Climate Point: A generational divide on climate?

Heat, hurricanes and comparing outlooks on the climate crisis are among the topics covered in climate and environment news this week.

I'm Dinah Voyles Pulver, one of USA TODAY's national reporters on climate and the environment and this is Climate Point, your weekly guide to news about climate, the environment and energy.

Phoenix often grabs headlines for its high temperatures and days of unrelenting heat, but it’s far from the only city across the nation struggling to adjust to warmer weather.

During a record run of triple-digit days this summer, the Arizona Republic’s Brandon Loomis visited an urban forest in New York City and talked with residents about how it helps to cool things off in the city that never sleeps. In New York, the current pace of climate change could produce a six-fold rise in the number of 90-degree days this century.

With its unrelenting heat, Phoenix may be better prepared than most, Loomis wrote. “Where community cooling centers are widespread and open throughout heat season in Phoenix, cooler cities have either no defined centers or centers not well known because they welcome people only during rare, officially designated heat emergencies, such as when the heat tops 95 for two straight days.”

Meanwhile, Hurricane Milton is barreling toward an expected landfall on Florida's west coast and has been rapidly upgraded and downgraded in the past few days as meteorologists grapple with the storm's destructive potential .

Is there a generational divide on climate?

From a teenager to a climate protester more than four times older, USA TODAY talked with more than 20 people across generations to understand the relationship between age and activism , from Gen Z to the so-called Silent Generation.

Americans of all ages are worried about the country’s changing climate, writes Elizabeth Weise and Kayla Jimenez. But they see different causes, have different responses and have decided to take different actions in response, often split by political leanings.

The story looks at snapshots of American climate consciousness across the age spectrum.

Rain forensics

Climate scientists say the fingerprint of climate change in the flooding event that occurred during and before Hurricane Helene along a path through South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Flooding on some western North Carolina rivers blew past records set in 1916 as extreme rainfall amounts in the last week of September led to a rampaging slush of mud and debris. Enormous rainfall totals took place over three days along more than 200 miles of the Appalachian Mountains. More than 220 deaths have been reported.

In one provisional rapid attribution statement, a trio of scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory said the rainfall over the 24 hours Helene moved through was made "up to 20 times more likely in these areas because of global warming."

Read on for more, including how to make your favorite spooky holiday a little greener. Some stories below may require a subscription. Sign up and get access to eNewspapers in the USA TODAY Network. If someone forwarded you this email and you'd like to receive Climate Point in your inbox for free once a week, sign up here .

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Climate Point: A generational divide on climate?