📚 What the Floodlight team is reading: A new court filing alleges that West Virginia officials were deceived into approving a $50 million forgivable loan to convert the Pleasants Power Station into a hydrogen-producing facility using unproven technology.

When food goes to waste, composting can lessen the harm—but it can’t erase it. The land cleared to grow it, the water to irrigate it, and the fuel to ship it mean that by the time those oranges hit the compost heap, most of their emissions are already baked in.

Louisiana's Isle de Jean Charles, once 22,000 acres, is now just 320. When rising waters consumed their homeland, the island's Indigenous residents moved to a new government-funded settlement. But their “safe” homes already leak, crack, and fail.

Across the U.S. military, climate change isn’t a distant threat. It’s a daily challenge. The fallout from a warming planet has hit the military hard, sidelining more than 10,000 troops since 2018, flooding bases and undermining everything from runways to nuclear readiness.

📚 What the Floodlight team is reading: An @insideclimatenews.org investigation finds Alabama Power customers pay more for electricity than anyone else in the country, while the utility earns some of the industry’s highest profits.

Nine million border records. One global pattern: Climate disasters are reshaping migration to the U.S.

Owen Henry, a Baltimore homeowner, bought $100 worth of white reflective paint to coat his roof. The result? His electricity use dropped 24%—and his home felt noticeably cooler.

A year-long investigation by Columbia Journalism Investigations and @documentedny.bsky.social, republished by Floodlight, analyzed nine million U.S. border records and found a striking pattern: migration to the U.S. is rising fastest from regions repeatedly hit by climate disasters.

New to Floodlight? 👋 We’re an investigative nonprofit newsroom that focuses on climate accountability. Sign up for our twice-monthly newsletter and join a community of readers who want the inside story on who’s stalling climate action:

Reducing food waste is one of the simplest, fastest ways to fight climate change — an “emergency brake” that can slash emissions right now, without waiting for new technology or complex fixes.

To understand how climate change may have influenced migrants’ journeys, Columbia Journalism Investigations and Documented analyzed more than nine million records of people apprehended by U.S. Now republished in Floodlight:

Calling it a matter of “national security,” Trump has paused pollution limits for dozens of petrochemical plants — delaying protections for communities already burdened by toxic air.

Flooding and droughts drove them from their homes. Now they’re seeking a safe haven in New York 🗞️

Troops are collapsing from heat exhaustion. Military bases are flooding. Planes can’t lift off in hotter air. But the Pentagon’s new message under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth: “We don’t do climate change crap.”

Charleston’s $1.3B seawall will stop short of Rosemont, a historically Black neighborhood already hit by flooding. “The gentry of Charleston have connections, they have money, they have a voice,” says resident Skip Mikell. “These communities are voiceless.”

Lakes around Madison, Wisconsin once froze for 130 days a year. Now it’s closer to 75 — and ice fishing is turning dangerous. More people are falling through thin ice as warming winters cut the season in half.

Cutting food waste is a huge potential climate win. So, why are we ignoring it? Read more about this rare bipartisan-approved strategy from our partners at @floodlightnews.org and @sentientmedia.org; outrider.org/climate-chan...

The Trump administration has granted petrochemical plants in Texas and Louisiana a two-year exemption from clean air rules — a move that could add millions of tons of pollution to communities already overburdened by industry.

Forget futuristic climate tech — one of the fastest ways to cut emissions is already in your fridge. Food waste is responsible for 10% of global emissions, but experts say reducing it could act as an “emergency brake” for the planet.

Floodlight worked with 60 newsrooms last year to expose who’s stalling climate action. This year? We’ve already partnered with 456! 🎉 All our investigations are free to republish — sign up for our publisher network to get alerts when a new investigation is available:

The Pentagon logged 2,800 heat-related illnesses among troops last year. Its new policy: stop spending on climate and drop “climate change” from official missions.

If food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, after China and the U.S. So why isn’t food waste part of the climate conversation?

As Trump weakens clean air rules, Louisiana advocate Tish Taylor says petrochemical companies must do more to protect nearby communities. “That's all we ask: That they be good neighbors, that they not kill us in the process of making billions of dollars and maybe pay some taxes.”

"For decades, the Pentagon viewed the climate crisis as a national security threat – not for environmental reasons, but because it undermined operations and readiness. Now the Trump administration is dismantling that approach."

New to Floodlight? 👋 We’re an investigative nonprofit newsroom that focuses on climate accountability. Sign up for our twice-monthly newsletter and join a community of readers who want the inside story on who’s stalling climate action:

Reducing food waste is one of the most practical ways to slow climate change. Why are we ignoring it? @gaeacabico.bsky.social explains, with visual reporting by @floodlightnews.org:

The Trump administration has exempted 52 petrochemical facilities—many along the Gulf Coast—from new clean air rules, saying the move is in the “national security interests” of the U.S.

Cutting food waste is a huge potential climate win. Why are we ignoring it? NEW from Floodlight and @sentientmedia.org:

@sentientmedia.org — the only nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization solely focused on factory farms and their effects — is hiring! 💼 Have audience experienced in a newsroom? Join Sentient to lead and expand their engagement and distribution strategy:

Biden channeled billions toward reducing the carbon footprint of concrete & other construction materials. Trump reversed course. In January, the EPA canceled 21 grants aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from concrete, cement & other construction materials. floodlightnews.org/cement-is-a-...

The climate solution sitting in America’s trash 🗞️ floodlightnews.org/reducing-foo...

📚 What the Floodlight team is reading: Salt water laced with cancer-causing chemicals, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, is spewing from old wells in Oklahoma. Regulators failed to stop it, @nickbowlin.bsky.social reports for @propublica.org and @readfrontier.bsky.social:

“Nothing that Trump does says that he cares about people. Everything about his actions shows his disdain for poor and Black people specifically, but poor in general.”

Leaving Home is our new series on climate relocation. As rising seas force millions in the U.S. to flee the coasts, we ask: are we ready? 👉 Read more:

I subscribe to Floodlight News @floodlightnews.org -- just a few $ a month. The scope of their coverage is unique, as far as I can tell. Does the NYT, for instance, have a strong climate desk even tho their editorial staff is a disaster? Sure. Do they cover everything. Absolutely not.

A 2020 study found 79% of Colorado river water goes to alfalfa, which in turn primarily goes to cattle farms — the most emissions-intensive form of animal farming.

The Trump administration has granted petrochemical plants in Texas and Louisiana a two-year exemption from clean air rules — a move that could add millions of tons of pollution to communities already overburdened by industry. NEW in Floodlight:

More U.S. troops are being sidelined by heat than ever before — 2,800 cases in 2024 alone. The military once treated that as a readiness crisis. Now, it’s calling climate concerns “crap.”

Trump move to boost greenhouse, toxic emissions in Gulf states 🗞️ floodlightnews.org/trump-petroc...

📚 What the Floodlight team is reading: Fossil fuel companies say they support the energy transition. But a new report shows that they own less than 2% of renewable energy projects worldwide, @rebeccamccarthy.bsky.social reports for @grist.org:

As social media algorithms prove increasingly fickle, one of the best ways you can support Floodlight is by signing up for our newsletter. We only send it twice a month — just our latest investigations and stories straight to your inbox.

Louisiana's Calcasieu Pass 1 is the largest liquefied natural gas export terminal in the nation. This spring, the Trump administration gave the company permission to continue constructing a planned expansion project, despite ongoing legal challenges.

Join The Guardian US, Grist, ProPublica, NPR, and others in Floodlight’s publisher network. All of @floodlightnews.org investigations are free to be republished by other newsrooms. Sign up to get alerts when a new investigation is available.

Climate plans from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard have quietly disappeared from public sites. Even the Pentagon’s climate resilience portal is gone — a hub for validated data that once helped guide climate planning across the military.

Corporate farms backed by Saudi investors are pumping Arizona’s groundwater to grow alfalfa for cattle overseas — while local families spend their savings drilling new wells in the desert.

“I never expected that relocation was going to happen in my lifetime. Now that it has happened, it’s not a celebration.” After a federally funded move inland, Indigenous residents of Isle de Jean Charles say their new homes are already falling apart.

Louisiana reclassified natural gas as “green” energy. That means gas pipelines could now compete for funding meant for solar and wind projects.

A March memo told Pentagon leaders to stop spending on climate planning and erase “climate change” from mission statements — as record heat sent troop illnesses soaring.

Charleston’s $1.3B seawall will stop short of Rosemont, a historically Black neighborhood hit by flooding. “The gentry of Charleston have connections, they have money, they have a voice,” says resident Skip Mikell. “These communities are voiceless.” floodlightnews.org/building-tow...

If the cement industry were a country, it would be the world’s fifth largest carbon polluter.