A federal judge threw out oil and gas leases on nearly one million acres of public lands that are important habitat for the greater sage grouse, arguing that a Trump administration policy that curtailed public input on the leases was “arbitrary and capricious.” At the start of 2018, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had […]
By Jessica Corbett Ahead of government negotiations scheduled for next week on a global plan to address the biodiversity crisis, 23 former foreign ministers from various countries released a statement on Tuesday urging world leaders to act “boldly” to protect nature. “It is clear to us… that climate change, ecosystem degradation, and the excessive exploitation […]
Government officials are offering an up to $20,000 reward for information that helps solve two brutal Florida dolphin murders. The first dolphin was discovered shot or stabbed late last week by biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission off of Naples, Florida, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries reported Tuesday. The second […]
By John R. Platt President Donald Trump has unveiled his budget proposal for the next federal fiscal year, and it’s predictably harsh for wildlife and the environment — but great for oil, gas and coal. Of course, the annual presidential budget is more spectacle than anything else. The real budget each year comes from Congress, […]
Botswana held its first auction of licenses to hunt elephants Friday since President Mokgweetsi Masisi lifted a five-year ban on the controversial practice in May of 2019. Masisi’s government has argued that legal hunting is necessary to reduce conflict between elephants and humans, but some conservationists fear that reintroducing the practice could actually encourage more […]
By Jan Rocha President Jair Bolsonaro pressed forward with a “dream” initiative sending a bill to the Brazilian Congress on Wednesday that would open indigenous reserves in the Amazon and elsewhere to development, including commercial mining, oil and gas exploration, cattle ranching and agribusiness, new hydroelectric dam projects, and tourism — projects that have been […]
A new airport under construction in a key wetland habitat just north of the Philippine capital is poised to impact dozens of migratory bird species, many of them already threatened, observers say. The 2,500-hectare (6,200-acre) “aerotropolis” complex in Bulacan province, 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Manila, is part of a wider infrastructure development push that […]
As President Donald Trump prepared to give his third State of the Union Address Tuesday night, nine conservation groups considered the state of the nation’s environment. Their consensus? “Donald Trump has been the worst president for our environment in history,” the groups wrote in a statement released Tuesday. No matter what we hear during #SOTU […]
Human activity threatens to make summer nights a little less magical. This is a composite of several long exposure photographs of fireflies in a yard in Milo, Maine, U.S. Mike Lewinski / Unsplash A study published in BioScience Monday set out to assess the greatest threats to the world’s approximately 2,000 species of fireflies. While […]