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Climate crisis in the American west

July 2024

  • two people wearing hats walk

    ‘Potentially historic’ heatwave threatens more than 130 million people across US

    Temperatures could crest 100F (38C) in many regions after breaking records and sparking dozens of wildfires

May 2024

  • Owner Mike Allen stands outside his popular Bishop feed store on Feb. 18, 2024.

    Revealed: The rural Californians who can’t sell their businesses – because LA is their landlord

    Los Angeles has long owned large swathes of the Owens valley. An investigation reveals how the city has tightened its grip

April 2024

  • A view of the Colorado River looking into Cibola, Arizona, US, on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. Photographer: Caitlin O'Hara/The Guardian

    ‘Water is more valuable than oil’: the corporation cashing in on America’s drought

    In an unprecedented deal, a private company purchased land in a tiny Arizona town – and sold its water rights to a suburb 200 miles away

February 2024

  • Bags of green plants and vegetables under a grey sky

    Tell us: have you created a DIY climate solution in your US community?

  • A well pump works at sunset on a farm near Sweetwater, Texas

    US oil companies to merge in $26bn deal as firms rush to buy up drilling land

October 2023

  • Karl Wenner of Lakeside Farms

    ‘This place wanted to be a wetland’: how a farmer turned his fields into a wildlife sanctuary

  • A sign displays the temperature at Sky Harbor international airport in Phoenix, Arizona on 12 July 2023.

    Phoenix has driest monsoon season since record-keeping began in 1895

August 2023

  • A man with a mustache sitting next to a window, looking out.

    America's dirty divide
    ‘The burns can cook them’: searing sidewalks cause horrific injuries in US

  • grapes in a pile with arizona landscape beyond

    Our unequal earth
    An Arizona malbec? How the arid state became America’s newest wine country

  • An unhoused encampment shaded by a tree in Sacramento, California.

    California judge pauses sweeping of homeless encampments amid heatwave

  • Joshua trees are unique to this region of the world and were also hit hard during August 2020’s Dome fire.

    California’s largest wildfire of the year threatens fragile desert ecosystem

July 2023

  • Pedestrian uses an umbrella to shield themself from the sun while walking past power lines in California.

    ‘We can’t escape’: climate crisis is driving up cost of living in the US west

  • Heatwave hits Southwestern US<br>epa10748749 A car moves by a thermometer showing 119 degrees Farenheit in Baker, California, USA, 15 July 2023. A heatwave is hitting the southwestern United States and is expected to bring temperatures above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.8 Celsius) in parts of California and Arizona in the coming days. EPA/CAROLINE BREHMAN

    Millions in US under warnings as record heat expected to continue next week

  • A person shields themselves from the sun with a rainbow umbrella.

    US south-west bakes under potentially deadly record high temperatures

  • People walk under water misters in Palm Springs, California.

    US west braces for fiercest temperatures yet as ‘supercharged’ heatwave arrives

  • ‘Hell on earth’: Phoenix’s extreme heatwave tests the limits of survival

  • ‘What are we willing to sacrifice?’ A journey down America’s most endangered river

June 2023

  • Fire Battalion Chief Craig Newell carries a hose while battling the North Complex fire in Plumas national forest, California, in 2020.

    Biden’s efforts to clear wildfire fuel in US forests are falling short

    Mixed early results from administration initiative as federal land managers skip at-risk communities for less threatened areas
  • Woman paddleboarding in Lake Powell through Cathedral in the Desert, Glen Canyon, Utah, USA<br>Cathedral in the Desert is a partially submerged sidearm of Glen Canyon and one of Lake Powell's many spectacular natural treasures. As water levels in the lake recede, more of Cathedral in the desert becomes accessible to intrepid explorers. Utah, USA

    ‘A portion of paradise’: how the drought is bringing a lost US canyon back to life

    Record dryness has restored an ecosystem under Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir
  • Kate Aronoff

    Climate risks have made California uninsurable. When will we wake up?

    Kate Aronoff
    State Farm will almost entirely stop issuing new policies in California – with climate-exacerbated wildfires and bad public policy a large reason why
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