Climate

A worker surveys Vo Van Van's rice fields after spraying fertilizer over the fields using a drone in Long An province in southern Vietnam's Mekong Delta, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. Using less water and using a drone to fertilize are new techniques that Van is trying and Vietnam hopes will help solve a paradox at the heart of growing rice: The finicky crop isn't just vulnerable to climate change but also contributes uniquely to it. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

In Vietnam, farmers reduce methane emissions by changing how they grow rice

Vietnam aims to transform its rice sector, making it more resilient to climate change while also reducing its emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide.
 
FILE - People participate in a March to End the Plastic Era on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, on April 21, 2024. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

Global plastic pollution treaty talks hit critical stage in Canada

 
Sima Gutierrez, right, observes as a teammate examines water at the Flint Community Water Lab, Wednesday, April 3, 2024, in Flint, Mich. The lab, with more than 60 high school and college interns, has provided free water testing for thousands of residents since 2020. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Children of Flint water crisis make change as young environmental and health activists

 
The website for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention displays on a computer screen in Glenside, Pa., Monday, April 22, 2024, a new heat risk system developed with the National Weather Service. They unveiled a new color-coded system to warn Americans about heat danger, and it will set magenta as the most dangerous level. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

When red-hot isn’t enough: New government heat risk tool sets magenta as most dangerous level

 
Indigenous people dance during the 20th annual Free Land Indigenous Camp in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, April 22, 2024. The 7-day event aims to show the unity of Brazil's Indigenous peoples in their fight for the demarcation of their lands and their rights. (AP Photo/Luis Nova)

Indigenous groups gathering in Brazil’s capital to protest president’s land grant decisions

 

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Residents in Machakos County, Kenya, construct a sand dam on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. Building sand dams, a structure for harvesting water from seasonal rivers, helps minimize water loss through evaporation and recharges groundwater. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

To make water last year-round, Kenyans in dry regions are building sand dams on seasonal rivers

 
Joseph Katumba, a caretaker at Kitara Farm, works near Mbarara, Uganda, on March 8, 2024. Katumba said the property has become something of a demonstration farm for people who want to learn more about bamboo. (AP Photo/Dipak Moses)

In Uganda, bamboo has government’s backing as a crop with real growth potential

 
Nguyen Thi Thuy, a vendor who sells steamed buns on a floating market, paddles her boat in Can Tho, Vietnam, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. On good days she makes about $4 — hardly enough to put food on the table. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, the lure of moving to the city grows even stronger amid climate shocks

 
Lance Martin holds a jug of maple syrup as light shines through it, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024, in Rhinelander, Wis. In many parts of Wisconsin and the Midwest this year, the warmest winter on record drove farmers and hobbyists alike to start collecting tree sap for maple syrup a month or more earlier than they normally would. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Maple syrup season came weeks early in the Midwest. Producers are doing their best to adapt

 
Lisa McGuire stands near her former walkway on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, as she describes a fire that engulfed her home, killing her two dogs, in a Prichard, Ala., neighborhood with a history of severe water loss. When a neighbor called her about the fire, she said she rushed home to find firefighters with an empty hose attached to a hydrant. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Trillions of gallons leak from aging drinking water systems, further stressing shrinking US cities

 
Annie Kopacitino holds her daughter, who she says has been affected by the pollution caused by oil drilling, in her village of Tshiende, Moanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023. The country is looking to expand the oil drilling. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

As Congo seeks to expand drilling, some communities worry pollution will worsen

 

Surfing in Tahiti: 2024 Paris Olympics

Kids surf small waves along the beach after school in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, French Polynesia, Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Hundreds are set to descend on Tahiti for Olympic surfing. Can locals protect their way of life?

 
Naiki Vaast spearfishes along the coral reef in Vairao, Tahiti, French Polynesia, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

In Teahupo’o, Tahiti, coastal village life thrives among powerful waves

 

The demise of the Aral Sea

Graves are visible near the dried-up Aral Sea outside Aralsk, Kazakhstan, Monday, July 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

On the Aral Sea, graves rise above the dust. They’re reminders of the life its waters once sustained

 
Light is reflected on part of the Aral Sea outside Muynak, Uzbekistan, Sunday, June 25, 2023. The destruction of the Aral Sea in Central Asia has been labeled by the U.N. as the most staggering disaster of the 20th century. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Climate change is fueling the disappearance of the Aral Sea. It’s taking residents’ livelihoods, too

 
Ali Shadilov, left, and Anvar Saimbetov pose in front of an old boat in the area where the Aral Sea once was in Muynak, Uzbekistan, Tuesday, June 27, 2023. The Associated Press interviewed Shadilov and others in Muynak, Uzbekistan – all residents in their 60s and 70s who’ve long been tied to the sea, or what remains of it. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

These men once relied on the Aral Sea. Today, the dry land is a reminder of lost livelihoods

 
A child plays inside a rusted dilapidated car along the dried-up Aral Sea, in the village of Tastubek near Aralsk, Kazakhstan, Monday, July 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

The Aral Sea has all but disappeared. But in small towns and villages, signs of life are popping up

 

Gulf oil spill: Workers left behind

FILE - A cleanup worker picks up blobs of oil in absorbent snare on Queen Bess Island at the mouth of Barataria Bay near the Gulf of Mexico in Plaquemines Parish, La., June 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Once praised, settlement to help sickened BP oil spill workers leaves most with nearly nothing

 
FILE - A worker pulls an oil boom that a current pinned against a pier in Caminada Pass in Grand Isle, La., May 22, 2010. When a deadly explosion destroyed BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, tens of thousands of ordinary people were hired to help clean up the environmental devastation. These workers were exposed to crude oil and the chemical dispersant Corexit while picking up tar balls along the shoreline, laying booms from fishing boats to soak up slicks and rescuing oil-covered birds. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Takeaways from AP’s story on the BP oil spill medical settlement’s shortcomings

 
John Maas poses for a portrait Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, in Sparta, Tenn. Thousands of people who helped clean up after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico say they got sick, including Maas. Attorneys familiar with the issue say he's the only one who has received a settlement after suing. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

BP defeated thousands of suits by sick Gulf spill cleanup workers. But not one by a boat captain

 

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Bhaskar Rao, a farm worker, sprays natural pesticide at a multi-crop farm belonging to Meerabi Chunduru, an avid practitioner and advocate of natural farming techniques, in Aremanda village in Guntur district of southern India's Andhra Pradesh state, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024. The area has become a positive example of the benefits of natural farming, a process of using organic matter as fertilizers and pesticides that makes crops more resilient to bad weather. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Farmers in India are hit hard by extreme weather. Some say expanding natural farming is the answer

 
A periodical cicada nymph is held in Macon, Ga., Wednesday, March 27, 2024. This periodical cicada nymph was found while digging holes for rosebushes. Trillions of cicadas are about to emerge in numbers not seen in decades and possibly centuries.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Invaders from underground are coming in cicada-geddon. It’s the biggest bug emergence in centuries

 
Billy Barr holds his canister with newly fallen snow Wednesday, March 13, 2024, in Gothic, Colo. So-called “citizen scientists” like Barr have long played important roles in gathering data to help researchers better understand the environment. His once hand-recorded measurements have informed numerous scientific papers and helped calibrate aerial snow sensing tools. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson)

Citizen scientist measured Rockies snowfall for 50 years. Two new hips help him keep going

 
Scientific diver Morgan Murphy-Cannella holds bull kelp with a dark patch of reproductive spores as she surveys a reforestation project, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, near Caspar, Calif. Kelp forests play an integral role in the health of the world’s oceans, one of the issues being discussed at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

From urchin crushing to lab-grown kelp, efforts to save California’s kelp forests show promise

 
Joyce Ngui heads to fetch groundwater in Athi River, Machakos county, Kenya, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. “Sometimes, we get to the water vending stations and find that the queue is long and then the water finishes and you have to wait,” Ngui said. “Most of the times you don’t have money to buy even the salty water sold around. So we have no choice but to use the swamp water," she said. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

In some neighborhoods in drought-prone Kenya, clean water is scarce. Filters are one solution

 
(AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin)

How did humans get to the brink of crashing climate?

 
Juma Indigenous sisters Mandei Juma, from left, Mayta Juma and Borea Juma pose for a picture at their community, near Canutama, Amazonas state, Brazil, Sunday, July 9, 2023. The Juma seemed destined to disappear following the death of their father, the last remaining elderly man, but under his three daughters’ leadership, they changed the patriarchal tradition and now fight to preserve their territory and culture. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Indigenous women bring a tiny tribe back from the brink of extinction in the Amazon

 
Environmental activist members of the Situ Gede Cleanliness Warrior pick up trash while paddling kayaks at Setu Gede lake in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. Young people have been at the forefront of environmental and climate change movements in recent years: initiatives like school strikes for climate action, protests at United Nations climate talks and around the world, and local clean ups have often been youth-led. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

Indonesia’s youth clean up trash from waterways, but more permanent solutions are still elusive

 

Fossil fuel influence at UN climate talks
Capuava oil refinery owned by Petrobras sits in Maui, on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. Petrobras specializes in deep water exploration, drilling and extraction. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Oil companies attending climate talks have minimal green energy transition plans, AP analysis finds

 
Happy Cardinal, right, looks at what remains of his cabin, destroyed by wildfires, near Fort Chipewyan, Canada, on Sunday, Sep. 3, 2023. Wildfires are bringing fresh scrutiny to Canada's fossil fuel dominance, its environmentally friendly image and the viability of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

Canada says it can fight climate change and be major oil nation. Massive fires may force a reckoning

 
FILE - The coal-fired power plant Uniper Scholven and a nearby BP refinery shine in the evening behind illuminated appartments in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. Environmental activists say the lobbying of fossil fuel interests are the reason why climate talks have yet to produce an agreement to phase out coal, oil and natural gas, as scientists have repeatedly said must happen to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, like extreme weather events. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)

Fossil fuel interests have large, yet often murky, presence at climate talks, AP analysis finds

 
A man shows a pump removed from an unlicensed water intake as his group of residents, farmworkers and small-scale farmers from Villa Madero dismantle illegal water taps in the mountains of Villa Madero, Mexico, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. As a drought in Mexico drags on, angry subsistence farmers have begun taking direct action on thirsty avocado orchards and berry fields of commercial farms that are drying up streams in the mountains west of Mexico City. (AP Photo/Armando Solis)

Villagers in Mexico organize to take back their water as drought, avocados dry up lakes and rivers

As Mexico’s drought drags on, angry subsistence farmers have begun taking direct action against thirsty avocado orchards and berry fields of commercial farms that are drying up streams in the mountains west of Mexico City.
 
FILE - Boats sit docked around the exposed banks of the El Penol-Guatape hydroelectric dam, due to low water levels, in Guatape, Colombia, April 3, 2024. Colombia’s government on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, rolled out new incentives to reduce electricity consumption in the South American nation, which has been hit by a severe drought that has diminished the capacity of local hydroelectric plants and brought officials close to imposing power cuts. (AP Photo/Fredy Amariles, file)

Colombia rolls out new incentives to cut electricity consumption as dry weather persists

Colombia’s government is rolling out new incentives to reduce electricity consumption in the South American nation, which has been hit by a drought that has diminished the capacity of local hydroelectric plants and brought officials close to imposing power cuts.
 
In this photo released by the MacDill Air Force Base, an alligator rests at the landing gear of a KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft on the runway of MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, on Monday, April 22, 2024. Officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission responded and the alligator was moved and released in a nearby river. (MacDill Air Force Base via AP)

Alligator on runway at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida captured, released into nearby river

Officials say a large alligator that made its way onto the runway at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa has been captured and moved to a nearby river.
 
A periodical cicada nymph is held in Macon, Ga., Wednesday, March 27, 2024. This periodical cicada nymph was found while digging holes for rosebushes. Trillions of cicadas are about to emerge in numbers not seen in decades and possibly centuries.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Cicadas are so noisy in a South Carolina county that residents are calling the police

Emerging cicadas are so loud in one South Carolina county that residents are calling the sheriff’s office asking why they can hear sirens or a loud roar.
 
Tourists walk at the Lycabettus hill as the city of Athens with the ancient Acropolis hill is seen at the background, on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. The Acropolis and other Athens landmarks took on Martian hues Tuesday as stifling dust clouds blown across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa engulfed the Greek capital. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Martian skies over Athens? Greece’s capital turns an orange hue with dust clouds from North Africa

Skies over southern Greece have turned an orange hue as dust clouds blown across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa engulfed the Acropolis and other Athens landmarks.
 
FILE - Competitors swim in the Seine River during the Paris Triathlon competition in Paris Sunday, July 10, 2011. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo saidTuesday April 23, 2024 she was confident water quality will be up to the Olympics standards this summer _ and that she'll be able to prove it by swimming there, possibly alongside President Emmanuel Macron. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau, File )

Paris mayor is confident that water quality will allow Olympic swimming in the River Seine

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said she is confident water quality will be up to the Olympics standards this summer.
 
FILE - A gardener uses a leaf blower to clear leaves at a home on Oct. 13, 2021 in Sacramento, Calif.. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

The problem with leaf blowers, and what you can do instead

Many communities across the country have tried to ban or limit leaf blowers because of their noise and environmental impact. But they roar on.
 
FILE - This photo provided by the Center for Biological Diversity shows a Tiehm's buckwheat plant near the site of a proposed lithium mine in Nevada, May 22, 2020. The Biden administration has taken a significant step in its expedited environmental review of what's next in line to become only the third U.S. lithium mine, as conservationists fear it will lead to the extinction of the endangered Nevada wildflower near the California line. (Patrick Donnelly/Center for Biological Diversity via AP, File)

US advances review of Nevada lithium mine amid concerns over endangered wildflower

The Biden administration has taken a significant step in its expedited environmental review of what could become the third lithium mine in the U.S.
 
FILE - Bernie Tiede smiles after a court hearing granting his release, May 6, 2014, at the Panola County Courthouse in Carthage, Texas. Advocates for Texas prisoners on Monday, April 22, 2024, asked to join a federal lawsuit filed last year by Tiede, who has alleged his life is in danger because he was being housed in a stifling prison cell without air conditioning. He was later moved to an air-conditioned cell. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

Advocates, man who inspired film ‘Bernie’ ask for air conditioning for him and other Texas inmates

A legal battle over a lack of air conditioning in Texas prisons is bringing together advocates on the issue and one current inmate who says his health is being endangered by the state’s hot prisons.
 
California Gov. Gavin Newsom breaks ground at a new state park in a decade on Monday April 22, 2024 at the Dos Rios property, in Modesto, Calif. The announcement comes as the state sets targets for cutting planet-warming emissions on natural lands. (AP Photo/Sophie Austin)

California announces first new state park in a decade and sets climate goals for natural lands

California will open its first new state park in a decade this summer. The Dos Rios tract in the state’s Central Valley is set to open in June. Gov.
 

Storm relief and funding for programs related to Maine’s deadliest-ever shooting included in budget

Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills has signed a $127.4 million budget adjustment that includes funding for recovery from storm damage and for several programs she sought after the deadliest shooting in state history.
 
A respiratory therapist left, conducts a pulmonary test on a woman at the Center for Asbestos Related Disease, April 4, 2024, in Libby, Mont. The clinic has diagnosed thousands of people with asbestos-related disease following contamination from a nearby mine for vermiculite. A federal jury on Monday, April 22, said BNSF Railway contributed to the deaths in 2020 of two people who were exposed to asbestos in the Libby area decades ago. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)

Jury: BNSF Railway contributed to 2 deaths in Montana town where asbestos sickened thousands

A federal jury says BNSF Railway contributed to the deaths of two people who were exposed to asbestos decades ago when tainted mining material was shipped through a Montana town where thousands have been sickened.
 
FILE - Wilted palm trees line a destroyed property from the August wildfires, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. Several days after the Hawaii attorney general’s office released an outside report that flagged communications issues in the response to a deadly August wildfire, Maui County officials pushed back and offered “clarifications” on some of the report’s details. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)

Maui officials push back on some details in Hawaii attorney general report on deadly wildfire

Maui County officials are pushing back and offering clarifications after the Hawaii attorney general’s office released a report that flagged communications issues in the response to the deadly August wildfire.
 
FILE - A 102-pound, female loggerhead sea turtle that was caught off the Galveston Fishing Pier earlier in the summer makes her way into the Gulf of Mexico after being rehabilitated at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's sea turtle facility in Galveston, Texas, Sept. 16, 2015. The Mexican government has largely abandoned protection and enforcement measures for the endangered loggerhead sea turtles, leading to a spike in the number of turtles being caught up and killed in fishing nets, according to a report released on April 22, 2024, by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, which functions as part of the U.S.-Mexico Canada Free trade agreement. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP, File)

A new report says Mexico has abandoned protection of loggerhead sea turtles

A new report finds that the Mexican government has largely abandoned protection and enforcement measures for loggerhead sea turtles.
 
FILE - The Maine State House stands at sunrise, March 16, 2023, in Augusta, Maine. A youth organization and a pair of environmental groups are suing the state of Maine to try to force the state to reduce carbon emissions in the era of climate change. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Youth group, environmental organizations sue Maine for action on climate

A youth organization and a pair of environmental groups are suing the state of Maine to try to force the state to reduce carbon emissions in the era of climate change.
 
FILE - Two lake sturgeons are set to be weighed near Black Lake in Cheboygan County, Mich., Feb. 4, 2017. Lake sturgeon don't need Endangered Species Act protections, federal wildlife officials announced Monday, April 22, 2024, saying that stocking programs have helped the prehistoric fish return to areas where they had vanished. (Julia Nagy/Lansing State Journal via AP, File)

Prehistoric lake sturgeon is not endangered, US says despite calls from conservationists

Federal wildlife officials have decided not to place lake sturgeon on the endangered species list, ensuring annual spearing seasons in Wisconsin and Michigan can continue.
 
In this picture taken through a window a flooded riverside park is seen along the Beijiang River in Qingyuan city in southern China's Guangdong province Monday, April 22, 2024. Heavy rainstorms that swept across southern China over the weekend have killed some in riverside cities while tens of thousands have been evacuated across Guangdong and in emergency shelters. (Chinatopix Via AP)

Heavy rainstorms kill 4 people in southern China. Ten others are missing

Heavy rainstorms that swept across southern China over the weekend have killed at least four people in riverside cities. A search continues for 10 others missing.
 
A pedestrian carries takeaway food plastic bag in Hong Kong, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2024. Hong Kong has long been a major producer and consumer of great food, and a great amount of plastic and Styrofoam to go with it. That’s going to change as new legislation aiming to stop the sale and distribution of Styrofoam products and single-use plastic cutlery went into effect on Monday, April 22, 2024.(AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

A ban on single-use plastics takes effect in Hong Kong in a bid to reduce pollution

Hong Kong has passed a legislation to stop the sale and distribution of Styrofoam products and single-use plastic cutlery as a way to reduce the amount of plastic waste in the city.
 
FILE - A road worker stops to take a drink of water in Madrid, Spain, Monday, July 18, 2022. The U.N. labor organization warned Monday, April 22, 2024, that over 70% of the world's workforce is likely to be exposed to excessive heat during their careers, citing increased concern about exposure to sunlight. It also warned of air pollution, pesticides and other hazards that could lead to health problems, including cancer. (AP Photo/Paul White, File)

UN labor agency report warns of rising threat of excess heat, climate change on world’s workers

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. labor organization warned Monday that over 70% of the world’s workforce is likely to be exposed to excessive heat during their careers, citing increased concern about exposure to sunlight.
 
FILE - Cows graze in a flooded paddock in Kisumu, Kenya Wednesday, April 17, 2024. In Kenya, more than 30 people have died since mid-March in flooding events that have affected more than 100,000 people, according to the U.N., which cites Red Cross figures in the most recent update. (AP Photo/Brian Ongoro, File)

Flooding wreaks havoc across East Africa. Burundi is especially hard-hit

Deadly floods are wreaking havoc in many parts of East Africa that face torrential rainfall. Burundi’s government is calling for international help to deal with the aftermath.