trees

Scientists have known last year’s Castle Fire was probably the most destructive for California’s famously fire-resilient sequoias in at least 700 years, but a draft National Park Service report obtained by the Visalia Times-Delta puts a quantitative measurement on that fire’s climate-fueled toll. Between 7,500 and 10,000 monarch sequoias — about 10% to 14% of […]

By Selma Franssen In 2014 eco-entrepreneur Shubhendu Sharma gave a TED Talk about the value of the mini-woodland ecosystems he was planting across India. He described how they grow 10 times faster, are 30 times denser, and 100 times more biodiverse than a conventional forest. His tiny forests were inspired by Japanese ecologist Akira Miyawaki’s […]

By Reynard Loki The natural world is in a state of crisis, and we are to blame. We are in the midst of the Sixth Extinction, the biggest loss of species in the history of humankind. So many species are facing total annihilation. Nearly one-third of freshwater species are facing extinction. So are 40 percent […]

Conservation efforts often focus on a particular animal or ecosystem, organizing to save the whales or the rainforests, for example. But, as the climate crisis and coronavirus pandemic have made all too clear, every creature and biome on this Earth is intimately connected. That is why Plastic Oceans International and ÜÑÜ are organizing the first […]

By Mojtaba Sadegh, Amir AghaKouchak and John Abatzoglou Just about every indicator of drought is flashing red across the western U.S. after a dry winter and warm early spring. The snowpack is at less than half of normal in much of the region. Reservoirs are being drawn down, river levels are dropping and soils are […]

By Anne Petermann On August 18, 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a petition by researchers at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) seeking federal approval to release their genetically engineered (GE) Darling 58 (D58) American chestnut tree into U.S. forests. Researchers claim the transgenic D58 […]

By Karen D. Holl and Pedro Brancalion For 149 years, Americans have marked Arbor Day on the last Friday in April by planting trees. Now business leaders, politicians, YouTubers and celebrities are calling for the planting of millions, billions or even trillions of trees to slow climate change. As ecologists who study forest restoration, we […]

About 66 million years ago, a 12-km asteroid struck Earth. The massive heat and impact likely triggered tidal waves and clouded the skies with ash, The Washington Post reported. Scientists estimate that up to 75 percent of all life on land went extinct, including the dinosaurs. The space rock that triggered that mass extinction event […]