Carey L. Biron

Like many residents, Torry Nergart and his family live in the mountains of western North Carolina because they love being close to the forests, rivers and public lands.

That is making them feel particularly protective since President Donald Trump last month ordered a major boost to U.S. timber production, seeking to strip regulations and speed up approval.

Renters and local officials across the United States are warning that the rising response to climate change could inadvertently aggravate the country's housing affordability crisis, driving up costs and even leading to evictions.

With homes and buildings contributing more than a third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, policymakers have started pushing landlords to weatherize, improve energy efficiency and replace old fossil fuel appliances. 

Communities across the United States that rely on federal funding to transition away from fossil fuels are scrambling to keep programmes on track after President Donald Trump froze tens of billions of dollars of aid.

Under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), tax credits, called direct pay, have helped local governments and nonprofits to make renewable energy projects financially feasible.

Ali landed in the United States as a relieved refugee from Iraq just as Donald Trump moved back into the White House. 

His timing wasn't good. 

Nearly 100 people from across the United States joined an online meeting one recent Saturday, all wanting to know how they could help their immigrant neighbours amid President Donald Trump's threats of mass deportations.

Campaigner Yaritza Mendez offered answers, outlining plans for a nationwide network of volunteer positions and training sessions, part of a community-based effort gaining momentum since Trump pledged an "unprecedented" crackdown on the country's 11 million undocumented immigrants.

President Donald Trump has yet to announce a homelessness policy, but comments he made during the election about forcibly removing the homeless and relocating them to "tent cities" have advocates worried, especially amid reports of key funding cuts.

Trump's new administration takes over following a landmark Supreme Court ruling in June that made it easier for local officials to crack down on homelessness, even while dozens of cities have since moved in the opposite direction and sought to create new protections for the homeless.

Braxton Simpson had finally made it to college when her brother decided that he also wanted to attend.

"My parents couldn't afford to pay for both of us," said Simpson, now 26. "I didn't have any money. I had been in college for a year, and all of my scholarships were exhausted."

As President Trump's immigration crackdown expands across the United States with more than a thousand arrests per day, some workers are starting to wonder if they should keep reporting to their job sites.

Such a response could exacerbate a housing affordability crisis that experts say needs to be fixed in part by speeding up construction and worsen a labour shortage that already threatens to delay homebuilding and raise prices.

Chris Smalls became one of the most prominent labor organizers in the United States using creativity, ingenuity and hard work to build union support among wary workers.

In 2020, Smalls was fired from his job as an assistant manager in a New York City-area Amazon warehouse after raising concerns over a lack of COVID-19 protections.

As floods wash away roads and bridges, high temperatures buckle train rails and wildfires wipe out neighborhoods, the direct costs of climate change are increasingly being borne by local governments and residents.

Now the U.S. Supreme Court has given a tacit green light to legal efforts allowing local officials, often using public nuisance or consumer protection laws, to seek funds for climate change-related losses and needed upgrades from major oil and gas companies.