ENVIRONMENT
Climate Change and Energy News
2025-12-22 Trump’s dismantling of America’s environmental protections and its climate change projects.
“In his first year back in office, President Trump has rapidly reshaped America’s climate and energy landscape. His administration dismantled a wide range of climate and pollution regulations, began to overhaul how the federal government responds to disasters and gave a boost to fossil fuel production and nuclear power while attempting to curtail the growth of wind and solar energy.
“The changes have reverberated far beyond the United States, as the administration has pressured other countries to abandon their own efforts to tackle global warming. Here’s a look at some of the biggest changes in U.S. energy and climate policy in 2025:”
— Brad Plumer, Lisa Friedman, Maxine Joselow and Scott Dance, “How Trump’s First Year Reshaped U.S. Energy and Climate Policy,” New York Times, 22 Dec. 2025 (updated 4 Jan. 2026), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/climate/how-trumps-first-year-reshaped-us-energy-and-climate-policy.html?campaign_id=54
2025-12-26 Climate Change and Flooding in California
“Around the globe, people are seeing more dramatic swings between dry-to-wet and wet-to-dry weather whiplash. Scientists say more such episodes of “hydroclimate whiplash” are anticipated worldwide because of human-caused global warming.”
— Rong-Gong Lin II (Los Angeles Times), “SoCal’s wettest Christmas holiday ever, and the intensifying drought-to-deluge cycle behind it,” Seattle Times, 26 Dec. 2025. Web https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/socals-wettest-christmas-holiday-ever-and-the-intensifying-drought-to-deluge-cycle-behind-it/
2025-12-21 Climate Change and Flooding in Washington State
Jon Talton, a Seattle Times columnist in the Business section of the Seattle Times, leads his article with this statement: “The list of monetary costs and suffering from human-caused climate change is growing in the aftermath of historic flooding in Western Washington.”
Talton goes on to describe the high winds, power outages, flooding from swollen rivers, destroyed levees, washed away roads, and evacuated towns in Western Washington, occurring because of the extreme rainfall. Then he elaborates on the known science behind the flooding: warm air carrying more water, rain rather than snow (the storage of water) falling on mountains in the winter, firestorm-scorched earth repelling water rather than absorbing it as forests (now burned away) once did. He summarizes that extreme weather events caused by climate change are hitting us with their costs like a two-by-four being slammed against us.
— Jon Talton (Seattle Times columnist), “Behind flooding, the inescapable specter of climate change,” Seattle Times, 21 Dec. 2025, Print C5, Web https://www.seattletimes.com/business/behind-wa-flooding-the-inescapable-specter-of-climate-change-jon-talton/
2025-12-21 Climate Change and Fires in California
The recent Eaton, Palisades, and Camp fires were the three most destructive in California’s history. As the below article says, “All three of those fires—and many others to hit California in recent decades—have one key factor in common: global warming.” California experienced its hottest July on record, and in 2024 the planet had its hottest year on record.
— Rong-Gong Lin II (Los Angeles Times), “How climate change influenced L.A.’s sweeping fires, Seattle Times, 21 Dec. 2025, Print, A14
Habitat, Extinction, and Survival News
2026-01-03 Lynda V. Mapes, “Target on Tongass: The wildest national forest may soon lose its protections,” Pacific NW Magazine (special to the Seattle Times), 3 Jan. 2026, Web https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/target-on-tongass-the-wildest-national-forest-may-soon-lose-its-protections/
[Note: This article also contains many beautiful pictures (taken by Amy Gulick) of the Tongass.]
2025-09-05 Saabira Chaudhuri (Guest Essayist), “Throwaway Plastic Has Corrupted Us,” New York Times, 5 Sep. 2025, Web
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/06/opinion/plastic-trash-disposable.html?searchResultPosition=3
God’s Nature
Humanity’s greatest environmental challenges on Earth . . . and what’s needed:
1. Climate Crisis . . . Climate Action
2. Biodiversity Loss . . . Habitat, Clean Environment, Species Preservation
3. Commodification of God’s Nature . . . Connection and Stewardship
2025-09-24 The following essay by Rainn Wilson’s comments on our need to connect spirituality with nature [Rainn Wilson, Opinion-Guest Essay, “ Rainn Wilson: What I Learned at a Fire Ceremony With King Charles,” New York Times, 24 Sep. 2025, Web.]
In the essay is a “20-5-3 rule,” written by the scientist Rachel Hopman-Droste, for spending time in nature. This I think will help me in my habits and planning. The 20-5-3 rule is “Go outside for 20 minutes three times a week, for example, a stroll or time in a park. Spend five hours per month in a semi-wild place such as a forest park, lake, or river. Spend three days once a year off the grid in a cabin, tent or on a boat without a cellphone.” MRM
A list of quotes by spiritual and environmental leaders through history is in The Green Bible. Interesting to see how our wonder at the miracle of God’s nature, though the details may be different, are similiar in different cultures and millennia.
SOCIAL ISSUES
Free Press
2026-02-08 Brier Dudley, Opinion,“Why state Sen. Rebeca Saldaña is working to save local news,” Seattle Times, 8 Feb. 2026, D2.
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/why-state-sen-rebecca-saldana-is-working-to-save-local-news/
“Saldaña is now playing a key role in supporting Senate Bill 5400, which would help newspapers get compensated by tech giants.”
“SB 5400 also triggered strong pushback from the tech lobby and others. It would collect around $27 million yearly from large social-media and search companies profiting from news.”
Sen. Saldaña said, “It’s so important, now more than ever, for people to have credible information,” she continued. “I get to meet journalists and see how hard their job is and really believe it’s a fundamental pillar for democracy.”
2026-01-04 Ryan Blethen (Seattle Times publisher), “The Times’ new publisher, Ryan Blethen, reflects on family, community,” Seattle Times, 4 Jan. 2026, Web https://www.seattletimes.com/inside-the-times/the-times-new-publisher-ryan-blethen-reflects-on-family-community/
“A great newspaper needs to put its readers and community first. A great newspaper holds elected officials and the powerful to account and lifts the voices of those left behind or pushed to the margins. A great newspaper has an opinion section that provides the community a place to read and debate differing ideas. It means chronicling this magical place we call home . . .”
Health Care Costs
2025-12-11 Ali Swenson (AP), “The Senate voted down dueling health proposals. Here’s what’s at stake for Americans,” Seattle Times, 11 Dec. 2025, Web https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/the-senate-is-set-to-vote-on-two-rival-health-plans-heres-whats-at-stake-for-americans/
Seattle Times summary: “Health insurance premiums threaten to more than double for many Americans who get their coverage through the Affordable Care Act, after the Senate yesterday rejected proposals to head this off.”
Also see Ali Swenson (AP), “Senate rejects legislation to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits,” You Tube, 12 Dec. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xCPJ-WBw3U
late 2025 John Oliver about Medicare Advantage
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sl9IRn33Fig
Legislation, Politics, and Democracy
2026-02-01 Trudy Rubin (Syndicated columnist), “Trump’s denigration of fallen allies speaks volumes,” Seattle Times, 1 Feb. 2026, D1 & D4,
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/trumps-denigration-of-fallen-allies-is-beyond-belief/
Regarding President Trump’s comments to allies in Davos, Switzerland, Rubin writes that “Trump, a man who avoided Vietnam service by claiming he had bone spurs, spat on the sacrifices of European soldiers who died fighting alongside American troops in Afghanistan,” which she describes as “an insult so outrageous that it has probably alienated the British and other European publics more than any previous Trump attacks.”
As a former Marine said later in the article: “It’s reprehensible. It’s gross.” Rubin notes that, “It’s even more grotesque given that, during his first term, Trump sneered at Americans who died in war as ‘losers and suckers,’ and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades.”
2026-01-29 “Alienating Allies,” PBS News Hour, 29 Jan. 2026 This night’s newscast is sobering. The world order has been dramatically reshaped as our allies depart commitments and trade deals with the United States, a consequence of the wrecking ball that is Donald Trump. In a very short time, the United States’s role on the world stage has been weakened significantly.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/january-29-2026-pbs-news-hour-full-episode
time segment: 28:38 – 39:52.
“Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind.”
⸺ William Shakespeare, King Lear
2025-11 The American Revolution. A film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt that started airing on PBS in November 2025.
.https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-american-revolution
I learned from this excellent series what a messy course was the process to create our country, with its government-by-the-people, rights-of-the-people, rule-of-law republic, that is still a work in progress. How encouraging that–during our current chaotic, divisive times–we have the example of the good our forefathers and mothers did when times were worse. We also learn from this series that we, their descendants, are responsible for carrying that good work forward.
Now & Then & Etc 