Alejandra Barunda

46% increase in the rate of people presenting for heart attacks during that time period.

Wildfires aren't new in the West.

In fact, many Western habitats evolved with frequent burns, and for thousands of years, Native people managed many Western landscapes with fire.

But fires in the West are getting bigger, smokier, and more destructive.

And at least part of that change is because of human-caused climate change, according to a new study in the journal PNAS.

Since 1997, climate change played the primary role in increasing smokiness, especially in the Sierras and the Cascades.

And that smoke hurts people's health.

During and after fires, hospitals see increases in visits for respiratory problems like asthma and COPD.

And scientists are increasingly concerned about long-term health effects, too.

Alejandra Burunda, NPR News.

Countries across Africa are responsible for a tiny fraction of climate pollution.

But the bad outcomes from climate change are far higher, according to a new report in the medical journal The Lancet.

It says climate change is increasing the risks from things like insect spread diseases like dengue fever or malaria.

And climate fuel disasters like Libya's 2023 floods are displacing or killing thousands of people.

Another study in the journal Science Advances focuses on the growing danger of nighttime heat.

Extra warm nights are a hallmark of climate change, and they're particularly unhealthy since people's bodies usually recover during nights.

Increased night heat in Africa, where few people have air conditioning, has driven a nearly 20% increase in heat deaths since 2010.

Alejandra Burunda, NPR News.

The auction will make about 80 million acres available in the Gulf of Mexico, which President Trump has renamed the Gulf of America.

The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which manages drilling in the region, says the auction price would be set as low as possible to encourage producers to bid.