The Trump administration said on Tuesday it plans to rescind the “roadless rule” that has protected old-growth forests in the US for 25 years, potentially opening up almost 45m acres of national forests to road construction, drilling and logging.

Conservationists had feared the announcement was coming since last summer after Brooke Rollins, Trump’s secretary of agriculture, targeted a rule brought in by Bill Clinton’s administration, describing it as “overly restrictive” and an “absurd obstacle” to development.

When Gerard Mullin decided to train in offshore wind, he didn’t know what to expect. But on his first long-term project in Massachusetts, he immediately relished the consistency of the work, the good pay, and the novelty of laboring at sea.

“I thought it was the best thing in the world,” he said.

In his first eight weeks working offshore, Mullin made more money than he had saved in the previous five years.

Humanity Has Already Used Up Nature’s Entire Annual Budget of Ecological Resources and Services
Since the 1970s, human resource use has outstripped Earth’s capacity, building up a massive “ecological debt.” Wiping that debt clean would require 20.6 years of complete planetary rest and recovery – though much of the damage is likely irreversible.

This year, it falls on July 30, a week later compared to last year; overall, however, the day has been occurring earlier since the 1970s. At the current rate of consumption, which is 73% faster than Earth’s ecosystems can regenerate, experts estimate that it would take 1.73 Earths to produce and regenerate all the resources we use today.

Climate change is scorching the globe, including areas previously thought to be low-risk.

And the firsts keep coming, with record-breaking daytime highs in many places, plus sweltering nights — all of which take an especially brutal toll on those without air conditioning, outdoor workers, older people, children and many who have health issues.