Around this time last year, news outlets blared alarming headlines: Breathing the air outside was as bad as smoking several cigarettes. Wildfire haze blotted out the sun and turned the moon orange. Weather apps simply listed the forecast as “smoke.”

Just because this summer has been clear, though, doesn’t mean that the environment is doing just fine.

Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington state, has said climate change is the “driving motivation” for his presidential campaign; some of his opponents agree, particularly after an April CNN/SSRS poll found that 82 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters described the issue as “very important.” One of these candidates will face off in the general election against a president who ran on the assurance that “I believe in clean air. Immaculate air.

By Disha Shetty / NewsDeeply

Officials are increasingly looking to climate data to predict droughts, famines and heat waves and to help plan for – and prevent – the rising rates of moderate and severe malnutrition that have been shown to follow.

By Grace Harmon / The Daily, UW

As this past year has shown, Seattle’s temperate climate is by no means immune to the drastic shifts in weather brought about by climate change. Last January alone brought four crippling winter storms and Seattle saw its coldest winter since 1985. This summer broke the 1951 record for longest time without rainfall at 52 days, which led to multiple, long-lasting wildfires and hazardous air quality in the region.