MOTHER JONES CLIMATE DESK WEEKLY: The Great American Road Trip Is Done For, We are consuming thousands of chemicals from our food packaging, with unknown health risks, If data centers actually benefit locals, as Big Tech claims, then what’s with all the NDAs?, US Forest Service chief with close industry ties pushed to expand logging on public lands, A Rough Estimate of the American Military’s Vast Carbon Footprint 6SEP26

 

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STORIES FROM MOTHER JONES AND ITS PARTNERS This summer, my family and I set out on a grand, iconic adventure—the Great American Road Trip. We planned to drive coast to coast and border to border, visiting 14 national parks. I was on sabbatical from Grist, where I serve as editor-in-chief. After leading a newsroom through 18 months of environmental policy rollbacks and climate disasters, the trip seemed like the perfect way to unplug. As it turns out, when you’re a climate journalist, there really is no escaping work. There was beauty and awe in spades. But the 9,000 miles we traveled also provided a very stark look at how a warming planet is reshaping our nation and our public lands. Dozens of wildfires in Utah, charring forests and towns and turning skies orange. Bathtub rings on drought-stricken reservoirs in Arizona. Stands of trees killed by bark beetles in the Sierra Nevadas. Toxic dust blowing off the Great Salt Lake. Emergency alerts for flooding and evacuations in Glacier National Park. Extreme heat warnings in Grand Teton.   It felt like a near-constant assault, one disaster stacked atop the next. Travel a few miles, a few hours, and we’d encounter yet another mark climate change had made—or was actively making—on the American landscape. When we returned home and I returned to work, I knew I had to chronicle the journey. My family’s days whiplashed between grandeur and extreme weather crises. I knew we couldn’t be the only ones going through this. The family road trip is basically a rite of passage in our culture, and most of the travel takes place during summer months, when floods, fires, drought, and heat are at their peak.   And things are different now.   Last weekend, terrifying flash floods trapped dozens of hikers in the Grand Canyon—at least two were killed. They were people simply out enjoying America’s public lands as my family had, only to experience firsthand the brutal consequences of burning fossil fuels for two-plus centuries. I hugged my kids tight when I heard the news.   I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read my essay. —Katherine Bagley

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TOP STORY KATHERINE BAGLEY/GRIST The Great American Road Trip Is Done For My family clocked 9,000 miles this summer, but we couldn’t escape the climate crisis. GRIST

SPONSORED CONTENT BY THE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING Climate Desk Live: Tech, Energy, and Our Just Future Join us September 24, 9-11 a.m., at The New School for Climate Desk Live, a free NYC Climate Week event from Mother Jones, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Capital B. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, Bill McKibben, Manish Bapna, and Gretchen Goldman tackle AI, energy, and democracy. Seats are limited—RSVP today.

TRENDING We’ve identified California’s top 100 glyphosate sprayers. Some of them may surprise you. MOTHER JONES We are consuming thousands of chemicals from our food packaging, with unknown health risks  INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS If data centers actually benefit locals, as Big Tech claims, then what’s with all the NDAs? CAPITAL B US Forest Service chief with close industry ties pushed to expand logging on public lands THE GUARDIAN

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EDITOR'S PICK LT. STEVE GOZZO/US NAVY A Rough Estimate of the American Military’s Vast Carbon Footprint Its emissions are hard to track, but they’re too important to ignore. BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS

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MOTHER JONES DAILY: "It's kind of like killing our tribe again.", Native American Leaders Denounce Record Glyphosate Spraying on National Forests, MAHA and the midterms, Trump’s minions say he’s mulling new tax breaks—they’re mainly for the rich, Florida's GOP has a very short playbook: Call everyone a socialist, Adventures in Unplugging 21AUG26

 

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August 21, 2026 Earlier this year, Mother Jones reporter Nate Halverson found that record amounts of glyphosate—the key ingredient in the herbicide Roundup—have been sprayed in California’s forests in recent years. He also exposed how key scientific studies that the US Forest Service and others relied upon to say glyphosate was safe were ghost written by manufacturer Monsanto. Today, Nate explores how this dousing of California’s forests with glyphosate harms Native American communities. (Bayer, which now manufactures the herbicide, maintains that it is safe to use.) Stephen Young, 26, is a traditional Maidu basket weaver. He’s seen the harm glyphosate can do. “There were elders who started to get sores in their mouths because of the pesticides. We use our mouths to help in basket weaving,” Young said. “And then if you’re cooking in these baskets and the material has been sprayed, then people can be ingesting it.”  For Young and other Indigenous leaders Nate interviewed, California’s massive herbicide use without regard for their health is a continuation of the same genocidal behavior that began 150 years ago, when Native people were hunted and killed by California authorities. Beverly Ogle, a Maidu elder in the Lassen area of California, put it like this: “It’s kind of like killing our tribe again. It’s gotten to the point where I’m afraid to go out in the backcountry and gather plants. Because are we gathering something that’s got poison on it?” —Sophie Hurwitz

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Native American Leaders Denounce Record Glyphosate Spraying on National Forests “It’s kind of like killing our tribe again.” BY NATE HALVERSON

SPONSORED CONTENT BY THE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING Climate Desk Live: Expert Panels on Energy and Our Democracy Join us this Climate Week NYC for an urgent discussion on the systems shaping our planet. Climate Desk Live features Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, Bill McKibben, Manish Bapna, and  Gretchen Goldman, analyzing AI’s impact and the energy transition. Learn how to organize and fight for a healthy, affordable, just future. Seats are limited—RSVP today.

MAHA and the midterms MOTHER JONES AND THE FOOD & ENVIRONMENT REPORTING NETWORK Trump’s minions say he’s mulling new tax breaks—they’re mainly for the rich BY MICHAEL MECHANIC Florida's GOP has a very short playbook: Call everyone a socialist BY LAURA C. MOREL Flock execs are taking credit for catching bad cops now BY SOPHIE HURWITZ

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Adventures in Unplugging Digital detoxes promise to heal us from the ills of our screen-driven lives. BY PAULA MEJÍA

MOTHER JONES MEMBERSHIP UPDATE INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM 101 You deserve the truth: That’s why we’re an independent newsroom. We publish what we uncover, never what we’re told to say. We’re not bound to a media mogul owner or a corporate agenda.   And you deserve access to it, free of charge: That’s why our website doesn’t have a paywall, and never will. But, that news isn’t free to make. As a donor (thank you!), you know that we rely on reader support to keep us going. Today, can you make a new gift to help us continue, through the dog days of summer, the upcoming midterm season, and whatever comes next? Make a New Donation

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Your source for journalism that doesn't shrink back. Fifty years and counting. Keep us growing with a gift of any amount. Donate Subscribe For advertising opportunities see our online media kit. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today. www.MotherJones.com PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755