California hope to soon be provided with satellite technology that will send audio recordings to their phones in real time, so they can act immediately if any predators — in particular bullfrogs — are detected.
It could also help track the movement of the frogs, which can be difficult to find in the wild, especially because cold-blooded creatures cannot be detected using thermal imagery.
The AI analysis of the pond audio has saved time for Hollingsworth and the others, who previously had to painstakingly listen to countless hours of audio files to detect the calls of the red-legged frog — which resembles the sound of a thumb being rubbed on a balloon — over the cacophony of other animals.
“There’s tree frogs calling, there’s cows mooing, a road nearby with a motorcycle zooming back and forth,” Hollingsworth said of the ponds’ audio landscape. “There’s owls, there’s ducks splashing, just all this noise”
The red-legged frog is the latest species to see success from binational cooperation along the near-2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) border spanning California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Over the years, Mexican gray wolves have returned to their historic range in the southwestern U.S. and in Mexico, while the California Condor now soars over skies from Baja to Northern California.
Based off the latest count, scientists estimate more than 100 adult red-legged frogs are in the Southern California ponds, and tadpoles were spotted at a new site.
The team plans to continue transporting egg masses from Baja, where the population has jumped from 20 to as many as 400 adult frogs, with the hope of building thriving populations on both sides of the border. Already the sites are seeing fewer mosquitos that can carry diseases like dengue and Zika.
A restoration pond in Baja that Peralta’s organization built recently teemed with froglets, their tiny eyes bobbing on its aquatic fern-covered surface. They could, one day, lay eggs for relocation to the U.S.
“They don’t know about borders or visas or passports,” Peralta said of the frogs. “This is just their habitat and these populations need to reconnect. I think this shows that we can restore this ecosystem.”
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Firefighters try to corral California forest blaze as lightning strikes bring risk of new ignitions
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FRESNO, Calif. — Firefighting crews tried to corral a fast-growing blaze churning through central California’s Sierra National Forest as forecasters warned Tuesday that lightning strikes from thunderstorms could spark new ignitions.
Since breaking out Sunday afternoon, the Garnet Fire has scorched 14 square miles (36 square km) of grass, chaparral and timber in a remote area known for camping and hiking about 60 miles (97 km) east of Fresno. There was no containment.
Firefighters were aided by scattered rain showers as they worked to protect the tiny Balch Camp community and nearby hydroelectric facilities along the Kings River, according to a Tuesday incident report.
“However, continued strong, erratic winds on top of dry, heavy vegetation will likely test containment efforts,” the report said.
Parts of central and northern California are under red flag warnings for increased fire threat from dry lightning that could accompany thunderstorms, the National Weather Service said.
The 10-square-mile (26-square-km) Pickett Fire in Napa County wine country saw little growth Monday as crews kept flames contained to canyons about 80 miles (130 km) north of San Francisco. It was 17% contained on Tuesday.
There have been no reports of damage to any vineyards from the fire, a spokesperson for the trade group Napa Valley Vintners said Monday.
In central Oregon, rain and cooler temperatures helped crews make progress against the Flat Fire, which has charred 34 square miles (88 square km) of rugged terrain in Deschutes and Jefferson counties since igniting in dry, hot weather last Thursday. It was 7% contained on Tuesday.
“The incident, for the first time in the last three days, is really beginning to stabilize,” Travis Medema, the state’s chief deputy state fire marshal, told a community meeting Monday night.
Authorities at one point ordered evacuations for more than 4,000 homes but lifted orders for some areas on Monday.
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Takeaways from scientists on the Trump administration’s work on climate change and public health
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WASHINGTON — A Trump administration proposal to reverse a landmark finding that climate change is dangerous to the public relies heavily on a report from the Department of Energy that dozens of scientists say is flawed.
The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to use the DOE’s work to overturn the climate concept known as the “endangerment finding.” If the administration succeeds, many laws and rules aimed at reducing or restricting greenhouse gas emissions could be eliminated.
The Associated Press surveyed scientists for their views. Here are some key takeaways from those who responded to AP’s questions:
The most common critique from 64 scientists who responded to questions from AP was that the administration’s reports ignored, twisted or cherry-picked information to manufacture doubt about the severity and threat of climate change. Fifty-three of the 64 scientists criticized the quality of the reports.
The Department of Energy report said Arctic sea ice has declined about 5% since 1980. That number is accurate for Antarctica, while Artic sea ice actually declined more than 40% in the period.
Jennifer Marlon, director of data science at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, highlighted a section on U.S. wildfires that acknowledged that fire data from before 1960 isn’t reliable for comparisons. Yet the administration used that unreliable data in a chart going back to 1920, leaving readers with the impression that wildfire rates were higher many decades ago than they are now, Marlon said.
Experts repeatedly said the reports were biased. Nineteen scientists used variations of the phrase “cherry pick” to describe citations in the administration reports.
Francois Bareille, a French economist, has done work concluding that previous estimates about climate-related crop losses in French agriculture were overly pessimistic. The administration’s reports cited that work, but Bareille said it shouldn’t have because it’s wrong to generalize his findings to other regions.
Climate scientist Zeke Hausfather said the reports pulled a single figure from his work on climate modeling to build a case that the models scientists use are often overly pessimistic. Hausfather said his research actually concluded that climate models have performed quite well.
He called the government’s process a “farce.”
The authors of the report said any errors found will be corrected.
In a joint statement, authors of the Energy Department report said the document clearly says it’s not meant to be a comprehensive review of climate science. Instead, the authors said, it’s focused on data and topics that the media and others have underreported and overlooked.
A handful of scientists contacted by AP spoke positively about the report.
One expert cited in the work praised it, saying it departed from unnecessarily alarmist findings of other national and international climate assessments.
James Davidson, a professor at the University of Exeter focused on economics, has published work that disputes the mainstream consensus that rising carbon dioxide levels in the past caused warming.
He said the Department of Energy report is giving voice to beliefs that were previously shut out.
Mainstream scientists have already mobilized to respond. A few have voiced criticism on social media. The National Academy of Sciences, a collection of private, nonprofit institutions set up to provide independent and objective analysis, is preparing a fast-tracked special report on the latest evidence about whether greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health.
The Energy Department is taking public comments on its work until Sept. 2. The EPA is holding several days of public hearings, with comments due by Sept. 22.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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Wildfire in Oregon destroys 4 homes, threatens thousands more, as flames spare California wineries
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Ten structures — including four homes — have been destroyed by a wildfire sweeping through central Oregon, where thousands of residents remained under evacuation orders on Monday, while a blaze in Northern California wine country has so far spared some of the state’s most famous vineyards.
Officials said Oregon firefighters working in rugged terrain amid dry, hot weather saved hundreds of other buildings from the 34-square-mile (88-square-kilometer) Flat Fire spanning Deschutes and Jefferson counties. It was 15% contained.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of homes and personal property and extend our sympathy to those affected,” Deschutes County Sheriff Ty Rupert said in a statement.
Flames still threatened nearly 4,000 homes, fire spokesperson Gert Zoutendijk said Monday. He said crews were taking advantage of slightly cooler temperatures that dipped into the high 80s (31 C), and even some scattered rain.
“A little bit of rain does some good right now, but later, if the sun comes out, it doesn’t take long to dry everything out again,” Zoutendijk said.
A heat advisory was in place through Wednesday, and forecasters warned that potential thunderstorms could create erratic winds that would challenge firefighters.
Meanwhile, the Pickett Fire in Northern California has charred about 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) of remote Napa County, known for its hundreds of wineries. It was 13% contained on Monday.
Flames spared the home and adjacent vineyards of Jayson Woodbridge of Hundred Acre wines, but he said it was a close call on Thursday when the fire broke out and raced along nearby slopes.
He and his son grabbed hoses and futilely began spraying down the steep hillsides. “The water was evaporating as fast as we were spraying it out there,” Woodbridge recalled Monday. “It was just a hot funnel of air. Fire was just engulfing everything.”
Before long, crews with bulldozers and air support arrived to protect the property. Water-dropping helicopters continued their flights on Monday, keeping the flames contained to remote canyons about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of San Francisco.
With about a month to go before harvest, Woodbridge said his grapes won’t be damaged because of the “pure luck” of wind direction.
“The smoke won’t affect the fruit because the wind’s coming in from the west, thankfully,” Woodbridge said. That wasn’t the case in 2020 when toxic smoke from the Glass Fire caused Woodbridge and other wineries to scrap much of that year’s crop.
There have been no reports of damage to any vineyards from the Pickett Fire, said Michelle Novi with Napa Valley Vintners, a nonprofit trade association.
Firefighting resources have been put in place to protect wineries, especially as winds pick up later in the day, according to the California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.
“With the weather over the last 48 hours, we’re seeing high temperatures, low humidity paired with some increasing wind in the late afternoon, which was giving our troops some additional work on the eastern side of this incident,” Cal Fire spokesperson Curtis Rhodes told The Associated Press on Monday.
In southwest Montana, a firefighter died Sunday afternoon after suffering a cardiac emergency while battling the Bivens Creek fire.
The man, who was not immediately identified, was among more than 700 firefighters working on the lightning-caused fire in the Tobacco Root Mountains about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of Virginia City, Montana.
The Bivens Creek fire has burned approximately 3 1/2 square miles (9 square kilometers) since Aug. 13 in a remote area with thick timber and numerous dead trees.
Residents of the western United States have been sweltering in a heat wave that hospitalized some people, with temperatures hitting dangerous levels throughout the weekend in Washington, Oregon, Southern California, Nevada and Arizona.
After a weekend of triple-digit temperatures, authorities in Multnomah County, Oregon, said they were investigating the death of a 56-year-old man as possibly heat-related.
The area of the Oregon fire is in a high desert climate, where dried grasses and juniper trees are burning and fire is racing through tinder-dry canyon areas where it’s challenging to create containment lines, said Deschutes County sheriff’s spokesperson Jason Carr.
In central California, the state’s largest blaze this year, the Gifford Fire, was at 95% containment Monday after charring nearly 206 square miles (534 square kilometers) of dry brush in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties since erupting on Aug. 1. The cause is under investigation.
Although it’s difficult to directly tie a single fire or weather event directly to climate change, scientists say human-caused warming from burning fossil fuels like coal and gas is causing more intense heat waves and droughts, which in turn set the stage for more destructive wildfires.
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Webber reported from Chicago, and Walker from New York. Associated Press writer Christopher Weber contributed from Los Angeles.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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Firefighter dies after cardiac emergency while battling Montana wildfire
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BILLINGS, Mont. — A firefighter died after suffering a cardiac emergency while battling a wildfire in southwest Montana.
The firefighter was conducting suppression work on the ground, and a paramedic gave him medical aid, authorities said. However, attempts to resuscitate him failed, and he died Sunday afternoon.
The man, who was not immediately identified, was among more than 700 firefighters working on the lightning-caused fire in the Tobacco Root Mountains about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of Virginia City, Montana. Gov. Greg Gianforte referred to the firefighter as a “fallen hero” in a statement offering condolences.
Further details of the incident were not immediately released.
The Bivens Creek fire has burned approximately 3 1/2 square miles (9 square kilometers) since Aug. 13 in a remote area with thick timber and numerous dead trees.
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Democrats ask Trump to resume a major offshore wind project near Rhode Island
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A nearly complete wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut faces an uncertain future as the states’ Democratic governors, members of Congress and union workers are calling Monday for the Trump administration to let construction resume.
The administration halted construction on the Revolution Wind project last week, saying the federal government needs to review the project and address national security concerns. It did not specify what the concerns are. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Monday it’s not commenting further at this time.
The politicians are getting involved because stopping work on Revolution Wind threatens local jobs and their states’ climate goals, and could drive up electricity prices throughout the region. All of the project’s underwater foundations and 45 out of 65 turbines are already installed.
Large, ocean-based wind farms are the linchpin of government plans to shift to renewable energy, particularly in populous East Coast states with limited land for wind turbines or solar arrays.
President Donald Trump has made sweeping strides to prioritize fossil fuels and hinder renewable energy projects. Those include reviewing wind and solar energy permits, canceling plans to use large areas of federal waters for new offshore wind development and stopping work on another offshore wind project under construction for New York, although construction was later allowed to resume.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont is scheduled to go to State Pier in New London, Connecticut, on Monday, where components for the Revolution Wind project are kept before being taken out to sea. Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee is headed to North Kingstown, Rhode Island, where the logistics and operations hub for the project is located.
McKee says Revolution Wind is critical to the region’s economy and energy future.
Both governors will be joined by Democratic congressmen and labor leaders. About 1,000 union members have been working on Revolution Wind, and those jobs are now at risk.
Revolution Wind is expected to be Rhode Island and Connecticut’s first large offshore wind farm, capable of powering more than 350,000 homes. Power would be provided at a rate of 9.8 cents per kilowatt hour, locked in for 20 years. That is cheaper than the average cost of electricity in New England.
The developer, Danish energy company Orsted, is evaluating the financial impact of stopping construction and considering legal proceedings.
The project site is more than 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of the Rhode Island coast, 32 miles (51 kilometers) southeast of the Connecticut coast and 12 miles (19 kilometers) southwest of Martha’s Vineyard. Rhode Island is already home to one offshore wind farm in state waters, the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm.
The Trump administration previously stopped work on Empire Wind, the New York offshore wind project. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said it appeared former President Joe Biden’s administration had “rushed through” the approvals, although the developer Equinor spent seven years obtaining permits. Construction was allowed to resume in May after two of the state’s Democratic leaders, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer and Gov. Kathy Hochul, intervened.
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Associated Press writer Isabella O’Malley in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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To get that perfect ear of corn, weather has to cooperate. But climate change is making it dicier
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PAW PAW, Mich. — Robb Rynd and his brother grew up farming and wanted to do more of it outside their day jobs, so they went in together on what’s now a little over 200 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat and sorghum. Last year was a good year, and Rynd said he enjoyed walking the fields with his kids to see how the corn was doing.
This year is a different story.
All summer he’s been scouting for brown and wilting leaves or ears of corn with kernels missing, and now it’s becoming clear that every kernel will count this harvest. “It’s almost kind of depressing to go out there and look at it and say, ‘oh yep, it does look bad,’” he said.
Across major corn-growing states, climate change is fueling conditions that make watching the corn grow a nail-biter for farmers. Factors like consistently high summer overnight temperatures, droughts and heavier-than-usual rains at the wrong time can all disrupt the plants’ pollination — making each full ear of corn less of a guarantee and more of a gamble.
Overall, corn growers got lucky this year with late-season weather that contributed to what is now predicted to be a record bumper crop. But experts say bouts of extreme weather are intensifying the waiting game during a critical time of year between planting and harvest.
Human-caused climate change has worsened multiple U.S. extreme heat events this year and has steadily increased the likelihood of hotter overnight temperatures since 1970, according to Climate Central, an independent group of scientists who communicate climate science and data to the public.
”The hot nights too, like the corn’s never getting a break. It’s just hot all the time,” Rynd said. “I know it’s wearing on me.”
As a corn plant grows, the leaves unroll to reveal the tassel, the part that sheds pollen, explained Mark Licht, an associate professor of agronomy and an extension cropping systems specialist at Iowa State University. If the plant grows too fast, which can happen when it’s consistently very hot, the tassel may be wrapped too tightly by the leaf, meaning less pollen gets released.
That can lead to patchy ears of corn. Tight tassel wrap was reported in pockets across parts of the Midwest and the Plains, according to some agricultural trade publication reports during the growing season. Licht said he’d only seen tassel wrapping issues once before in his 20 years as an agronomist.
High temperatures can stress corn in other ways, lowering pollen production, reducing pollen’s viability or drying out other parts of the plants, reducing fertility. “I think any of the pollination issues that we might be having are more because the nights have been so exceedingly warm,” said Larry Walton, who farms near Rynd in southwestern Michigan, where many farmers irrigate because it’s a drier area.
“We tend to see pollination issues being more problematic when we have high temperatures and drought conditions or lack of rainfall,” Licht said. Yet Iowa had plenty of rain and still saw some pollination issues. Excessive moisture can cause corn smut, a type of fungus that grows on the ears.
He said farmers are having to pay more attention to this because “there’s just more variable weather.”
This winter, the U.S. drought monitor reported drought in nearly 60% of corn production areas in the Midwest. But near or above normal rainfall nearly everywhere east of the Rockies this summer brought that down to just 3% as of the beginning of August, said Brad Rippey, a meteorologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
That, combined with consistent heat, means that “we are expecting a monster U.S. corn crop in 2025,” Rippey said.
But it wasn’t easy for everyone. “This has probably been one of the most difficult growing seasons that I’ve experienced in my career,” said Philip Good, a farmer in Macon, Mississippi and chair of the United Soybean Board. He planted his corn and soybeans 60 days behind schedule because it rained nearly every day for two months.
They lost some fertilizer and some plants died in standing water, Good said, but they made up for it with some lucky weather later in the season.
“The rain does fall in heavier bursts,” Rippey said. He said that can be an issue for farmers because even when it doesn’t cause flash floods, the moisture doesn’t necessarily percolate into the soil. It runs off and carries fertilizer with it, which is a problem for rivers’ health and farmers’ pocketbooks.
The trend toward higher humidity levels and warmer ocean temperatures, contributing to hotter nights, could be a bigger issue going forward, putting stress on crops like corn and soybeans, Rippey added.
Late summer is a make-or-break time for farmers: They’re trying to gauge how much they’ll make from the year’s crop and planning their next steps, and patchy pollination doesn’t help.
“We’d like to upgrade a tractor … or we’d maybe try to pick up some more ground,” Rynd said. “It’s hard to want to go do those things when you have a bad year like this.”
When the uncertain pollination is at its worst, if 15% to 25% of every ear of corn doesn’t have kernels, that could mean a significant yield loss over a large field, said Nicolle Ritchie, a Michigan State University extension agent who helps Walton and Rynd survey their crops.
Jason Cope co-founded a farm tech company called PowerPollen whose equipment can mechanically collect pollen and then pollinate future crops. He said that due to extreme weather events, the number of “rescue” pollination jobs they’ve done for customers — to save fields that didn’t naturally pollinate very well — has nearly doubled since they started in 2018.
Walton said he can manage as long as the pollination issues don’t get too bad.
“You learn to roll with the stress part of it because most of that you can’t control anyway,” he added. ___
Follow Melina Walling on X @MelinaWalling and Bluesky @melinawalling.bsky.social. Follow Joshua A. Bickel on Instagram, Bluesky and X @joshuabickel. ___
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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Tropical Storm Juliette forms in the Pacific Ocean and poses no immediate threat to land, forecasters say
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Tropical Storm Juliette forms in the Pacific Ocean and poses no immediate threat to land, forecasters say
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Wildfires threaten homes in Oregon and California, prompting hundreds of evacuations
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Thousands of homes in Northern California wine country and central Oregon were under evacuation orders and warnings Sunday as firefighting crews battled wildfires in dry, hot weather.
The Pickett Fire, which had charred about 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) of Napa County, was just 11% contained by Sunday evening, according to the California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.
About 150 people were ordered to leave their homes, while another 360 were under evacuation warnings as the fire threatened 500 structures near Aetna Springs and Pope Valley, 80 miles (127 kilometers) north of San Francisco, said Cal Fire spokesperson Jason Clay. Some evacuation orders were later lifted.
In Oregon, the 29-square-mile (75-square-kilometer) Flat Fire in Deschutes and Jefferson counties had about 4,000 homes under various levels of evacuation notice, including 1,000 with orders to leave immediately, according to the state Fire Marshal’s Office.
Firefighters were able to cut containment lines and continued to suppress fires in some residential areas. However, they faced significant challenges with difficult terrain, low humidity and triple-digit temperatures in some areas, officials said.
Some homes have burned, and officials said they were working to confirm the status of structures.
More than 1,230 firefighters backed by 10 helicopters were battling the California fire, which began in a remote area Thursday after a week of hot weather. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Residents of the western United States have been sweltering in a heat wave that hospitalized some people, with temperatures hitting dangerous levels throughout the weekend in Washington, Oregon, Southern California, Nevada and Arizona.
Clay said the weather has moderated since the California fire began, with Sunday’s high about 94 Fahrenheit (34 Celsius). But humidity levels were expected to drop with increasing winds later in the day.
“That’s been a driving factor in the afternoons since we’ve seen the fire activity pick up for the last three days,” Clay said, adding that “support from all up and down California has been critical to our efforts.”
The Pickett Fire began in the same area as the much larger Glass Fire in 2020, which crossed into Sonoma County and eventually burned about 105 square miles (272 square kilometers) and more than 1,500 structures.
The 2020 blaze was driven by wind, while the current conflagration is fueled mainly by dry vegetation on steep slopes — some of it dead and downed trees left over from the Glass Fire and some of it grass and brush that grew back and then dried out again, said Clay.
The area of the Oregon fire is in a high desert climate, where dried grasses and juniper trees are burning and fire is racing through canyon areas where it’s challenging to create containment lines, said Jason Carr, Deschutes County sheriff’s spokesman.
The fire began Thursday night and grew quickly amid hot, gusty conditions. Fire officials were keeping an eye on isolated thunderstorms in southern Oregon that could drift north on Sunday, state Fire Marshals spokesman Chris Schimmer said in a video posted to Facebook.
“If we get thunderstorms that roll through, it can … cause the fire to jump (containment) lines,” said Carr, adding the downdrafts can push fire in multiple directions.
In central California, the state’s largest blaze this year, the Gifford Fire, was at 95% containment Sunday after charring nearly 206 square miles (534 square kilometers) of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties since erupting on Aug. 1. The cause is under investigation.
Although it’s difficult to directly tie a single fire or weather event directly to climate change, scientists say human-caused warming from burning fossil fuels like coal and gas is causing more intense heat waves and droughts, which in turn set the stage for more destructive wildfires.
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Associated Press writer Christopher Weber contributed from Los Angeles.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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Great white sharks head north, following seals and alarming beachgoers
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SCARBOROUGH, Maine — Rick Clough spent some four decades fishing for lobsters and sea urchins off the Maine coast before spotting one of the ocean’s most recognized predators — a great white shark.
The approximately 8-foot (2.4-meter) shark, seen off the beach town of Scarborough in July, surprised Clough, but didn’t make him fear the ocean — though he admitted, “I’m not sure I’d want to go urchin diving now.”
Boaters, beachgoers and fishermen like Clough who spend time in the chilly waters of New England and Atlantic Canada are learning to live with great white sharks, the creatures made famous by the 1975 film “Jaws.” Sightings of the apex predators are up in places like Maine, where they were once very rarely spotted.
Scientists link the white shark sightings to increased availability of the seals the sharks feast on, and say beachgoers are generally very safe from shark bites. The sharks can grow close to 20 feet (6 meters) long, though most don’t get that big.
David Lancaster, a commercial clam digger in Scarborough, used a drone to get a look at an approximately 12-foot (3.6-meter) shark near the town’s famed beaches earlier this month. He described the animal as “magnificent” and “really amazing” to see. But he also said the shark’s presence reminded him that swimmers need to look out for the big fish.
Sightings of great whites off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, have become increasingly frequent in recent years, and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy has documented hundreds of the animals over more than a decade. But new data shows the sharks are heading even farther north into New Hampshire, Maine and beyond, said Greg Skomal, a senior fisheries biologist with the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries and a veteran white shark researcher.
The number of white sharks detected off Halifax, Nova Scotia, increased about 2.5 times from 2018 to 2022, according to a paper published by Skomal and others in May in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. Even farther north, the number detected in the Cabot Strait that separates Nova Scotia and Newfoundland increased nearly four times over, the paper said.
Skomal said the average residency in these northern waters has also increased from 48 days to 70 days, suggesting that white sharks appear to be increasingly comfortable farther north.
A key reason for the shift seems to be the successful conservation of seals off New England and Canada via laws such as the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which has allowed seals to thrive and provide a food source for the predatory sharks, Skomal said.
“It could be a function of a growing prey base,” Skomal said. “And that would be seals.”
Great white sharks also benefit from protections, including a ban on fishing for them in U.S. federal waters that has stood since 1997. They are still considered vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
In Massachusetts, the marine fisheries department said it strengthened its fishing laws after fishermen in 2024 chose to target white sharks anyway. The state prohibited the use of certain kinds of heavy fishing gear in shoreline areas where white sharks are most commonly found.
“We believe here in Massachusetts that targeting white sharks from the beach is not a safe practice,” Skomal said. “Not only because it could result in the death of the shark, but because it could be a public safety issue.”
Despite the size and strength of the sharks, dangerous encounters between white sharks and humans are vanishingly rare. Worldwide, there have been fewer than 60 fatal great white shark bites on humans in recorded history, according to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
The first recorded fatal shark attack in Maine happened in 2020 when a great white shark killed 63-year-old Julie Dimperio Holowach off Bailey Island.
“It’s an exceedingly rare event. But we’re providing all of this information to mitigate human behavior and hopefully reduce any negative encounters between humans and sharks,” said Ashleigh Novak, research coordinator with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.
The growth of social media has made shark sightings go viral in recent summers. A smartphone app called Sharktivity also allows shark spotters to report their sightings.
Lancaster, a surfer, said living with great whites is just something people in New England are going to have to adjust to.
“It’s crazy that they are around, as fishermen and surfers, and something we have to accept,” Lancaster said. “It’s in the back of your head, but you have to accept it.”
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Associated Press photojournalist Robert F. Bukaty contributed to this story in Scarborough, Maine.
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This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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How Hurricane Katrina shaped these New Orleans educators
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NEW ORLEANS — Twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina changed the face of education in New Orleans forever. The school system was utterly destroyed and then utterly transformed, becoming the first and only all-charter school district in the country.
Ahead of the storm’s anniversary, The Associated Press asked three survivors to reflect on what it was like to be a student or a teacher during that tumultuous period.
For some, connections they developed with educators who helped them through the crisis inspired careers as teachers. Their experiences also offer lessons for teachers and schools going through natural disasters today.
What follows are the educators’ accounts in their own words, condensed for publication.
1. Chris Dier, a history teacher at Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans, was just starting his senior year of high school in neighboring Chalmette when Katrina hit. He evacuated to a hotel, then a shelter for Katrina survivors in Texas.
I remember waking up to my Aunt Tina banging on the hotel door. I remember she said, ‘There are hundreds of bodies everywhere,’ that the levees broke. I’ll never forget getting that knock on the door that let me know that everything has changed, that everything is different.
There was an elderly couple that came to the shelter and talked with us, and they offered us their trailer so we could actually have a space to live. We stayed in that trailer for the remainder of the year, and I finished my high school in Texas, Henderson High School.
One of the reasons I wanted to become a teacher was because of how these teachers treated us at our lowest points. I remember Coach Propes, the soccer coach who got us soccer cleats and took care of us in that way. I remember Mrs. Rains, the English teacher who had us in our class and had all the supplies ready. I remember Ms. Pellon, the Spanish teacher who also had supplies for us. Mr. McGinnis, he would come in in the early hours to tutor me in chemistry because I missed weeks of school.
They made me feel welcome. They made me feel like I belong. They made me feel that I was part of a larger community, as opposed to just a statistic.
The last thing I wanted to do growing up was be a teacher, because I saw how my mom was a teacher and all the time and effort she put into her craft. She would be cooking with her left hand and grading papers with her right hand. I wanted more in life. But Katrina changed me in that way, because I saw how these teachers responded.
Everything we talk about is ‘before Katrina’ and ‘after Katrina.’ Now I have ‘before COVID’ and ‘after COVID.’ I started seeing the parallels right away, right when the schools closed down, March 16 (in 2020). The questions that (students) had, those same questions I had after we evacuated during Hurricane Katrina. I remember thinking, ‘Are we really never coming back to school?’
I went home that weekend and wrote an open letter to seniors, offering some support and advice. I wrote about what it’s like to lose your senior year. I said that folks will downplay the situation, because they don’t know what it feels like to have their senior year stripped. But I do know. I try to tell them that they’re not forgotten: Teachers are thinking of them. We care for them.
2. Jahquille Ross has been an elementary school teacher and principal and now works for the education nonprofit New Schools for New Orleans. When Katrina hit, he was an eighth grader at Edna Karr Magnet School on the West Bank of New Orleans.
We decided after watching the news on Friday, to leave Saturday. I just remember being on the highway forever. Literally forever. I lived with my brother and my sister-in-law during that time, because my mother had passed away when I was 12, in 2003. We were heading to Alexandria, where my sister-in-law is from. I just remember being hungry for a long time.
It was devastating to see what all was taking place in New Orleans on national TV during this time. When you saw the large amount of people, the impact of the water and the flooding and the damage that was done because of the wind, it was like: Oh, we’re going to be in Alexandria a while.
At that time, ‘a while’ to me was like, maybe another week or two. And that wasn’t the case.
It was one, two, three, four schools in one year. Exhausting. It was hard to make friends wherever I went, because I was unsure at that time, how long are we gonna be in a particular setting? Places just don’t feel like New Orleans.
We moved to Plano, Texas, for about six months. Really nice area, really nice people. There were more white people than I’ve ever seen before at school. I felt the racism a little bit more. It was more prevalent from students.
I was not performing academically at the level that I had normally been in New Orleans. Just trying to stay afloat in my classes was a struggle. The teachers didn’t really go out of their way. They were strictly, like, ‘This is the lesson, this is the material, this is when the test is.’ I just didn’t get the love and attention that I was accustomed to in New Orleans.
I came back to New Orleans in March or April. It felt good to be back home. I had my friend base from middle school. I had friends from elementary school. I was back amongst family and elders, like my grandma, my auntie, my cousins, everybody. We lived 10, 15 minutes within each other, which is really good. We had neighborhood-based schooling, you know, prior to Katrina.
It changed the trajectory of my life. I did not want to always become an educator. With my mother passing away, it was school that grounded me. It was the teachers and leaders inside of those school buildings that supported me, pushed me and encouraged me.
I had some pivotal educators in my life who played a big role in my education and my journey. In return, I felt like I could do that for other children of New Orleans. I chose to go into elementary education, so that students in their early years of education would have the opportunity to be educated by a Black male.
3. Michelle Garnett was an educator in New Orleans for 33 years, mostly in kindergarten and pre-K, before retiring in 2022. She was teaching kindergarten at Parkview Elementary in New Orleans when Katrina hit and had to evacuate to Baton Rouge.
When we were able to come back to the city, going back to my original school, Parkview, it was devastating to see the school just completely destroyed. That memory, I wouldn’t want to go through that again if I could be spared of that.
My mother was a classroom teacher, and she had given me a lot of things. Just memories that you just can’t get back. My mother was a little bit of an artist, so she drew a lot of the storybook characters for me. My dad also gave me a cassette tape with the song “Knowledge is Power” that I used to play for my kids. I lost the tape that he had given me. So, you know, sentimental things. Everybody in the city lost a lot.
My classroom was just molded and water warped, and it smelled, and it was just horrific. I can say, nobody could salvage anything from that particular school. It was just all — all was lost.
We were all in Baton Rouge together as a family, 23 of us strong in my daughter’s house. Siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles. On top of the 23 people in my daughter’s house, she was eight months pregnant at the time. But we were happy. Everybody was safe, and we had to accept things that we couldn’t change.
I loved what I did. Got into it strictly by necessity. My second daughter, who is now deceased, had a very rare form of muscular dystrophy. Orleans Parish hired me as my own child’s specific aide. She was only in school a short time from December to May, and the next month, two days after her sixth birthday, she passed. I was asked to continue work as a child-specific aide. During that process is when I got the passion and desire to go back to school, to be certified in education.
We think we choose a path for ourselves, and God puts us in the place where he wants us to be. Teaching is where I needed to be. And I absolutely enjoyed it.
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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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US heat wave smothers Pacific Northwest, poses extreme risk in California and Arizona
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SEATTLE — Residents of the Western U.S. sweltered in a heat wave Saturday that hospitalized some people, with temperatures forecast to hit dangerous levels throughout the weekend in Washington, Oregon, Southern California, Nevada and Arizona.
About 1.2 million people were under extreme heat risk, meaning temperatures were expected to stay dangerously high with no relief overnight. The largest area under the warning was around Tucson, Arizona, where the National Weather Service forecast highs between 102 and 107 degrees Fahrenheit (39 and 42 degrees Celsius). Areas of inland Southern California also faced extreme risk.
Another 18.6 million were under major heat risk nationwide, affecting workers and anyone without regular cooling and hydration, including in Miami.
Portland, Oregon, reported a record high for Aug. 22, according to preliminary data: 102 degrees (38.9 Celsius). If upheld it would break the 98-degree (36.7-degree Celsius) high for the date, set in 1942, according to the NWS.
Struggling through the smothering heat were long-distance runners in a Portland’s annual Hood to Coast relay race, which goes from inland Mt. Hood to the Pacific Ocean. At least one runner competing as part of a group of athletes over 50 lost consciousness after running 4 miles (6.4 kilometers).
David Loftus said he does not remember collapsing but his companions told him it happened shortly after he passed the baton. “Some other stranger saw me wobbling and caught me before I hit the ground,” Loftus said.
When he regained consciousness, he saw an ambulance there to pick him up. Loftus, a writer and amateur actor from Portland, said Saturday that he hydrated and doused himself with water before his leg of the race but it wasn’t enough. He was held for observation overnight at a hospital but recovered.
Around the time Loftus took the baton, a notice of extreme heat emergency was posted for Portland and the surrounding county. Emergency visits and 911 calls were up.
“Typically, we see a single visit or no visits. Yesterday, we had 16 visits, six of them from Hood to Coast participants,” Brendon Haggerty of the Multnomah County Health Department said via email. “The Portland metro area is facing the highest heat risk of 2025.”
In June 2021 the city recorded a high of 116 (46 Celsius) during a heat wave that resulted in more than 100 deaths. Most of the victims lived alone, and the vast majority were 60 or older, but the youngest was 37, officials said at the time.
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The quote from David Loftus has been corrected to show that someone caught him before he “hit the ground,” not “left the ground.”
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Beaches reopen in New York and North Carolina after Hurricane Erin
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NEW YORK — New York and North Carolina have begun to reopen beaches that had been closed due to Hurricane Erin, which sent strong winds and dangerous waves across the U.S. East Coast.
Erin’s outer bands brushed North Carolina on Wednesday, but the storm never made landfall and caused no widespread damage to infrastructure despite being twice the size of an average hurricane. After progressing north in the Atlantic, it weakened into a post-tropical cyclone Friday, far from land.
In North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Highway 12 on Hatteras Island opened at noon Saturday for residents, property owners and workers, according to North Carolina’s Department of Transportation. All restrictions will lift at 5 a.m. Sunday.
Beachgoers can also swim again at Jones Beach State Bark in New York and wade at Robert Moses State Park, but there are still restrictions at other beaches as conditions remain rough. Both beaches had been closed Thursday and Friday.
The Outer Banks — essentially sand dunes sticking out of the ocean a few feet above sea level — are vulnerable to erosion. Storm surges can cut through them, washing tons of sand and debris onto roads and sometimes breaking up pavement and creating new inlets. The dunes took a beating by Erin but there were no new inlets or significant structural damage to homes or businesses.
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