How much humans sleep could be impacted in the coming decades due to climate change, a study in the Journal One Earth reported. 

The study found that by the end of the century, humans could average 58 fewer hours of sleep per year due to rising temperatures. The study found that people who sleep in warmer climates generally get less sleep.

“In real-world settings, humans appear to be better at adapting their surroundings to obtain sufficient sleep under cooler outside conditions, whereas sleep loss increases with rising ambient temperatures,” the study noted.

The elderly, women, and residents of lower-income countries are impacted most, the authors wrote.

“High ambient temperatures may predispose susceptible segments of society to worsened affect, anger and aggression, hypertension and adverse cardiovascular outcomes, diminished cognitive performance, elevated risk of accidents and injuries and compromised immune system functioning,” the study wrote.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed handing more power to states and tribes to block major energy projects based on water quality concerns.

The proposal would undo a Trump-era rule that restricted local regulators' authority to stand in the way of fossil fuel development. The new proposal would allow states to conduct a broader, more flexible review before making a permitting decision.

The public will have time to weigh in on the proposal. For now, the Trump-era rule will remain in place.

That rule required local regulators to focus their reviews on the pollution that projects might discharge into rivers, streams and wetlands. It also rigidly enforced a one-year deadline for regulators to make permitting decisions. Some states lost their authority to block certain projects based on allegations they blew the deadline, the Associated Press reported.

The EPA is taking the position that states should have authority to look beyond pollution discharged into waterways and “holistically evaluate” the impact of a project on local water quality. The proposal would gives local regulators more power. It allows localities to make sure they have information needed before facing deadline pressure to then issue or deny permits.

The National Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released the annual increase in atmospheric methane during 2021 and found the largest annual increase ever recorded since systematic measurements began in 1983. Scientists estimate global methane emissions in 2021 are 15% higher than in the 1984-2006 period. That means a single year generated the amount of methane in one year that typically would be measured over a 22-year span.

Methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere. At least 25% of today’s global warming is driven by methane from human actions. Human actions from methane emissions are driven by the increase in population and demand for more meat. Agriculture is the predominant source of methane, but there are ways to stay ahead of dangerous methane output. Livestock emissions, yes cow feces and other gastrointestinal releases, account for roughly 32% of human-caused methane emissions.

Economic development and urban migration have stimulated unprecedented demand for animal protein. There have been several specific diets in the last 30 years that are based around meat, as the primary protein and with the global population approaching 10 billion, this hunger is expected to increase by up to 70% by 2050. NOAA

Four people were taken to Washington area hospitals with life-threatening injuries after lightning struck near the White House amid a strong storm that blew through the U.S. capital.

On Friday morning, officials confirmed James Mueller, 76 & Donna Mueller, 75, died from the lightning strikes.

The U.S. Secret Service, along with U.S. Park Police, rushed to help two females and two males after seeing a large bolt of lightning strike an area in Lafayette Square, according to Vito Maggiolo, who is a public information officer for D.C. Fire and EMS who spoke to NBC Washington.

The area is just across from the White House, within a short walking distance. Authorities could not give exact injuries or an update on the victim's statuses as of late Thursday night.

As NBC Washington reported, a witness named David Root said he was "in a state of shock." He said, "I just couldn't believe it. Was surreal. I have never seen anything like this in my entire life.”

Root described hearing "a horrific boom" and said he goes to Lafayette Square park in the evening to show support for the people of Ukraine.

A camera trained on the White House used by television stations captured the moment the bolt of lightning hit the area.

Mike Thomas, a meteorologist in Washington, said the bolt "clearly hits either the ground or [a] nearby tree" because sparks are visible in the video.

The White House responded to Thursday's incident.

"We are saddened by the tragic loss of life after the lightning strike in Lafayette Park. Our hearts are with the families who lost loved ones, and we are praying for those still fighting for their lives," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Maggiolo told the New York Times that “Trees of course, are not safe places” during storms. Lafayette Square is covered in shade trees located in downtown D.C. in an area near tourist attractions, hotels, restaurants and bars.

The strike happened around 6:50 p.m. local time, where the two men and two women were located, in an area across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House in Lafayette Square, in their “immediate vicinity," Maggiolo said.

The CDC says about 90% of people survive lightning strikes, and the odds of being struck by lightning in any given year is less than one in a million.

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Flash flooding at Death Valley National Park triggered by heavy rainfall on Friday buried cars, forced officials to close all roads in and out the park and stranded about 1,000 people, officials said

The park near the California-Nevada state line received at least 1.7 inches (4.3 centimeters) of rain at the Furnace Creek area, which park officials in a statement said represented "nearly an entire year's worth of rain in one morning." The park's average annual rainfall is 1.9 inches (4.8 centimeters).

About 60 vehicles were buried in debris and about 500 visitors and 500 park workers were stranded, park officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries and the California Department of Transportation estimated it would take four to six hours to open a road that would allow park visitors to leave.

It was the second major flooding event at the park this week. Some roads were closed Monday after they were inundated with mud and debris from flash floods that also hit western Nevada and northern Arizona hard.

The rain started around 2 a.m., said John Sirlin, a photographer for an Arizona-based adventure company who witnessed the flooding as he perched on a hillside boulder where he was trying to take pictures of lightning as the storm approached.

"It was more extreme than anything I've seen there," said Sirlin, who lives in Chandler, Arizona, and has been visiting the park since 2016. He is the lead guide for Incredible Weather Adventures and said he started chasing storms in Minnesota and the high plains in the 1990s.

"I've never seen it to the point where entire trees and boulders were washing down. The noise from some of the rocks coming down the mountain was just incredible," he said in a phone interview Friday afternoon.

"A lot of washes were flowing several feet deep. There are rocks probably 3 or 4 feet covering the road," he said.

Sirlin said it took him about 6 hours to drive about 35 miles (56 kilometers) out of the park from near the Inn at Death Valley.

"There were at least two dozen cars that got smashed and stuck in there," he said, adding that he didn't see anyone injured "or any high water rescues."

During Friday's rainstorms, the "flood waters pushed dumpster containers into parked cars, which caused cars to collide into one another. Additionally, many facilities are flooded including hotel rooms and business offices," the park statement said.

A water system that provides it for park residents and offices also failed after a line broke that was being repaired, the statement said.

A flash flood warning for the park and surrounding area expired at 12:45 p.m., Friday but a flood advisory remained in effect into the evening, the National Weather Service said.

Day to day, running a farm takes a lot of work.

“You can see the soybean pods starting to form,” Lee Tesdell, a farm owner in Iowa, said.

Farms are facing more and more unknowns due to a changing climate.

“Two years ago, we had a derecho here,” he explained. “This field was corn that year and the corn got flattened, federal crop insurance paid this farmer to destroy his corn, didn't even harvest it that year.”

Tesdell showed us around his farm, which has been in the family for more than 100 years. He’s now focused on more resilient farming.

“We need to diversify more,” he said.

Just this April, a rain storm caused flooding, taking fertilizer and topsoil with it.

“We expect to see more of those severe weather events,” he said.

This is where federal crop insurance comes in.

“This crop insurance program pays farmers when they have a crop yield or revenue loss,” said Anne Schechinger, the midwest director for the Environmental Working Group.

The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit research organization that does ongoing research on how much climate is impacting these payouts.

From 1995 to 2020, farmers received more than $143.5 billion in federal crop insurance, according to an Environmental Working Group analysis of Department of Agriculture data.

“The biggest causes of loss over that big time from 1995 to 2020, first was drought. That was far and above the largest cause of loss. And the other was excessive moisture, so the other side of drought,” Schechinger said.

“The federal crop insurance program has saved, financial saved, some farmers some years,” Tesdell said.

But it’s not just farmers footing the bill.

“Sixty percent of these crop insurance premiums are subsidized by taxpayers, so we all pay this bill,” Schechinger said.

“We are asking an investment from taxpayers to have a more stable farm economy and more stable food system,” Aaron Lehman, president of the Iowa Farmers Union, said.

In places like Iowa for example, where corn fields stretch as far as the horizon, crop insurance can be an important tool. Lehman said farmers should also do their part.

“I think that’s why it’s important for farmers to be involved in doing things that can mitigate climate change,” Lehman said. “Makes sense that we should do more to tie good practices to crop insurance.”

“This federal crop insurance program really discouraged farmers from adapting to climate change,” Schechinger said.

Every five years, the federal farm bill is discussed and changes are made. For the 2023 farm bill, discussions have already begun in Washington D.C.

“Our farm bill kind of sets the direction for our farm policy for the next five years, so it’s important that the discussions include crop insurance and how we can have the most effective crop insurance,” Lehman said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon utilities shut down power to tens of thousands of customers on Friday as dry easterly winds swept into the region in a bid to lessen the risk of wildfires in extremely dry and hot conditions.

Power shut-offs due to extreme fire weather, common in California, are relatively new to the Pacific Northwest. The plans, which were part of permanent rules approved in May to manage wildfire danger in high-risk areas, mark the new reality in a region better known for its rain and temperate rainforests.

Portland General Electric halted power to about 30,000 customers in 12 service areas — including the post West Hills neighborhood of Portland — and a second power company was poised to initiate its own shutoff. More than 40,000 customers were expected to lose power by late Friday in planned shutoffs as winds of up to 60 mph hit and temperatures hovered in the high 80s and low 90s.

Schools in the areas with planned power outages canceled classes and authorities urged residents to charge cellphones and be ready to evacuate at a moment's notice.

Climate change is bringing drier conditions to the Pacific Northwest and that requires strategies that have been common in fire-prone California for the past decade or more, said Erica Fleishman, director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University.

Wind patterns haven't changed, but those winds are now coinciding more frequently with drier vegetation and hotter temperatures — a toxic mix for fire ignition, rapid spread and extreme fire behavior, she said.

"I don't know whether this is the solution, but it's an interim effort to manage wildfire risk," Fleishman said. "People are going, 'Oh my gosh!' The areas we thought were safe, they're realizing those are not immune to fire anymore. The fire likelihood is changing."

The proactive power shutoffs were just the second for Portland General Electric ever. The utility shut down power to 5,000 customers in 2020 near Mount Hood during firestorms that ravaged the state. Extreme winds over Labor Day weekend led to wildfires that burned more than 1 million acres (405,000 hectares), destroyed 4,000 homes and killed at least 11 people — and utilities were blamed for some of those fire starts.

Pacific Power, another major utility in Oregon, said if it shuts off power to customers in six counties later Friday, as anticipated, it will be first time the company has done so since putting a wildfire mitigation plan in place in Oregon in 2018.

The utility was sued last year by residents in two towns that burned to ashes in the 2020 wildfires who blamed the company for not shutting down power in advance of the devastating wind storm.

Pacific Power has since hired a team of meteorologists to make fire weather forecasts and is spending more than $500 million to "harden" its electric grid in high-risk areas by replacing wooden poles with carbonized ones and encasing power lines and conductor boxes to reduce the chances of a spark, said Drew Hanson, a Pacific Power spokesman.

"You can look at the West in general and climate change has impacted areas from Southern California, and then Northern California and now up into this region as well, we're seeing those same conditions," he said.

"It's something we are taking very seriously. We realize the changing landscape. We've been changing and evolving along with it."

A number of blazes are burning in Oregon. The largest is the Double Creek Fire burning in northeastern Oregon near the Idaho border. The fire grew by nearly 47 square miles (122 square kilometers) Wednesday because of wind gusts up to 50 mph (80 kph) and as of Thursday had burned a total of nearly 158 square miles (409 square kilometers). It's threatening about 100 homes near the community of Imnaha.

In Central Oregon, the Cedar Creek Fire east of Oakridge has burned nearly 47 square miles (122 square kilometers). That fire prompted new mandatory evacuations Thursday for several recreational areas and campgrounds in Linn, Deschutes and Klamath counties and for residents in greater Oakridge and Westfir areas to be ready to evacuate.

The Van Meter Fire, which started Wednesday, is burning on Stukel Mountain about 13 miles (21 kilometers) southeast of Klamath Falls. One home and four structures have been destroyed and about 260 structures are threatened by that blaze, Medema said on Thursday.

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Associated Press reporter Andrew Selsky in Salem, Oregon contributed to this report.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — John Kerry, the top U.S. envoy at this year's U.N. climate talks in Egypt, has tested positive for COVID-19, a spokesperson said late Friday night, another potential setback for negotiations that were already going into overtime with no result in sight.

"He is fully vaccinated and boosted and experiencing mild symptoms. He is working with his negotiations team and foreign counterparts by phone to ensure a successful outcome of COP27," spokesperson Whitney Smith wrote in a statement late Friday.

Kerry's illness was sure to add to worries about the negotiations, which had been scheduled to end Friday. A former U.S. senator and secretary of state, Kerry has deep relationships with leaders around the world and carries a lot of weight in international talks. His meetings in Sharm el-Sheikh with China's climate envoy Xie Zhenhua were closely watched for signs that the world's two biggest polluters might agree a deal that would boost the overall talks.

Negotiations, at least those in public, hit a lull Friday afternoon as news conferences and plenaries were postponed or cancelled. Diplomats said they hoped for late night progress and changed airline reservations so talks could continue.

Delegates said there was some headway being made, especially on the most difficult sticking point. That's the issue of rich industrialized nations providing money to vulnerable countries suffering from 'loss and damage' as a result of climate-related disasters.

"I think we're in for a bit of a long haul," World Resources Institute international climate director David Waskow said. "Loss and damage sits at the center in terms of what needs to be done to get this over the finish line."

The United States appeared isolated in opposing a dedicated loss and damage fund after the European Union produced a surprise offer on the issue Thursday. But a State Department official confirmed that negotiations on the issue were ongoing.

A group of developing nations known as G-77 and China have insisted on a fund being established at the meeting and remained outwardly united on the issue late Friday.

Other delegates at the talks expressed hope that a deal might still be possible.

"We are very busy and they're making some progress and they've gotten some clarity on all positions," Molwyn Joseph, who spoke on behalf of small island states, told The Associated Press.

"There is the possibility that we could get an outcome, but also it could fall over at the last minute," said New Zealand's Climate Change Minister James Shaw. "And I think if that happened, it would be a real shame because this is as close (on loss and damage) as we've ever been before."

Climate activist Nakeeyat Dramani Sam of Ghana chided delegates at this year's U.N. climate talks, saying they would act faster to rein in global warming if they were her age.

"It is an emergency," the 10-year-old told negotiators, holding a sign that read "Payment Overdue". "If all of you were to be young people like me, wouldn't you have already agreed to do what is needed to save our planet?"

But after receiving a standing ovation, it was back to nations squabbling over several thorny issues, with the Egyptian presidency acknowledging that the talks will go into overtime on Saturday, if not longer.

"Time is not on our side," said Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. Speaking as the summit's chair, he pledged to try to find common ground going forward. "The global community is looking to us to be bold and ambitious."

The EU proposal on 'loss and damage' payments Thursday would require emerging economies such as China — the second biggest historic polluter after the U.S. — to contribute to the fund.

"We're making clear that Europe is on the side of the most vulnerable states," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said. "Others can now show which side they are on."

The EU proposal would also require stepped up efforts on reducing, or 'mitigating,' greenhouse gas emissions to slow global warming. It also adopts a call to phase down all fossil fuels — a measure first proposed by India and a dramatic step up from previous commitments to just phase down coal.

Unless emissions are cut more steeply, "no money in the world could pay for the damages and losses of the future," Baerbock said.

EU climate chief Frans Timmermans said Friday that the bloc's proposal on funding for loss and damage and mitigation is "a final offer" that seeks to "find a compromise" between countries as negotiators work out a way forward.

The environmental advocacy group Action Aid called the proposal a "wolf in sheep's clothing" because it doesn't go far enough.

The EU plan was a counter to a proposal made by the Group of 77 and China, which would create a fund but only require developed nations to contribute, excepting top polluters China and India.

China, which had been quiet during much of the talks, and Saudi Arabia both said the money for a loss and damage fund shouldn't come from them. Developed countries should foot the bill, China said. Both also insisted that the 2015 Paris Agreement that aims to limit global warming to an ambitious 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) increase should not be altered, which can be interpreted as not strengthening efforts.

A senior official from the Maldives voiced growing frustration at the way vulnerable countries keep getting caught up in battles between more powerful nations at the talks, even as their situation gets increasingly dire due to climate change.

"Small island states have just 86 months and we're already feeling it," the official said, referring to scientists' calculations that greenhouse gas emissions have to be halved by 2030. "We can't be sandwiched between global powers."

Friday's draft of the overarching decision on the outcome of the talks, issued by the Egyptian presidency, includes some vague references to reform to multilateral development banks but did not include or make reference to the detailed Bridgetown Initiative on financial reform from Barbados and its Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

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Samy Magdy, Frank Jordans and Olivia Zhang contributed to this report.

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Follow AP's climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP's climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

It's that time of the year when most Americans finish Thanksgiving leftovers and venture out in search for the best holiday sales. More importantly, they plan their household centerpiece of the season: the Christmas tree.

While some revel in the scent of a real tree and the joy of picking one out at a local farm, others prefer the simplicity of artificial trees they can reuse for Christmases to come.

But consumers are becoming more climate-conscious, and considering which tree has the lowest impact on our rapidly warming planet has become a vital part of the holiday decision. Plus, choosing a planet-friendly tree will likely get you on Santa's good list.

So, which kind of tree has the lowest carbon footprint — a natural tree or a store-bought plastic tree? It's complicated, experts say.

"It's definitely a lot more nuanced and complex than you think," Andy Finton, the landscape conservation director and forest ecologist for the Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts, told CNN.

We've made a list — and checked it twice — of the things to know before you choose between real and artificial.

The case for artificial trees

It's easy to imagine that reusing an artificial tree year after year is the more sustainable option. But Finton says that if an artificial tree is used for six years — the average amount of time people tend to keep them — "the carbon cost is definitely greater" than for a natural tree.

"If the artificial trees are used for a longer lifespan, that balance changes," Finton told CNN. "And I've read that it would take 20 years for the carbon balance to be about equivalent."

That's because artificial trees are typically made of polyvinyl chloride plastic, or PVC. Plastic is petroleum-based and created at pollution-belching petrochemical facilities. Studies have also linked PVC plastic to cancer and other public health and environmental risks.

Then there's the transportation aspect. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, most artificial Christmas trees are imported into the US from China, meaning the products are carried by fossil fuel-powered ships across the Pacific Ocean, then moved by heavy freight trucks before it ultimately lands on the distributor's shelves or the consumer's doorstep.

The American Christmas Tree Association, a nonprofit that represents artificial tree manufacturers, commissioned WAP Sustainability Consulting for a study in 2018 that found the environmental impact of an artificial tree is better than a real tree if you use the fake tree for at least five years.

"Artificial trees were looked at [in the study] for factors such as manufacturing and overseas transportation," Jami Warner, executive director of ACTA, told CNN. "Planting, fertilizing and watering were taken into account for real trees, which have an approximate field cultivation period of seven to eight years."

What are the benefits of real trees?

On average, it takes seven years to fully grow a Christmas tree, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. And as it grows, it absorbs carbon dioxide from the air. Protecting forests and planting trees can help stave off the worst impacts of the climate crisis by removing the planet-warming gas from the atmosphere.

If trees are cut down or burned, they can release the carbon they've been storing back into the atmosphere. But Doug Hundley, spokesperson for the National Christmas Tree Association, which advocates for real trees, says the act of cutting down Christmas trees from a farm is balanced out when farmers immediately plant more seedlings to replace them.

"When we harvest the trees or cut them, we plant back very quickly," Hundley said.

If the idea of trekking through a forest to find the perfect tree is intriguing, you can buy a permit from the U.S. Forest Service, which encourages people to cut their own tree rather than buy an artificial one. According to Recreation.gov, cutting down thin trees in dense areas can improve forest health.

But Finton doesn't recommend pulling a Clark Griswold and chopping down a massive tree to haul home — especially if it's in an area you're not permitted for. He recommends getting a tree from a local farm, instead.

"To me, the benefit of going to a Christmas tree farm, which is different than cutting a tree in the forest, is that it concentrates the impact of removing trees into one location," he said. "And it puts the responsibility on the farmers to regenerate those trees."

There's also an economic benefit to going natural, since most of the trees people end up getting are grown at nearby farms. About 15,000 farms grow Christmas trees in the US alone, employing over 100,000 people either full or part-time in the industry, according to the National Christmas Tree Association.

"What we're doing by purchasing a natural Christmas tree is supporting local economies, local communities, local farmers and to me, that's a key part of the conservation equation," Finton said. "When a tree grower can reap economic benefits from their land, they're less likely to sell it for development and less likely to convert it to other uses."

Disposal matters

Trees pile up on the curbs after the holidays are over, and the final destination in many locations is landfills, where they contribute to emissions of methane — a powerful greenhouse gas roughly 80 times more potent that carbon dioxide.

"Real Christmas trees ending up in landfills is very much discouraged," Hundley said, adding that there needs to be "separate areas for yard waste where Christmas trees can go."

But some towns and cities repurpose the trees to benefit the climate and the environment. In New York City, trees left on curbs during a certain timeframe are picked up to be recycled or composted. The city sanitation department also hosts an initiative called MulchFest, where residents can bring their trees to be chipped for mulch and used to nourish other trees throughout the city.

"When the tree is finished being used by the homeowner, it's very easy and and common in America to have the tree chipped up into mulch — and that's stored carbon is put back in the ground," Hundley added.

Finton also says former Christmas trees can be reused for habitat restoration; they can help control erosion if placed along stream and river banks, and can even help underwater habitats thrive if they are placed in rivers and lakes.

The end of life for an artificial tree is much different. They end up in landfills — where they could take hundreds of years to decompose — or incinerators, where they release hazardous chemicals.

The bottom line

Weighing the complicated climate pros and cons, real Christmas trees have the edge. But if you choose to deck your halls artificially, get a tree you're going to love and reuse for many years.

Either way, Finton said, people should feel good about their decision and find other ways to tackle the climate crisis.

"It's a debate, but once you've made a decision, you should feel good about your decision, because there's so many other things we can do in our lives that have an even greater climate impact — such as driving less or advocating for policies that expand renewable energy," Finton said. "Enjoy the holidays and focus on other aspects of your life to reduce the impacts of climate change."

Whether it is sudden rural flooding, extreme levels of snowfall or the dangerous combination of heat and wind, protecting people from Mother Nature starts with devices that are rarely seen.

A team at Tennessee Technological University built a small water sensor that is being installed near bodies of water in Tennessee that are currently not monitored for flooding.

The small sensor costs about $500, which is much cheaper than a standard U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) gauge. It can cost as much as $25,000. USGS gauges are typically placed near large bodies of water.

Associate professor Alfred Kalyanapu and his team are looking for more partners and grants to put more sensors in new places and improve the technology.

Other states are building out their own weather monitoring networks. Alex Brown, an environmental reporter with the Pew Charitable Trusts nonprofit, Stateline, says a lot of the effort is motivated by increasing severe weather events.

Mesonets are placed in areas where the National Weather Service doesn’t have stations.

“Especially in states where you have a lot of different climate zones or varying topography, you can have some pretty widely varying conditions between those stations," Brown said.

Oklahoma was first to build a state mesonet system. Other states followed after flying blind during major weather events. Maryland and Hawaii were two of the latest states to come on board. Now, as many as 38 states have their own state-run mesonet program.

Schools and agriculture have also come to rely on them.

“When to spray pesticides based on how the wind is blowing. When it might not be safe to have athletes practicing outside. Some utilities are paying for their own mesonets just so they can understand wildfire risk a little better and know when they might need to shut off some power lines," Brown said.

The National Weather Service pays states for the weather data collected by their mesonet programs.

Brown says that information will eventually become historical data as the impact of climate change is studied at a more local level.

German police detained climate activists Greta Thunberg during a coal mine protest on Tuesday.

The 20-year-old was seen being carried away from the site by officers in riot gear.

The operation to evict climate activists who flocked to the site in the hamlet of Luetzerath kicked off last week. Police cleared people out of farm buildings, the few remaining houses and a few dozen makeshift constructions such as tree houses.

On Saturday, thousands of people demonstrated nearby against the eviction and the planned expansion of the Garzweiler coal mine. There were standoffs with police as some protesters tried to reach the village, which is now fenced off, and the mine.

Environmentalists say bulldozing the village to expand the Garzweiler mine would result in huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. The government and utility company RWE argue the coal is needed to ensure Germany’s energy security.

The regional and national governments, both of which include the environmentalist Green party, reached a deal with RWE last year allowing it to destroy the abandoned village in return for ending coal use by 2030, rather than 2038.

The Greens' leaders argue that the deal fulfills many of the environmentalists’ demands and saved five other villages from demolition, and that Luetzerath is the wrong symbol for protests. Activists reject that stance.

Police said in a statement Sunday that nearly 300 people have been removed so far from Luetzerath. They added that “the rescue by RWE Power of the two people in underground structures continues; beyond that, the clearance by police is complete.”

They said that 12 people were detained in connection with Saturday's incidents. Demolition of the buildings in Luetzerath is already underway.

A polar bear killed a woman and child in Alaska, authorities said.

Alaska State Troopers said they were alerted to a polar bear attack at around 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Initial reports indicate the polar bear entered a community in Wales and chased multiple residents, according to Alaska State Troopers.

A resident reportedly shot and killed the bear as it attacked the pair.

The names of the victims have not been released. Authorities said next of kin notifications are still in progress.

Wales is located at the tip of Western Alaska. Officials with the state's Department of Fish and Game are planning to travel to the remote area as weather conditions allow to investigate the incident.

Polar bear killings in the U.S. are rare. According to a study published by The Wildlife Society, there were only six polar bear attacks in the U.S. between 1870-2014.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A certain mystique laps upon the shores. Even in the dead of winter on the Chesapeake Bay, there are still plenty of signs of life.

"This time of year, I notice how clear the water is," said Beth McGee, who has spent decades studying the nation's largest estuary.

On the surface, things may look calm here. However, this watershed, which touches six states and spans over 64,000 square miles, is sick.

"All told the bay is still struggling," said McGee, who works for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Every year, the nonprofit gives this waterway a grade based on how healthy it is. This year, it received a D+.

"Climate change is making our restoration efforts more challenging. More severe storms are bringing more pollution into the bay," McGee said.

What’s happening here has become a case study on just how hard it is to clean up and restore vital watersheds and estuaries, as well as reverse the impacts of pollution and global warming even as costly plans are being put in place nationwide to push back against climate change.

Environmentalists first started realizing how polluted the Chesapeake was back in the 1970s. By 2010, government agencies, nonprofits and environmentalists started taking action to clean it up.

"People across the country were saying, 'We need to watch this,' because they are setting themselves up for success. They have plans. They have accountability that no other watershed has had," McGee added.

Thirteen years later, though, progress has been slow.

Across the lower 48 states, there are 78 major watersheds, essentially basins catching water from rivers as they hit the sea. But of the more than 700,000 miles of waterways in the US, nearly 51% are impaired by pollution.

"One hundred years ago, people didn’t give rivers and streams much thought," explained Matt Ehrhart with the Stroud Water Research Center. "Clean fresh water is one of the most vital resources we have."

Ehrhart says that these days, most pollutants in our nation's watersheds come from agriculture. Fertilizers and pesticides used on crops often run off into nearby rivers and streams. There are other causes, like runoff from the road salt we use in the winter.

"It’s critical the way we live on the landscape doesn’t unduly impact those resources," he added.

A megadrought ailing the American West got even drier last year and is becoming the deepest dry spell in more than 1,200 years. A study out Monday said the megadrought is now the worst-case scenario officials and scientists worried about in the 1900s. The drought deepened so much in 2021 that it is 5% worse than the old record in the late 1500s.

Scientists compare this megadrought to what would happen in a hypothetical world without human-caused climate change. And they calculate that 42% of this drought is due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels.

A study published in the journal Nature Climate Change found that the window of time between 2020-2021 was the driest for southwestern North America in 1,200 years.

In the study, researchers said, "Since the year 2000, southwestern North America has been unusually dry due to low precipitation totals and heat, punctuated most recently by exceptional drought in 2021."

As CNN reported, the burning of fossil fuels has been found to be directly related to water availability in the West. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that in December Los Angles experienced its second-wettest month on record, but then last month Los Angeles experienced its eight-driest January on record for the city.

On Tuesday, the Xerces Society announced the final tally of the western monarch's annual Thanksgiving count. According to the Xerces Society, 247,237 monarch butterflies were observed across the West which amounts to more than a 100-fold increase from 2020 which saw fewer than 2,000 monarchs. This year's number is the largest total since 2016 and is the single biggest year increase ever recorded. “We’re ecstatic with the results and hope this trend continues,” said Emma Pelton, the Western Monarch Lead with the Xerces Society.In Pacific Grove, the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary reported 14,000 butterflies this year. The year before they saw zero. This was the area's best monarch count in five years. In addition, monarchs were found starting near Santa Cruz, with over 1,000 at both Natural Bridges State Park and Moran LakeThe Xerces Society noted that while the 2021 tallies are exciting news, the western monarchs have undergone a significant decline since the 1980s, losing more than 95% of their population.

Technology is changing the way pollution is tracked across the United States.

That is clear in California, where a tool called CalEnviroScreen allows users to find out the relative impact of pollution on their community.

"The idea was to try to understand and address this issue of cumulative impacts," said Dr. John Faust, who works in California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. "CalEnviroScreen is a geographic screening tool that's intended to identify communities in California that are burdened by multiple sources of pollution."

The team at California's OEHHA first published CalEnviroScreen in 2013. The tool is now in its fourth edition.

Californians or other interested parties can look up the relative pollution in any U.S. Census tract in the state.

"There are about 21 [indicators] that represent different types of pollution," said Dr. Faust, "like air quality, water quality ... the presence of solid waste, landfills, and so forth. Each of those has an indicator that is scored in relation to all the other Census tracts in the state. For example, an 89 percentile in a given Census tract means that the score is higher than 89% of the other Census tracts across the state."

The publicly available tool is just one way the data is used.

A 2012 California state law required the state's Environmental Protection Agency to identify communities that are disproportionately impacted by pollution.

CalEnviroScreen was developed to help meet that goal. Data scientists had to assemble a variety of statistics from different state and federal agencies. Experts have called the finished product groundbreaking.

"Bringing all the data sets to a uniform geography, the Census tract, was pretty new for a lot of the data sets in CalEnviroScreen," said Laura August, a scientist at OEHHA. "The data might have existed, but we had to develop methods to aggregate it at a similar uniform scale for all the data sets."

"At this point," said Dr. Faust, "several billions of dollars have been allocated to disadvantaged communities as a result of this program."

The federal government has a similar mapping tool, EJSCREEN. It contains many of the same features as CalEnviroScreen, but does not include state-specific data, such as pesticide reporting.

Other states are developing their own tools.

"Washington state has had a similar initiative, and I know the state of Michigan has also started on this path," said Dr. Faust. "And as I understand, the state of Colorado's department of public health and environment is also committed to looking at the development of a similar tool."

OEHHA leaders say this tool would not have been possible without the technological innovations of the last decade.

"When I started 12 years ago, online, interactive maps weren't as easily developed and created," said August. "And now, it's just kind of a standard, that we can put our data on a map, that someone can search their address. That technology has definitely been a benefit."

GLASGOW, Scotland —

Almost 200 nations accepted a contentious climate compromise Saturday aimed at keeping a key global warming target alive, but it contained a last-minute change that watered down crucial language about coal.

Several countries, including small island states, said they were deeply disappointed by the change promoted by India to “phase down,” rather than “phase out” coal power, the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Nation after nation had complained earlier on the final day of two weeks of U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland about how the deal did not go far or fast enough, but they said it was better than nothing and provided incremental progress, if not success.

Negotiators from Switzerland and Mexico called the coal language change against the rules because it came so late. However, they said they had no choice but to hold their noses and go along with it.

Swiss environment minister Simonetta Sommaruga said the change will make it harder to achieve the international goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.

“Our fragile planet is hanging by a thread,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. “We are still knocking on the door of climate catastrophe.”

Many other nations and climate campaigners pointed at India for making demands that weakened the final agreement.

"India’s last-minute change to the language to phase down but not phase out coal is quite shocking,” said Australian climate scientist Bill Hare, who tracks world emission pledges for the science-based Climate Action Tracker. “India has long been a blocker on climate action, but I have never seen it done so publicly.”

Others approached the deal from a more positive perspective. In addition to the revised coal language, the Glasgow Climate Pact included enough financial incentives to almost satisfy poorer nations and solved a long-standing problem to pave the way for carbon trading.

The agreement also says big carbon polluting nations have to come back and submit stronger emission-cutting pledges by the end of 2022.

“It’s a good deal for the world,” U.S. climate envoy John Kerry told The Associated Press. “It’s got a few problems, but it’s all in all a very good deal.”

Before the India change, negotiators said the deal preserved, albeit barely, the overarching goal of limiting Earth's warming by the end of the century to 1.5 degrees. The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to preindustrial times.

Ahead of the Glasgow talks, the United Nations had set three criteria for success, and none of them were achieved. The U.N.‘s criteria included pledges to cut carbon dioxide emissions in half by 2030, $100 billion in financial aid from rich nations to poor, and ensuring that half of that money went to helping the developing world adapt to the worst effects of climate change.

“We did not achieve these goals at this conference,” Guterres said Saturday night. “But we have some building blocks for progress."

Negotiators Saturday used the word “progress” more than 20 times, but rarely used the word “success” and then mostly in that they’ve reached a conclusion, not about the details in the agreement. Conference President Alok Sharma said the deal drives “progress on coal, cars, cash and trees’’ and is “something meaningful for our people and our planet.’’

Environmental activists were measured in their not-quite-glowing assessments, issued before India’s last-minute change.

“It’s meek, it’s weak and the 1.5 C goal is only just alive, but a signal has been sent that the era of coal is ending. And that matters,” said Greenpeace International Executive Director Jennifer Morgan, a veteran of the U.N. climate talks known as the Conferences of Parties.

Former Irish President Mary Robinson, speaking for a group of retired leaders called The Elders, said the pact represents “some progress, but nowhere near enough to avoid climate disaster... People will see this as a historically shameful dereliction of duty.”

Next year’s talks are scheduled to take place in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Dubai will host the meeting in 2023.

___

Aniruddha Ghosal, Karl Ritter and Ellen Knickmeyer contributed to this report.

Pumpkins are symbolic of the fall season. But growers around the U.S. are running into more extreme weather, which is impacting the number of pumpkins available in certain regions.

“People have been bringing their children here for generations,” said David Reid, the president of Dave’s Pumpkins.

Reid has been providing pumpkins in northern Illinois since he was in school.

“I started this 46 years ago,” he said.

And like many farmers across the U.S. this year, he’s run into weather-related challenges with his crop.

“This year was a challenging year for growing pumpkins here in northern Illinois. It was very dry early in the season. We got just enough rain right after planting,” he said.

“Some years have been very dry,” Reid explained. “Some years have been too wet, and that's the worst for pumpkins.”

By just a matter of miles, where you grow can make all the difference.

“It makes a huge difference. Just a few miles away, you can get a lot of rain or no rain, and depending on the timing, it can make a big difference on the crop,” he said.

Just south, Abbey Farms has run into different problems.

“Last year, we had complete crop failure of our pumpkin farm, and that was because we had two and a half months of rain right at the time of planting, which just doesn't happen. So, we lost all of our crop,” said Adam Voirin, the chief operating officer at Abbey Farms. “The difficulty we ran into this year was the drought. We somehow came out OK. The pumpkins are lighter than normal.”

Voirin has been there since they started growing pumpkins 13 years ago. He said the yield each year can be drastically different.

“There’s been a lot of challenges with the weather,” he said. “I think we can say the climate is changing, the extremes are becoming more prevalent.”

That can be tough, especially for a state known for pumpkins.

“Pumpkin is actually a very important part of Illinois agriculture,” Reid said.

In 2020, Illinois produced about 35,000 pounds of pumpkins per acre. This was a significant drop from 2018, when the state produced 45,000 pounds per acre, according to stats from the USDA Economic Research Service.

“A big issue for pumpkin production is weather conditions, and depending on local weather conditions, different areas can have a great year or a hard year. And it’s not uncommon to see yields for a state to change up to 14,000 pounds,” said Gregory Astill, a research economist with the USDA Economic Research Service. “In an average year in the United States, farmers grow about 2 billion pounds of pumpkins.”

Illinois isn’t the only state dealing with extremes.

“We have a shortage of pumpkins throughout California,” said Lyra Marble, the owner of Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch in California. “I’ve had to get pumpkins from up in Oregon, which normally those aren't great pumpkins because they get too much rain. Ironically the drought there is helping their pumpkin yield.”

Marble said the drought, supply chain problems, and other logistics impacted their business this fall.

“I’ve been doing this for over 25 years and this is the first year I can’t expect what I've always expected,” she said.

But possible solutions are in the works.

“Since the 1880s, we’ve had temperatures that are increasing,” said Alan Walters, a professor of horticulture at Southern Illinois University. “If it’s going the way it is now, it’s going to be very difficult to grow pumpkins in the future in these areas.”

Walters has been experimenting with more heat-tolerant pumpkins for the future.

“My goal is to develop some more heat-tolerant pumpkin lines that growers can have to utilize for growing pumpkins, especially in more warmer areas like the lower Midwest and upper South, where they grow a significant amount of pumpkins,” he explained. “The climate is definitely changing.”

“The genetic research that's gone into pumpkins over the 46 years, I’ve been growing them, has had a tremendous improvement in the yield and the ability for the pumpkins to be resistant,” Reid said.

“Having a fun experience at the pumpkin patch, that’s what it's about,” Marble said.

As farmers work to provide the selection and the fun that customers are used to getting, they are having to get more resilient and creative as they deal with changes in weather.

“It’s turning into more you're getting 100-year floods, or rainfall events every week. And so it's really hard to rebound from that when the ground can take it a little bit, so we’re investigating new ways of irrigation things like that to help,” Voirin said.

“Farms and those of us that are working with natural products, we are definitely some of the people on the front lines of climate change and seeing what's coming to everyone in the world,” Marble said.

The fall foliage season's yellows, oranges, and reds are slowly expanding across the United States. As seen through tree leaves, the change from summer to fall is changing at a different pace due to climate change.

The increasing global temperature creates wetter and warmer areas of the country, which directly impacts the trees and their photosynthesis process.

"September is the most important month for determining the timing and quality of the fall color," said Howard Neufeld, professor of biology at Appalachian State University.

Climate change is extending summer temperatures into September, which alters the fall foliage. A shifting summer season will change the fall season.

"In a future high-CO2 world that is warmer, we may see a longer summer season," said Neufeld.

Higher air temperatures cause the atmosphere to hold more water vapor, leading to more rain in areas.

Neufeld says warmer and wetter weather creates duller red-colored leaves.

The red leaves are what define the beauty of the fall foliage season.

The orange and yellow leaves will always exist because the green of the chlorophyll masks the pigments responsible for those colors during the summer.

Climate change will also change the makeup of the forests and the leaf canopy. The warmer weather will drive some trees to relocate to the north.

There was a similar movement of Florida trees following the retreat of the glaciers.

"They can move — not like in 'Lord of the Rings' where they can walk — but through seed dispersal. If it's too warm in the South, then they'll have to move north," said Neufeld.

As the leaves shift from green to their fall colors, they do so at different time intervals because of the warmer temperatures.

"The intensity of the color is not as great because you don't get all the colors coming up at one time," said Neufeld.

The fall foliage tourism industry is estimated to pump $25 billion to $30 billion into economies across the country each year.

Scott Withers at Newsy first reported this story.

July 2021 was the earth’s hottest month on record, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The land and ocean surface temperatures were a combined 1.67 degrees above the average.

One city in the southwest region of the U.S. is looking at solutions to help keep the ground cooler.

“It looks basically like cured concrete,” said Ryan Stevens, a civil engineer with the City of Phoenix.

Ryan Stevens and other engineers are trying to lower the temperature of the asphalt.

“Really, it gives that illusion of putting on the product like sunscreen onto our roads, and that's really what it's doing is insulating our roads from the daytime solar energy," he said.

In nine areas across Phoenix, the city is piloting its "Cool Pavement Program." It’s a lighter coating on top of the roads already in place.

“It’s not paint. We hear people say, 'Well, you just painted your streets,' we didn't paint our streets. We actually used an asphalt-based product,” said Kini Knudson, director of Street Transportation for the City of Phoenix.

The program began last year and currently coats 36 miles of asphalt across the city.

“If it’s something that makes sense from an environmental climate perspective but also makes our pavement last longer, for me, it's a no-brainer,” he said.

“The idea is to keep the energy out of the pavement because at night the pavement is the last thing to cool down. About 30 to 40 percent of the urban area is paved surfaces,” Stevens said.

Paved surfaces contribute to similar problems in cities across the U.S. Larger populations and more buildings created a higher urban heat island index -- it’s a concept called the urban heat island effect.

“The urban heat island is a situation that has been studied for about 200 years. It happens because you have buildings that can store heat differently than the natural surface. So a building will hold onto heat and hold it on through the night, and what that does is it keeps the nighttime temperatures warmer so we have this situation where we’re not cooling off at night,” Erinanne Saffell, Arizona’s state climatologist, said.

“That energy, the sunlight comes down and is stored in the surfaces,” she explained. “The more reflective a surface, the less energy it’s going to store and so it's not going to be as hot.”

Saffell compares it to how a person might feel wearing a dark t-shirt in the hot sun.

“If you're wearing a light-colored shirt that reflects the heat, that's not going to get you as hot,” she said.

“We know that heat is a challenge for our community, we want our community to be comfortable,” Kate Gallego, the Mayor of Phoenix, said. “We’ve noticed it’s not getting as cool as night, we’re retaining a lot of heat.”

Results from the first year of the program show the cool pavement had an average surface temperature of 10.5 to 12 degrees Fahrenheit lower than regular asphalt at noon and during the afternoon hours. At all times of the day, the cool asphalt was cooler than traditional asphalt.

“That’s enough temperature distance or change that you can feel it if you're walking in a community,” Gallego said.

However, Stevens said it’s still being looked at how this impacts the air around the asphalt.

“The degree of which that air mixing, does it feel hotter or not, is something we still need to look at,” he said.

The city plans on trying different colors and shades as well.

Keeping buildings and asphalt lighter is something Steve Hamburg says has been used in design decisions for quite a while.

“If you go to the Mediterranean, you would never see dark roofs. You're always going to see light roofs, because they want to reflect the heat off the roofs so it doesn't warm the structure…people have been known to do that for thousands of years,” Steven Hamburg, chief scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, said.

The project in Phoenix will continue to see what works best to mitigate the urban heat island effect and keep our planet cooler.

“It’s going to take a few more years to be able to fully evaluate the impact and the benefits of it,” Knudson said.

The effects of climate change go beyond increasingly intense fires and floods. It's having a psychological effect as well.

The Lancet Planetary Health Journal found an overwhelming majority of teenagers and young adults are sad, anxious or frightened by climate change — and don't believe the government is doing enough to protect them.

Young people aren't the only ones who are worried. The Potential Energy Coalition, a new non-profit group, found that more than 60% of Americans are concerned about climate change, but only 14% talk about the issue often.

"In my case, my 17-year-old made me do it," Potential Energy Coalition CEO John Marshall. "He's like, 'Dad you've been in communications for 30 years, why don't you start helping with this issue?' I think a lot of change happens when our younger generation prompts us to do that."

That's why the Potential Energy Coalition teamed up with the Ad Council and Science Moms for a new campaign to empower parents to discuss climate change.

Science Moms is a group of climate scientists who are also mothers looking to educate, empower and inspire moms through relatable information.

"Our communication probably hasn't been the best at times as scientists," said Melissa Burt, one of the founding members of Science Moms. "We're using words that people don't understand, and so they kind of just push this to the side, 'This is not something that matters to me because I have no idea what you're saying,' right? We can provide them with the information, and we can talk about things."

The Science Moms website is loaded with resources on climate change for families like books, videos and simple tools to take action.

While the problem may seem complex, the message is simple.

"I want all of the moms and the parents to kind of join me on this front row seat to really use their voice and empower them to be a part of that movement for change," Burt said. "We've all experienced what happened over the last several months with the extreme heat, and the drought, and the water shortages, and the fires and floods. Climate change is here, and we have kind of a small window of opportunity to act, but it's not too late."

LONG ISLAND, N.Y. — There’s a lot of solutions out there that people like to talk about when it comes to climate change, but one that’s gaining a lot of traction is kelp.

The seaweed is more than just a slimy sushi wrap. It could be key to fighting climate change. Just ask Michael Doall, the Associate Director for Restoration & Aquaculture at Stony Brook University.

“Not only is the kelp soaking up nitrogen, it’s soaking up carbon. It’s doing photosynthesis just like plants on land, soaking up this carbon. So, it’s sequestering this carbon, taking it out of the water and then again, when we harvest the kelp, we’re removing that. We’re approaching one of our farm sites and it’s part of this study over the last three years. We’re helping farmers learn how to grow kelp and integrate kelp in their oyster farms,” said Doall.

Doall and his crew took us to see one of their kelp farms off the coast of Long Island. We joined them with some waders to get a closer look.

“Reach in, grab that line and just lift it up. We seeded this at the end of December,” Doall explained.

And we got to taste it too.

Back on shore, Doall's partner, Chris Gobler, the Endowed Chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation at Stony Brook, explained why kelp is such an important asset in the fight against climate change.

“Most of the research I’ve done is on environmental pollution, things like climate change, ocean acidification, harmful algeal blooms, overloading of nutrients. And as it turns out, seaweeds, and in particular kelp, is sort of the remedy for all of these environmental insults,” Gobler explains.

Like Doall said earlier, one of the main things the seaweed does is absorb nitrogen and carbon in the water. CO2 in the ocean can make the water more acidic, which can cause damage in a number of ways, but it’s incredibly detrimental to shellfish.

That's why oysters may go better with kelp than cocktail sauce.

“Ocean acidification is the biggest threat to animals that make shells. You can create what we’d call a halo effect. So, you’d have a particular area where maybe the whole estuary is getting acidified, but in that area where you’re farming the oysters, where you have the kelp, you’re actually creating sort of a refuge,” said Gobler.

We wanted to get an even closer look at the kelp, so we dove in.

It’s an amazing plant that can grow incredibly fast. Doall expects the long string blades to be up to 12 feet long in a few months. They thrive in the icy waters.

Kelp isn’t the only solution to fight climate change, but Doall and Gobler hope it can be another tool for humans to use in this fight to save the planet.

Bethany Wilcox has always wanted to have kids.

“Seeing my parents and how much satisfaction and fulfillment they seemed to have from raising my sister and me, I always wanted that," Wilcox said. "I always thought that was an amazing thing.”

It was something she pictured herself doing once she settled down with a partner. She’s in that stage of life right now, but the thought of having kids scares her. She says she's afraid climate change would take away her children’s ability to live their best life.

“I am not confident that that happy future can exist for anyone anymore.”

Wilcox is not alone in her feelings. Dr. Sabrina Helm, an associate professor at the University of Arizona, has studied the role climate change plays in reproductive decision-making.

“I am generally very interested in the mental health impacts that climate change has on people in general, particularly in the United States,” Dr. Helm said.

Dr. Helm says overconsumption, overpopulation, and an uncertain future were the three major concerns that emerged in her research.

“What is the earth going to look like? Dr. Helm said. "What is the environment going to look like? And if we expose children to this new world which we all assume may not be as pretty as the world we see today, what does that mean? And it is fair to bring children into a world that might be bleaker.”

Dr. Helm says these thoughts are taking a toll on the mental health of adults in the child-rearing stage of life. Wilcox says she’s often hesitant to share her feelings on the topic because people can be very judgmental.

“The anonymity of the internet makes people terrible sometimes,” Wilcox said.

There’s also societal pressure to have kids.

“In history, the vast majority of history, the main thing that women contributed to society was their ability to have children,” Wilcox said.

Dr. Helm says many of the people she interviewed in her research said they didn’t feel validated in their fears and concerns.

“The answer is always ‘you’ll change your mind’ or ‘you’re going to regret that later’ or ‘who’s going to take care of you when you’re older,’” Wilcox said.

Wilcox says it makes it that much more difficult every time she thinks about having kids.

“It’s definitely a sad thought to think that I wouldn’t be able to have kids,” Wilcox said.

However, the idea of having kids is still on the table.

“Even if we do decide that we don’t want to have a kid on our own, we’ve talked a lot about adopting because even if I am questioning about whether or not I want to bring a child into the world, I have no qualms about loving one that’s already here,” Wilcox said.

Dr. Helm says many people with these concerns do have hope that their children could be the change-makers. She also says there are ways to cope if you are feeling this way.

“Just talking with others about what’s going on in the environment and trying to find ways to help be it on a political level, a community level, a grassroots level, all those are ways to make a difference proactively and that usually helps with our mental state.”

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg addressed lawmakers Thursday and criticized their response to climate change.

"How long do you think you can continue to ignore the climate crisis, the global aspect of equity and historic emissions without being held accountable?" asked Thunberg. "You get away with it now, but sooner or later, people are going to realize what you have been doing all this time. That's inevitable. You still have time to do the right thing and to save your legacies."

The 18-year-old from Sweden spoke to members of the House Oversight Subcommittee on the Environment. 

She told them subsidies given to fossil fuel companies are "a disgrace and need to end."

This story was originally published by Alex Livingston and Simon Kaufman at Newsy.

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