biodiversity

Wind Energy Threat to Birds Is Overblown

Wind Energy Threat to Birds Is Overblown

Wind energy is one of the cleanest, most abundant, sustainable and cost-effective ways to generate electricity. It’s also one of the fastest growing U.S. electricity sources. At the end of 2013, there were enough wind turbines across the country to power 15.5 million typical American homes and cut annual power sector carbon emissions by 4.4 […]

Join our newsletter

The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!

    Earthworms Detoxify Pesticides From Soil at Significant Cost

    Earthworms Detoxify Pesticides From Soil at Significant Cost

    Earthworms that make their home in contaminated soil do so at a significant cost, according to French and Danish researchers. Results of the study, Acclimation of earthworms to chemicals in anthropogenic landscapes, physiological mechanisms and soil ecological implications, found that earthworms exposed to fungicides in conventionally farmed soil were at a stark disadvantage to worms […]

    Eco Euphemisms That Confuse Our Understanding of Environmental Destruction

    Eco Euphemisms That Confuse Our Understanding of Environmental Destruction

    In his now-classic essay, Politics and the English Language, George Orwell warned: “Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. … But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better.” Orwell’s insights are as […]

    4 Ways Companies Can Ensure Wood Comes From Legal Logging

    4 Ways Companies Can Ensure Wood Comes From Legal Logging

    Illegal logging drives deforestation in many countries, robbing national governments and local communities of valuable income and contributing to global biodiversity loss and climate change. Experts estimate that up to 10 percent—or about $7 billion—of the global wood supply is sourced illegally—meaning that the wood was harvested in violation of national laws or international agreements to […]

    Evidence Finds BP Gulf Oil Disaster Causing Widespread Deformities in Fish

    Evidence Finds BP Gulf Oil Disaster Causing Widespread Deformities in Fish

    Crude oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster causes severe defects in the developing hearts of bluefin and yellowfin tunas, according to a new study by a team of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and academic scientists. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the 25th anniversary of the […]

    Report Exposes Products Driving International Killing and Trade of Whales

    Report Exposes Products Driving International Killing and Trade of Whales

    Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) announced yesterday the release of a new report which highlights the global scale of killing and trade in whales in the twenty-first century. WDC demonstrates that consumption or utilization of whale and dolphin meat and by-products is not confined to just a few nations, as many people believe. Rather, killing and trade is […]

    Half a Million Americans Urge EPA to Protect Bees

    Half a Million Americans Urge EPA to Protect Bees

    Yesterday, more than 500,000 signatures were delivered to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy, urging the nation’s top-ranking environmental leader to protect bees and other pollinators. The date marks the one-year anniversary of the lawsuit filed against EPA by beekeepers, food, and environmental groups, including Beyond Pesticides, over the continued allowance of two bee-toxic pesticides: clothianidin and thiamethoxam. […]