The Brief

There is broad scientific consensus that pollution from human society is driving long-term changes in our climate. Those changes are already happening — more frequent and hotter heat waves, longer and drier droughts, more intense wildfires, among other extreme weather events.

But President-elect Donald Trump has called climate change “a hoax” and many Republicans increasingly downplay the threat it poses to human health and nature. The partisan divide on climate action has only grown wider over the last decade, according to the Pew Research Center.

Most Americans actually agree that global heating is a problem and that it’s going to worsen within their lifetimes without more action from governments, corporations, and society in general.

A brief history of Republicans and the environment

Environmental protection wasn’t always so politically divisive.

“The environmental movement historically is very much a Republican movement,” said Francisca Martinez, deputy chief of staff at the University of Southern California’s Schwarzenegger Institute.

Ronald Reagan

She pointed to how former Gov. Ronald Reagan established the California Air Resources Board, which regulates air pollution, in 1967.

“This was long, long before much of the country was really thinking about regulating air pollution and emissions,” Martinez said.

President Richard Nixon signed the federal Clean Air Act into law in 1970 and was instrumental in establishing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger helped California become a leader in rooftop solar by signing the Million Solar Roofs Initiative into law in 2006. That same year, Schwarzenegger also signed into law California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act.

Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signs the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2006. The landmark legislation set goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while growing the economy.

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These are just a few examples, but there’s a long history of bipartisan support for environmental protection, Martinez said.

“It's not a new thing for a Republican leader to come in and lead on climate, and I think that's been lost throughout the years,” Martinez said.

Still it's something happening under the radar. For example, during Trump's last administration, nearly a third of some 400 state-level bills to reduce carbon pollution passed through Republican-controlled legislatures. And some Congressional Republicans are leading efforts to talk about climate action more.

What changed? 

Under his previous administration, Trump rolled back more than 100 environmental protection rules and attempted to repeal dozens of others. He’s said he will gut the EPA, which is in charge of enforcing clean air, water and pollution regulations, among other things.

Martinez said a big reason for the increasing partisan divide on climate action has been disinformation and lobbying from the oil and gas industry influencing politics over decades — something that is now well-documented.

But Martinez said there's a broader communication problem too.

“If you are having issues paying your groceries, paying for gas, you're not going to be prioritizing something like climate change,” she said. “I come from first-generation everything. I come from an immigrant family that struggled to make ends meet in my childhood, so I can relate to that.”

But in reality, there’s a lot of common ground no matter people’s political beliefs or lived experiences.

“When you talk about [climate change] through the lens of air pollution…Nobody wants to breathe dirty air,” Martinez said. “When you talk about access to clean water, that's different. I think that resonates with more people.”

Finding common ground

Craig Preston would agree. The Costa Mesa resident is a lifelong Republican and chair of the Conservative Outreach Action Team for the nonpartisan, volunteer-run Citizens' Climate Lobby chapter in Orange County.

“If we think more long term, then I think we're more aware of how an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and so we're willing to put some money and effort into preventing harms,” Preston said.

Craig Preston, left, at a Citizens Climate Lobby event about the cost effectiveness of solar and battery storage, electric vehicles, heat pumps, induction stoves, and more.

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“But if we're more short-term focused, if I'm living paycheck to paycheck, then people are just not able to really think long term because they're just trying to feed their kids today,” Preston continued. “So then the discussion is more focused on the economics and even the short term benefits of moving to a clean energy economy.”

For example, he said how solar panels or highly-efficient appliances, such as heat pumps and induction stoves can help people save money. He talks about how solar and wind power has gotten cheaper than fossil fuel power.

“I often bring an induction stovetop to my meetings, do a demonstration on how to boil water in 30 seconds, and then say, who wants to take it home and try it out for two weeks?” Preston said. “Just make it fun for people to move to an electrification economy.”

A banner at a Citizens' Climate Lobby event that Craig Preston helped lead.

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He said he also emphasizes the resilience of cleaner technologies to cross partisan divides.

For example, he shared an anecdote of two friends who recently experienced the devastating flooding in Asheville, North Carolina, due to Hurricane Helene. Attribution studies found the rainfall was 10% heavier as a result of human-caused climate change.

One friend had a diesel backup generator and was stranded for 11 days, during which the generator ran out of fuel. The other friend had solar and battery storage and was able to support neighbors since their power stayed on.

“Just an example of the resiliency we need, because climate change is here,” Preston said. “We recognize market forces and clean energy are something people aren't opposed to, and so going into a clean energy future is good for their grandchildren, good for their children, good for themselves.”

Trusting the science 

Buena Park resident Dominic Bendinelli grew up in a Republican household and led his college’s Republican student group. But since Trump’s first election in 2016, he said he feels like “a Republican in exile.”

“I feel like the party has moved away from me, rather than me moving from the party,” he said.

He’d grown up spending time outdoors and has long had a love of nature, but he didn’t learn much about climate change until a biology course in college.

This graph compares atmospheric samples in ice cores as well as more recent direct measurements, showing how atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased dramatically since the Industrial Revolution.

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He said the science denial that has taken over the mainstream Republican party has been “devastating” — and a reason for that feeling of exile. His work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has only solidified that feeling.

“Scientists are not this giant organized group of people who are all driven to do one thing,” Bendinelli said. “They're my co-workers, they don't have hidden agendas, they don't care about politics really at all, generally. A lot of scientists tend to just focus on their own work, really passionate and smart people who dedicate their lives to studying things. And I hope that we as a country can get back to trusting those kinds of people.”

Particularly as a young person — he’s 29 — Bendinelli said addressing climate change feels more personal.

Dominic Bendinelli on a recent trip to Vienna, Austria.

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“I absolutely feel like my life will be greatly impacted by climate change and that's not even to mention the life of any future children I may have,” he said. “I think we somehow need to build that coalition of leaders from both sides to really start seeing some strong movement in this country.”

Bendinelli said he’s not hopeful for that to happen under a Trump administration. He’s especially concerned about Trump’s proposals to dismantle the EPA and repeal much of the Inflation Reduction Act, which has primarily benefited clean energy projects in red states and generated hundreds of thousands of jobs.

“When you can really get down to people's concerns…that's when we can come together because we tend to have the same concerns…we just maybe don't have the same solutions,” Bendinelli said.

He said those concerns include things like the economy and quality of life and that climate action can be a part of addressing those concerns, for example, by helping people save on electric bills through efficient appliances, bringing good-paying jobs, and protecting the natural spaces we all love.

“People across the country,” he said, “if given a very clear choice of ‘would you like to protect the environment around you, or would you like to destroy it’... that would be a really easy decision.”

Pollution isn’t partisan

Elizabeth Fenner grew up in Westchester in Los Angeles in the 1970s and 80s, when smog pollution was at some of its worst.

She remembers playing in an AYSO soccer game one day and afterwards she and her teammates all came off the field coughing.

“We just didn't know the damage that smog was doing to us,” Fenner said. “I grew up with stinging eyes…there was that thick blanket of smog that we all just lived in.”

Fenner, who now lives in West Adams and works as a library aide, identifies as conservative and a climate advocate. She doesn’t support Trump, but is a registered Republican.

Elizabeth Fenner, a conservative climate advocate in Los Angeles.

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“I grew up in a liberal environment with conservative parents,” Fenner said. “So I just had this thing of, what's the real story here? It's something in between.”

She said she hopes Democrats and Republicans can find some common ground when it comes to climate action, but she doesn’t think it’ll happen anytime soon.

“The two parties have been at each other's throats for decades now — ‘If you're going to do one thing, I'm going to do the absolute opposite,’” Fenner said. “But one thing I think is that a Democratic supermajority does not create heaven on Earth here in California.”

She said that’s why she hopes people with different political views can approach each other with “humility and curiosity.”

“The impasse is that anyone that doesn't know me well and finds out I'm conservative and registered Republican believes I'm a Trump-voting conservative, and that I want to ban books, and that I am against transgender rights, that I'm ‘drill baby drill,’” Fenner said.

“I'm not OK with that,” Fenner added, “but my values are towards incremental change, small government, jobs, and the economy. I think we can work with that….but let's work together towards solutions.”

When the biggest band in the world was getting back together to make a new album after a nearly four-year hiatus, what made them choose Los Angeles?

“In terms of having space to be creative,” BTS vocalist V says in the Netflix documentary BTS: The Return. “L.A.’s kind of like an amusement park.”

Rapper RM adds: “L.A. gives us space to experiment — different energy from what we’ve done before.”

“I think you can really settle into the creative process [here better] rather than maybe other cities like New York or London,” BTS: The Return director Bao Nguyen (The Greatest Night in Pop, Be Water) told LAist.

“There's a certain, for lack of a better term, ‘chill’ that helps allow you to be creative,” Nguyen added. “Walking outside and seeing the sun and just feeling that experience, I think you can really let ideas marinate, while in some other cities it feels like a pressure cooker at times.”

(L-R) Jimin, j-hope, Suga, and Jin in "BTS: The Return."

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The documentary chronicles the weeks the band members spent in L.A. in the summer of 2025, living together again for the first time in many years — after some members completed mandatory military service and others pursued solo projects — writing and recording their new album Arirang at Conway Studios (host to artists ranging from U2 to Kendrick Lamar).

They also made time to do some very L.A. things — like watching the sunset on the beach in Santa Monica, sitting in traffic (stars, they’re just like us!), eating In-N-Out and going to a Dodger game (or actually, the not-so-relatable experience of going to a game to throw the ceremonial first pitch).

Here are some highlights from Nguyen’s interview with LAist about the making of BTS: The Return, condensed and edited for clarity.

How a 2021 BTS concert at SoFi helped inspire the doc

Bao Nguyen:   I was supposed to go see them at their Rose Bowl show but, because of the pandemic, that was canceled. But they had a run of SoFi shows in 2021 [their first in person since 2019] before they left for the military. I was lucky enough to get tickets to one of those shows, and it was an experience that really changed my mind about BTS and sort of their cultural importance. 

I love going to live concerts, but to go to a BTS concert was definitely the loudest thing I've ever been to — in the best way possible. Just the connection that they had with the fans and how the fans knew every lyric, even in Korean, was so astonishing to me.

And they have these sort of long dialogues with their fans, and they're able to create such intimacy in this massive stadium. 

[Then at their 2022 farewell concert in Busan] they were talking about their upcoming military service, and you could tell that the crowd was getting very emotional as well as the band. And for me, as a filmmaker, as a storyteller, I immediately thought of The Odyssey. Like, "Oh, BTS is sort of like Odysseus about to go into the military. And ARMY [the acronym for the band’s fandom, “Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth”] is like Penelope, longing for the return of their heroes, in many ways."

I pitched this idea to the label and they were somewhat interested at first. I think it was a bit too philosophical maybe for the type of documentaries that BTS has done in the past, but once the group came out of military service, the label contacted me again and said, "Would you be interested now in doing a film about them?" And I jumped at the opportunity.

The origins of ‘Arirang’

In the documentary, the executive creative director of Big Hit Music, BTS’s label, pitches the band the idea of taking inspiration from another group of young Korean men, 19th Century international students at Howard University, who sang what would become the first known recordings of Korean music in the world in 1896 — including the well-known Korean folk song “Arirang,” which dates back to the 13th Century.

What didn’t make it into the doc, Nguyen shared, is that the spark of the idea came to Big Hit by way of a friend of his, L.A.-based stylist Jeanne Yang.

Bao Nguyen:  Boyoung Lee, who's their creative director, had sort of developed that idea from a friend of mine, Jeanne Yang, a stylist who actually helped style the group for their photo shoot.

Jeanne approached James Shin at the label about this really fascinating story about the first Korean music recording in America through these seven young men — happened to be seven, coincidentally — going to Howard University.

So there were just natural connections, and I think that ignited the group’s creativity — like, "OK, ‘Arirang’ can be sort of this framework and anchor for the entire album."

And you can see through the film, how they sort of navigate and negotiate that. It's interesting because each of the seven members have different opinions on it. So it's not a monolith. But I think the spark came from the label, and then, as with any artistic collaboration, it's a conversation with a lot of different people to get the final piece of art.

Other ways that L.A. shaped the film (and how they pulled off that beach scene)

Nguyen said he knew he didn’t want to record formal sit-down interviews with the band members for the documentary in an effort to have the film to “live in the present moment as much as possible,” but found that he naturally ended up finding quiet moments with each of them during their chauffeured commutes to the studio each day.

Bao Nguyen:  I love being in my car because I love the quiet time and reflection I can get sitting in traffic, or hopefully in motion.

So at first I was thinking these car rides would just be these pensive and reflective moments, not even capturing them talking at all. 

But it was when the members were in the car that they just started talking and they just wanted to get things off their chest. It was a really unique perspective into what they were thinking because, for the most part, they're surrounded by people all day, but in the car, they're by themselves and they can really think and talk about what they want to achieve that day, or coming back home, they can talk about what happened.

So I used the routine habit of driving in L.A. and tried to make it as cinematic and meaningful to the story as possible.

\(L-R) j-hope, Suga, Jin, RM, Jung Kook, and Jimin in 'BTS: THE RETURN.'

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The technique of giving the band members their own camcorders to capture footage themselves, Nguyen said, partially came about because of a desire to capture their experiences of life outside of the studio without drawing too much attention with a camera crew.

The one scene where the band was recorded by the documentary crew out in public in L.A. (that wasn’t a controlled public-facing event like at the Dodgers), was a day they spent at a house on the beach in Santa Monica, and ventured out with chairs to watch the sunset and play soccer.

Bao Nguyen:  The beach scene was interesting because I wasn't sure if we were gonna have sort of a "Beatlemania" moment, but kudos to our production team who really planned it well. We found a very quiet part of the beach, we checked it the week before at that time to find out how quiet it stays.

There were people just sort of stationed at different corners of the beach to make sure nothing went crazy. … And luckily, another benefit of shooting in Los Angeles is that people kind of mind their own business. If they're at the beach, they just want to be at the beach. 

There were some people who kind of got a hint that something was going on, I think more because of our cameras, but our producer, Jane Cha Cutler, told people we were just shooting a wedding party or bachelor party video, so people would not think anything was happening.

BTS: The Return is available now on Netflix.

The Artemis II astronauts are making their way back to Earth after the lunar flyby.

The crew became the first astronauts in over 50 years to fly around the far side of the moon. They also experienced a solar eclipse.

During the mission's loop around the moon, the crew took geological observations of places of interest on the lunar surface with their own eyes and snapping thousands of photos of the surface.

The crew will return to Earth on Friday and splash down off the coast of California. NASA says a landing on the lunar surface won't happen until 2028, at the earliest.

Here is what they captured.
Copyright 2026 NPR

April 6: Captured by the Artemis II crew during their lunar flyby, this image shows the moon fully eclipsing the sun. From the crew's perspective, the moon appears large enough to completely block the sun, creating nearly 54 minutes of totality and extending the view far beyond what is possible from Earth. The corona forms a glowing halo around the dark lunar disk, revealing details of the sun's outer atmosphere typically hidden by its brightness. Also visible are stars, typically too faint to see when imaging the moon, but with the moon in darkness, stars are readily imaged. This unique vantage point provides both a striking visual and a valuable opportunity for astronauts to document and describe the corona during humanity's return to deep space. The faint glow of the nearside of the moon is visible in this image, having been illuminated by light reflected off the Earth.

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April 6: This is a portion of the moon coming into view along the terminator — the boundary between lunar day and night — where low-angle sunlight casts long, dramatic shadows across the surface. This grazing light accentuates the moon's rugged topography, revealing craters, ridges and basin structures in striking detail. Features along the terminator, such as Jule Crater, Birkhoff Crater, Stebbins Crater and surrounding highlands, stand out.

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April 6: A close-up view from the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis II crew's lunar flyby captures a total solar eclipse, with only part of the moon visible in the frame as it fully obscures the sun. Although the full lunar disk extends beyond the image, the sun's faint corona remains visible as a soft halo of light around the moon's edge. From this deep-space vantage point, the moon appeared large enough to sustain nearly 54 minutes of totality, far longer than total solar eclipses typically seen from Earth.

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April 6: Captured from the Orion spacecraft near the end of the Artemis II lunar flyby, this image shows the sun beginning to peek out from behind the moon as the eclipse transitions out of totality. Only a portion of the moon is visible in the frame, its curved edge revealing a bright sliver of sunlight returning after nearly an hour of darkness.

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April 6: This image shows the moon, the near side (the hemisphere we see from Earth) visible at the right side of the disk, identifiable by the dark splotches. At lower left is Orientale basin, a nearly 600-mile-wide crater that straddles the moon's near and far sides. Everything to the left of the crater is the far side.

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April 6: The moon is seen in the window of the Orion spacecraft, in a photo taken by the Artemis II crew, at the end of Day 5 of the journey to the moon.

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April 6: The Orion spacecraft, Earth and the moon are seen from a camera as the Artemis II crew and spacecraft travel farther into space.

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April 6: Artemis II pilot and NASA astronaut Victor Glover peers out one of the Orion spacecraft's windows looking back at Earth ahead of the crew's lunar flyby.

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April 4: Artemis II astronauts (from left) Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch and Victor Glover gather for an interview en route to the moon.

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April 4: Astronaut Christina Koch preps for lunar flyby activities after completing aerobic exercise on the flywheel device.

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April 3: An image of Earth taken by astronaut Reid Wiseman inside the Orion capsule.

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April 3: The exterior of the Orion spacecraft Integrity is seen during the Artemis II mission en route to the moon.

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April 3: The Earth seen from a window on the Orion spacecraft Integrity during the Artemis II mission en route to the moon.

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April 3: NASA astronaut Christina Koch is illuminated by a screen inside the darkened Orion spacecraft on the third day of the agency's Artemis II mission. To the right of the image's center, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen is seen in profile peering out one of Orion's windows. Lights are turned off to avoid glare on the windows.

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April 2: A view of Earth taken by Wiseman from of the Orion spacecraft's window after completing the translunar injection burn.

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April 2: Mission specialist Christina Koch peers out one of the Orion spacecraft's main cabin windows, looking back at Earth, as the crew travels toward the moon.

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This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Eastside residents are invited to a series of field trips this month to learn how air-quality sensors will be installed across Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles, in an effort to improve air quality and extreme heat in the community.

The nonprofit Climate Resolve, in partnership with Promesa Boyle Heights and California Climate Investments, is hosting two field trips on April 11 and April 18 for residents to witness the installation. Free shuttle transportation will be provided. 

At the April 18 event, the nonprofit City Plants will also give out free potted fruit and shade trees. Proof of L.A. residency is required to receive a tree.

Through these field trips, Eastsiders will get to see how and where air quality will be measured in their neighborhoods. Once installed, the monitors will measure wind, black carbon, ozone, particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxide levels. 

Historically, the Eastside has been plagued by high smog and poor air quality due to nearby freeways, rail yards, and industrial activities. East L.A. is crisscrossed by heavily trafficked freeways like the I-5, I-10 and I-710.

Compared to more affluent neighborhoods, areas like Boyle Heights and East L.A. have fewer trees and parks, which naturally help filter pollutants and improve air quality.

As a result, residents in these communities often experience poorer air quality, which contributes to health issues. For example, people in Boyle Heights are 75 to 86% more likely to develop asthma than those in other parts of California, according to a 2023 case study by East LA Community Corporation.

Freelance writer Valeria Macias contributed to this report.

It’s spring, and that means coyote mating season, not just in Southern California wildlands, but also in the urban landscape. While it’s hard to say whether there are more coyotes roaming the region, the fact that it's mating season means you are more likely to see one.

“Animals are sort of out and about. They're vocalizing. They’re scent marking. They're grooming, they're moving around, they're looking for mates,” said Ted Stankowich, a professor of biological sciences at California State University, Long Beach.

He hasn’t studied the effects of the Palisades and Eaton fires on coyotes, but said fires often destroy coyote dens and disrupt their territories.

“Where one pack might have dominated one sort of larger territory, that territory might be split up. And now you have two packs in there, and you might have two breeding females and more pups,” he said, which can lead to more interactions with humans.

Most coyotes are afraid of people, Stankowich said, but packs may include an aggressive member. Here are his suggestions when encountering coyotes:

• Carry a noisemaker, like a whistle or cowbell to scare them
• Throw a rock to make their encounter with you unpleasant
• Carry bear spray
• At home, keep small and large pets inside — a coyote pack can overtake larger dogs, like German shepherds