Monthly and all-time temperature records are smashed all over California and the West as the longest and most severe heat wave in history smothers the area. On September 6, Sacramento hits 116°F, Ukiah 117°. That afternoon, after a text plea from the state’s grid operator to Californians to turn off nonessential electrical items, power demand immediately drops by 1.2 gigawatts, likely preventing rolling blackouts.

China temperatures hit record highs, and this summer is the third driest on record.

Life expectancy in China surpasses that of the United States.

Chilean voters reject a proposed new “climate constitution.”

Monster typhoon Hinnamnor dumps three feet of rain on South Korea.

Last year’s uptick in electricity generation from coal-fired power plants is over. Renewables once again surpass coal and now account for a quarter of US electricity generation.

Americans now smoke more cannabis than tobacco.

A giant egg farm in Northwest Ohio euthanizes 3 million chickens due to an outbreak of bird flu.

The Interior Department has renamed 650 public places that previously were known by a degrading slur on Indigenous women.

California becomes the first state to test drinking water for the presence of microplastics.

Sweden offers free bicycle snow tires and reflective vests to those who agree to ride rather than drive at least three days a week this winter.

Abdi Hussein Ahmed, a notorious alleged ivory smuggler, is taken into custody in Kenya after the US State Department offers a $1 million reward. In August, another famous smuggler, Moazu Kromah, was sentenced to 63 months in prison for trafficking 10 tons of elephant ivory and 190 kilos of rhino horns.

A New Mexico rancher who killed an endangered Mexican gray wolf with a shovel and grazed cattle illegally on a canceled permit in the Gila National Forest gets off with a $10,000 fine.  

New Mexico’s Supreme Court says that members of the public have the right to walk or wade in streambeds, and private-property owners cannot exclude them. In Colorado, where landowners often can exclude the public from waterways adjacent to their properties, anglers and rafters are seeking to overturn the rulings.

A Swiss study finds that drivers of electric cars cause 50 percent more collisions than drivers of internal combustion cars, with the most powerful EVs causing twice as many accidents.