California’s beautiful stretches of forest and grassland are meant to burn. Fire is a natural part of the state’s diverse ecosystems, and native plants (including sequoias and redwoods) have adapted to withstand periodic fires. But California was never meant to burn the way it is now.

About a decade ago, Chris Grotegut realized that he had to start pumping much less groundwater out of his wells. It dawned on the cattle rancher and grain farmer that if he didn’t act soon, there may not be enough water to sustain his 11,000-acre farm in Hereford, Texas—much less to support the next generation on his land.

Earlier this month, Pacific Gas & Electric, the investor-owned utility company that supplies power to much of California, cut off electricity to over 700,000 customers. The company argued that such a drastic measure — the largest planned power outage in the state’s history — was necessary to prevent wildfires.

You may not have heard of the company BlackRock, yet you are certainly feeling its impact. The global investment management corporation, responsible for managing $7 trillion worth of assets, is a massive backer of climate destruction, investing billions in new coal plant construction and the deforestation of the Amazon.

Democratic presidential hopefuls so far have mostly debated health care policy and climate policy as separate issues, with the former getting far more debate time. Given the way the two topics intersect, it’s critical not just for climate plans to talk about public health implications, but also for any articulation of health care policy to acknowledge that health care will increasingly take place in a changed environment.

This week is Climate Week, coinciding with the UN Climate Change Summit. On September 25th, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will release its newest report. Every day this week Massive will be publishing articles and interviews with scientists, policy experts, and activists about climate change, all aspects of the new report, and the future of the planet. Burning coal is one of the biggest sources of human-produced carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, mercury, and other pollutant

“Our house is on fire,” Greta Thunberg has said (at Davos and, most recently, the Climate Strikes) to sound the alarm on the ecological and climate emergency. But let’s imagine for a moment that the house stopped burning. We came together and put out the fire. Older generations didn’t let young people shoulder the burden of activism and acted, too. Global leaders honored their climate pledges. What would that world look like? What would we grow in that future? What new systems would be in place

When armed gold miners in military uniforms last week invaded protected land in Northern Brazil and murdered Emyra Wajãpi, a 68-year-old activist and leader of the Wajãpi indigenous community, it was not an isolated incident.

Didi Barrett, a New York state assemblymember, has visited Stone House Grain, a farm in the Hudson Valley, enough times to be a seasoned tour guide. That’s what it felt like, at least, as we drove in a Jeep down a narrow road, through fields blanketed by cover crops and perennial pastures spread out like a gold-and-brown checkerboard.

A few weeks after US Customs and Border Protection completed a border wall along Arizona’s southern boundary in 2008, a monsoon arrived. Floodwaters rose to 7ft, nearby patrol roads eroded and debris clogged the wall’s mesh fencing and grates, turning it into a temporary dam.

Last month, Dean Hunt set fire to his own land. He waited until the weather was just right ― sunny, clear skies and relatively dry ― for the fire to spread quickly, licking up the dense grasses blanketing the steep mountain. When the flames died down, they left a layer of ash. This wasn’t a case of reckless destruction; Hunt was trying to save his land.

Abortions are as inevitable as the sun rising. Every year, around 56 million people around the world induce their own abortions, but this doesn’t need to come in the form of a “back-alley” abortion. Dutch activist and doctor Rebecca Gomperts has made it her life’s work to ensure the abortion pill is accessible—even in places where it is outlawed.

The Lion King was my first, brief encounter with grief. When watching the original 1994 movie, I bolted from the theater the moment the benevolent lion king Mufasa died, not yet able to stomach the idea of a life so abruptly lost.

By the middle of La Dispute’s set, the crowd has merged into a single shape, pushing up against the barricade surrounding the stage. Jordan Dreyer, the vocalist of the post-hardcore quintet, harpoons the air with his entire body, while singing with a controlled anguish. The tone then decidedly shifts as Dreyer addresses his audience with emotional openness.

We’re just beginning to understand the toll climate change takes on mental health When psychiatrist Janet Lewis thinks back to the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo in 1989, she still remembers the horizontal trees and the collective grief.

Under a bleak gray sky last Thursday, Maritza Silva-Farrell, the executive director of ALIGN, mounted a podium in front of New York City Hall. She reminded an enthusiastic crowd of labor, environmental, and community organizers of what brought them together —the devastating impact climate change has already had on the city. “

The Arctic is in the throes of what sea-ice scientist Peter Wadhams calls a “death spiral.” As the region’s once abundant ice melts, giving way to a less reflective surface, the Arctic heats up faster—now at a rate that is double the rest of the planet.

Jim Probst has dedicated the last five years to building a climate movement that's equally concerned with local coal miners' well-being as it is with the consequences of coal mining itself.

What does the Violence Against Women Act have to do with climate change?

This story was originally published by Grist. It appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. As the country watched floodwaters rise across the Carolinas in the wake of Hurricane Florence this month, Puerto Ricans were still reeling from a storm that tore through the island a year ago.