Boiling Point: A podcast about climate politics, water, public lands and more

Please forgive my starting with a little self-promotion: It’s been six weeks since we launched the Boiling Point podcast, and if you haven’t been listening, you’ve missed some great conversations.

A few highlights:

• I talked with acclaimed environmental activist Bill McKibben about fossil fuel advertising in sports, and how oil and gas industry “sportswashing” is taking advantage of America’s national pastime. (Apple Podcasts)
• I hiked at Chuckwalla National Monument, designated by former President Biden, with a wildlife biologist who spent years balancing renewable energy and conservation on public lands. (Apple Podcasts)
• Comedian Esteban Gast discussed using humor to alleviate climate anxiety, and telling jokes that can make clean energy and other climate solutions more engaging — maybe even fun. (Apple Podcasts)

Those episodes and more are also available on Spotify and YouTube.

This Thursday, I’ll be talking with my L.A. Times colleague Ian James, who reports on water and the environment, about President Trump’s litany of false claims involving California water supplies and the L.A. wildfires. Ian is one of the country’s best climate journalists; I’m proud to work with him. You can catch up on his reporting here.

In the meantime, here’s what’s happening around the West:

THE TRUMP REPORT

Last month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dramatically increased the amount of water flowing from two dams in California’s Tulare County, including Success Dam, which feeds into the Tule River.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Let’s start with water, ahead of my conversation with Ian James this Thursday. The Trump administration’s dismantling of federal agencies, led by Elon Musk, is beginning to create chaos for Western water supplies:

• California Rep. Mike Levin grilled an Army Corps lieutenant general about why the military dumped a bunch of water into the ground from two Central Valley dams. The lieutenant general seemingly felt he couldn’t say, “Because President Trump told us to.” The exchange was extremely uncomfortable. (Lisa McEwen, SJV Water)
• Federal officials have stopped compensating farmers with rights to Colorado River water for planting fewer crops, which allows water to remain in Lake Mead. The money is mandated by Congress. (Alex Hager, NPR)
• Congress also mandated $50 million for habitat restoration and water supplies for the Great Salt Lake. The Trump administration put that money on pause. (Kyle Dunphey, Utah News Dispatch)

As concerning as it is to see the White House hold back funds designated by Congress (which probably isn’t legal), nothing in the water world worried me more this week than a blog post out of New Mexico.

Writing on his Inkstain blog, water expert John Fleck noted that the Army Corps of Engineers had released large amounts of water from a dam on the Rio Grande by accident, leading to flood risks. He didn’t know if the mistake had anything to do with the mass firings across federal agencies. But the incident made him wonder what would happen if the federal government were to become an “unreliable partner” in Western water management.

“What must we do to prepare? What does that even look like?” Fleck asked.

Scary questions with no easy answers.

Meanwhile, Trump and Musk are torching the core scientific agencies that forecast the weather and study climate change. Experts say roughly 650 job losses at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will put countless lives in danger, as The Times’ Grace Toohey reports. In related news, U.S. government scientists are no longer allowed to work on the most authoritative global climate science report, CNN reports.

Protesters who gathered at King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas on Saturday participated in group chants, then broke into smaller groups to share why public lands matter to them.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

The National Park Service is in trouble, too:

• More than 700 year-round park service employees took buyouts, meaning the agency lost at least 1,700 full-time staff members in February — nearly one-tenth of its entire workforce. (Jack Dolan, L.A. Times)
• What will the cuts mean for Channel Islands National Park and Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area? Fewer services for visitors and less healthy landscapes. (Jaclyn Cosgrove, L.A. Times)
• Hundreds of protesters gathered at National Park Service sites across Southern California to rally against the Trump administration’s attacks on public lands. (Alex Wigglesworth and Jaclyn Cosgrove, L.A. Times)

There may be a light at the end of the tunnel, if you squint hard enough. A federal district court judge in San Francisco ruled that the mass firings of workers at many agencies is likely illegal. But the court case continues.

Elsewhere on the Trump administration’s climate denial agenda:

• Federal officials may try to strike down a key scientific finding that gives the U.S. government authority to regulate carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act. (Maxine Joselow, Washington Post)
• Trump has directed officials to consider scrapping the “social cost of carbon,” which would mean assuming there’s no harm from actions that result in climate pollution. (Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica)
• The new head of the U.S. Forest Service will be a former lumber industry executive. (Rachel Frazin, the Hill)

Congress is getting in on the action, too. Republicans have voted to repeal a fee on methane emissions by oil and gas companies, which will almost certainly result in more releases of a powerful climate pollutant.

Not to be left behind on ditching sound science, Utah’s Republican-controlled statehouse passed a bill that would prohibit local governments from adding fluoride to drinking water, per the Washington Post’s Anumita Kaur.

Despite misinformation from Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., medical experts say fluoride in drinking water has been an unqualified public health success. Alas, the RFK Jr. era has begun.

AROUND THE WEST

Snow covers a hillside during a winter storm in Soda Springs, Calif., in February.

(Stephen Lam / San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Good news first: California water supplies are in decent shape. With mountain snowpack and reservoir levels continuing to improve after recent storms, state and federal officials are promising more water to southern cities and San Joaquin Valley farms, Ian James reports. That said, there would be more snow in the Sierra Nevada if not for warmer-than-average temperatures associated with climate change, Ian writes.

On the wildfire recovery front — and in the spirit of the Oscars, which were held on Sunday — my colleague Mary McNamara wrote a beautiful column about the teacher who ended up with the grand piano from “A Star Is Born,” which was later played by Lady Gaga at the 2019 Academy Awards. Sadly, the piano burned in the Eaton fire.

Miraculously, another Hollywood artifact — the iconic bench sat on by Tom Hanks in “Forrest Gump” — survived the Palisades fire. Chris Erskine wrote for The Times about the powerful symbolism of the bench’s survival.

A few other wildfire stories:

• People who died in California fires used to skew white. But the demographics are changing as flames spread into urban areas, with the Eaton fire the latest case study. (Summer Lin and Terry Castleman, L.A. Times)
• The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 5 to 0 to allow Calabasas Landfill to accept more potentially toxic wildfire debris, despite protests from nearby residents. (Tony Briscoe, L.A. Times)
• A Riverside County landfill sought and received approval to accept debris from the Palisades and Eaton fires even though it was dealing with an underground fire of its own. (Tony Briscoe, L.A. Times)
• Researchers are studying how debris from the L.A. wildfires may add to global warming and other stressors to affect underwater kelp growth off the coast of Southern California. (Corinne Purtill, L.A. Times)

If you’re thinking ahead to the next fire — which you should be — and want to get prepared, my colleague Karen Garcia has a new newsletter, In Case of Fire. Climate change is part of the story. You can sign up here.

Two more fire-related stories, one that made me hopeful and one that made me crazy:

• California’s Karuk Tribe can now practice cultural burns with few roadblocks from state officials. Experts say the burns should help limit the risk of out-of-control wildfires. (Noah Haggerty, L.A. Times)
• Many Pacific Palisades residents are fighting proposals for even modest numbers of affordable apartments in the wealthy area as it rebuilds. Yes, this is the story that made me crazy. (Liam Dillon, L.A. Times)

The National Park Service and owners of the Colosseum Mine in San Bernardino County, seen in 2025, have been involved in a years-long dispute.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Before we wrap up, a grab bag of news from around the West:

• An Australian firm is searching for rare earth minerals needed for clean energy technologies in California’s Mojave National Preserve, at a long-dormant gold and silver mine. The National Park Service, though, says the new mining operation is unauthorized and environmentally destructive. (Alex Wigglesworth, L.A. Times)
• Rich people are more likely to dislike coyotes — and based on where coyotes are hanging out in urban Los Angeles County, the animals seem to know it, new research finds. (Lila Seidman, L.A. Times)
• A bill with good odds of passing the Arizona Legislature would ban wind farms on about 90% of the state’s lands, per an analysis by the Arizona Republic and USA Today. (Joan Meiners, Ignacio Calderon)

ONE MORE THING

Apparently, you can now combat antisemitism by investing in Big Oil.

At least according to the Anti-Defamation League. The New York-based nonprofit is widely cited as an authority on antisemitism, so I was troubled to read this story by the Forward’s Arno Rosenfeld, about a new stock market fund created by the ADL, which the group says it has vetted with “Jewish values-inspired research.” The ADL says the fund “aims to empower investors to combat antisemitism, support Israel and embody Jewish values.”

The fund includes shares of oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron. Personally, I’m not sure how investing in planet-wrecking, heart- and lung-damaging fossil fuels is good for Jews or for Israel. As I wrote last year in a column on Yom Kippur, divesting from oil and gas tracks much more closely with the Jewish values I’ve been taught.

This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our Boiling Point podcast here.

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