In communities across North Carolina, families often live in homes that are too small. This has made combating COVID-19 a challenge for some.
After floods and multiple hurricanes, homes in Sellers, South Carolina, are plagued with mold. This mold is causing health problems for Sellers residents.
There are no states that mandate cooling in farmworker housing. And there’s no relief from the summer night sky in North Carolina. “We struggle to fall asleep at night because of, well, that damn heat,” said one worker.
It is common for North Carolina farmworkers to live in grower-provided housing, and that housing often lacks air conditioning. Beyond making it hard to fall asleep, it can be a health risk.
The shock from the historically wet and destructive hurricanes of a few years ago may be fading for inland residents, but many people in coastal counties continue to live with the after-effects.
The warming climate is being felt in the rural counties on the Carolina coast. Our journalists investigated how climate change is affecting people and their health today, in real and visible ways.
Living in a mobile home, being a non-citizen, and working in agriculture are risk factors for heat illness in rural parts of the state, according to a 2018 paper written by Lauren Thie, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services’ heat prevention coordinator.
A toxic bacteria, vibrio, is being found more often along the Carolina coast. The earth’s warming climate is a major reason vibrio is an increasing threat to people across the planet.
Because of Enviva, North Carolina creates more wood pellets than any other state, according to the U.S. Industrial Pellet Association.
This series on the wood pellet industry and the different views on the role of North Carolina forests in combating climate change took six months to put together, but drew on years of experience and reporting.
For European power plants facing a continental commitment to getting off coal, biomass provided a convenient fix.
Paris is not the end, it's a pivot point for future progress, says UN special representative on climate change and human rights.
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