endangered species

China Seizes Massive Amount of Pangolin Scales in Biggest-Ever Smuggling Case

China Seizes Massive Amount of Pangolin Scales in Biggest-Ever Smuggling Case

By Shreya Dasgupta Pangolin—the world’s most trafficked mammal—continues to be killed in huge numbers. On Wednesday, Chinese customs officials announced that they had seized more than three metric tons (3,000 kilograms or 6,600 pounds) of pangolin scales in Shanghai. This is the country’s largest-ever smuggling case involving pangolin parts, officials reportedly said. Customs officials discovered […]

Join our newsletter

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

    What You Need to Know About Trump’s Choice for Department of Interior

    What You Need to Know About Trump’s Choice for Department of Interior

    By Adam Markham U.S. natural and cultural resources—the parks, landmarks and history of America—are under assault from climate change. So it is troubling that Ryan Zinke, Donald Trump‘s pick to run the Department of the Interior (DOI), seems unsure whether climate change is a real problem or not. Just this week, in an interview with […]

    10 Endangered Species Murals Connect Communities to the Natural World

    10 Endangered Species Murals Connect Communities to the Natural World

    In support of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s campaign to protect their water and sacred grounds from the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Center for Biological Diversity and artist Roger Peet installed a mural of an endangered butterfly at the Oceti Sakowin camp, where hundreds of tribes and allies gathered in peaceful protest. Here are the […]

    Meet the Arctic’s New Top Predator … Killer Whales

    Meet the Arctic’s New Top Predator … Killer Whales

    By David Kirby There’s no doubt that melting sea ice in Hudson Bay is threatening endangered polar bears, but it might also be harmful to beluga whales, seals, narwhals and other marine mammals, scientists are warning. The reason? Melting ice caused by climate change is carving huge swaths of open water for longer periods of […]

    USDA Gives Monsanto and Scotts’ Glyphosate-Resistant Grass Green Light

    USDA Gives Monsanto and Scotts’ Glyphosate-Resistant Grass Green Light

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a final environmental impact statement Wednesday giving the green light to genetically engineered (GE) creeping bentgrass, a highly invasive grass genetically engineered by Monsanto and Scotts to withstand what would normally be a fatal dose of the herbicide glyphosate. Decades-old outdoor experiments have proven the novel grass impossible to […]

    Court Fails to Protect Bees From Toxic Pesticides

    Court Fails to Protect Bees From Toxic Pesticides

    A judge in the Northern District of California delivered a crushing blow Monday to the nation’s beekeepers and imperiled honeybees. The judge ruled against the beekeepers and public interest advocates in a lawsuit seeking to protect honeybees and the broader environment from unregulated harms caused by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) lax policies for […]

    The Marine Hotspot That Could Save Our Seas

    The Marine Hotspot That Could Save Our Seas

    By Neela Eyunni The Earth’s oceans are under siege. Human activity is wiping out coral reefs and marine life at a faster rate than ever before. As conservationists try to restore the health of our seas, one place may be key to turning the tide. The Verde Island Passage has the highest concentration of marine […]

    Record Number of Fur Seals Washing Up Dead or Emaciated Off California Coast

    Record Number of Fur Seals Washing Up Dead or Emaciated Off California Coast

    Rare Guadalupe fur seals are once again washing up in California’s Bay Area in record numbers likely due to unusually warm waters threatening their food supply. Wild Tangerine is one of 32 threatened Guadalupe fur seals we have responded to this year: https://t.co/zgpq6ot6PT pic.twitter.com/lt30hnPR2t — The Marine Mammal Center (@TMMC) November 14, 2016 The East […]