What we're writing

Andrew Harnik/AP/File President Trump shakes hands with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, center, on Feb. 28, before signing an executive order directing the EPA to withdraw the Waters of the United States rule, an Obama action that expanded the number of waterways protected under the Clean Water Act.

Environmental issues have become more polarized even since the years of George W. Bush. Why? The stakes for both parties surrounding climate change have risen. An anti-regulatory philosophy has hardened on the right. And some say the Obama administration, tugging the EPA to the left, set the stage for a conservative backlash. // Zack Colman

Extreme rains in California. A "snowless Chicago." An early spring in much of the US. Weather events like these prompt questions about what role climate change may be playing. Here's what scientists say. // Amanda Paulson

Reforms to the coal industry are central to Beijing’s climate campaign. In the face of US retrenchment on climate change, China may sieze an opportunity on the world stage. // Michael Holtz

Phoenix reduced its residential water consumption in the past decade despite a 23 percent rise in population. This and the story below are parts of the western water series that kicked off here the previous week. // Zack Colman

In the Southwest and beyond, irrigation technology and other steps such as planting 'cover crops' to enrich the soil are making a difference. // Zack Colman

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What we're reading

Snow-fed rivers are expected to run lower as snow melts earlier. // The Associated Press

The green group Mighty Earth says it has documented a pattern of forest-burning. // The Guardian

Changes in Canada send carbon-rich mud into streams and rivers. // InsideClimate News

Michigan ends a program that helped cover water bills in the wake of Flint's lead-in-water revelations. // The Washington Post

What's trending

Mark Lennihan/AP Visitors to Central Park pass a flowering rhododendron on Feb. 28 in New York. Some scientists say spring may be record early in about half the nation in 2017.

“It poses significant challenges for planning and managing important issues that affect our economy and our society.” // Jake Weltzin, a USGS ecologist and the executive director of the USA National Phenology Network, quoted in The Christian Science Monitor

"Mr. Trump wants to make a decision by next week, say people familiar with the White House’s debate on the climate pact, in order to announce [a Paris position alongside] his executive order to undo Mr. Obama’s climate regulations." // Coral Davenport, writing in The New York Times

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“[The government] should eliminate the use of the social cost of carbon until a credible value can be calculated.” // Rep. Lamar Smith (R) of Texas, chair of the House Science Committee, quoted in The Washington Post

"It reduces our operating costs at that facility. We’ll be paying a lot less in electricity in the long run.” // Joseph Roth of Ikea, quoted by Yale Climate Connections