The Marshall Project and the Prison Journalism Project asked incarcerated reporters to document the impact of extreme heat on their facilities. Their stories reveal the brutal reality
After a summer of record-breaking temperatures, scientists predict that 2024 could end up being the hottest year on record. For people in US prisons and jails – who often lack access to even the most basic cooling measures – conditions behind bars exacerbate the risks of dangerously high temperatures.
Several courts have ruled that extreme temperatures in prison violate the eighth amendment’s provision against “cruel and unusual” punishment. But these rulings have not led to a widespread adoption of air-conditioning or other methods to cool prison facilities or prevent heat-related deaths. Public health researchers at Brown University estimate that just one day of above-average summer temperatures is associated with a nearly 4% increase in deaths of incarcerated people. Suicides spike 23% in the three days following a heatwave. And for every 10 degrees Fahrenheit above the average summer temperature, those deaths increase by 5%.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/21/2024 - 14:00
09/21/2024 - 13:00
Showing climate delivery can be done effectively and fairly would be an extraordinary climate legacy for Keir Starmer
A well-intentioned but badly designed and poorly communicated energy policy from the German government, and more recent protests by farmers in France and the Netherlands, have knocked the confidence of European political leaders that environmental progress can be delivered in a way that works for people and enjoys democratic support. Unashamedly popular climate policies from Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband offer the chance to reshape European climate politics and confound these sceptics.
Showing climate delivery can be done fairly, effectively, affordably and with strong public support would be an extraordinary climate legacy for Starmer. It would build on Britain’s relatively strong record of having halved its climate footprint already, and it would offer hope amid all the gloom.
Joss Garman is executive director of the European Climate Foundation
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09/21/2024 - 08:45
One person dead and several missing after deluge in Noto, still recovering from 1 January earthquake
Heavy rain pounded Japan’s north-central Noto region, triggering landslides and floods and leaving one person dead and several missing, officials have said.
The deluges caused swollen rivers to overflow, flooding homes and leaving some people stranded in a region still recovering from the deadly 1 January earthquake.
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09/21/2024 - 06:07
Ecover, backed by activist model Lily Cole, calls for fewer washes to reduce microplastics and other sources of water pollution
A company that sells cleaning products is giving customers some surprising advice: wash your clothes less.
Ecover is calling for a change in our laundry habits after research found people felt under societal pressure to wash their clothes more frequently, and were unaware that this could damage the environment.
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09/21/2024 - 01:00
Though the party has plenty to celebrate at its first conference in power for 15 years, there is much work to do to on net zero
When Keir Starmer arrives in Liverpool this weekend promising an upbeat tone to Labour’s first conference in power for 15 years, he will boast of his party’s strong start to its first 82 days in government.
In just the last two months, the new government has made more green reforms than Rishi Sunak did in his entire premiership and Labour has plenty to celebrate: it has taken the first steps to crack down on water companies and clean up our filthy rivers; stopping oil and gas licences, and withdrawing support for a new coalmine; setting up a new renewable company, Great British Energy; a green light for new on and offshore windfarms; and an international charm offensive to signal renewed UK leadership in climate and nature diplomacy; alongside a host of smaller changes.
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09/20/2024 - 23:00
Guardian Australia’s photographer-at-large Mike Bowers captures a burst of yellow on NSW’s south-west slopes
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09/20/2024 - 13:45
Environment agency advised that the animal posed a danger to elderly woman in remote summer house in Westfjords
A rare polar bear that was spotted in a remote village in Iceland was shot by police after being considered a threat, authorities have said.
The bear was killed in the north-west tip of the country after police consulted the national environment agency, which declined to have the animal relocated, according to the Westfjords police chief, Helgi Jensson.
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09/20/2024 - 12:59
Pennsylvania plant was site of most serious nuclear meltdown and radiation leak in US history in 1979
A nuclear reactor at the notorious Three Mile Island site in Pennsylvania is to be activated for the first time in five years after its owners, Constellation Energy, struck a deal to provide power to Microsoft’s proliferating artificial intelligence operations.
The plant was the location of the most serious nuclear meltdown and radiation leak in US history, in March 1979 when the loss of water coolant through a faulty valve caused the Unit 2 reactor to overheat. More than four decades later, the reactor is still in a decommissioning phase.
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09/20/2024 - 12:01
Four protesters against North Sea oil and gas licences have charges of criminal damage thrown out
Four Greenpeace activists who staged a “no new oil” protest on the roof of Rishi Sunak’s North Yorkshire manor house have had charges of criminal damage thrown out.
The activists said “justice and common sense” had prevailed after a judge on Friday ruled the evidence against them was “tenuous” and they had no case to answer.
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09/20/2024 - 10:26
The European Green Deal will bring the emission of greenhouse gases in the European Union down, but at the same time causes a more than a twofold increase in emissions outside its borders.
