Petra Gonzalez, 85, spends hours of the day standing and walking on the potholed road that runs past her house. To get food to cook, Gonzalez has to hike to a refrigerator up the hill, covered only by a blue tarp,, Aug. 28 2018. Sarah L. Voisin / The Washington Post / Getty Images
By Jake Johnson
With more than a million U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico facing devastating food stamp cuts as Congress fails to provide necessary hurricane relief funding, President Donald Trump reportedly complained to Republican senators on Tuesday that the island is receiving "too much" aid — a position that was decried as both false and cruel.
The National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas is not only a sanctuary to some 200 species of butterflies, it's also a home for the area's other unique wildlife.
With border wall construction imminent, the center posted a two-minute video featuring a bobcat living in the facility's southern 70 acres that will be cut off by the barrier once it's built.
A federal appeals court on Monday sided with the
Trump administration's bypassing of numerous environmental laws to expedite border wall construction projects in southern California.
In a 2-1
decision (pdf), the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an earlier district court ruling that determined the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has broad authority under the Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to waive statutes such as the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act and many more environmental rules to build border barriers.
An excavator shows up at the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas.National Butterfly Center / Facebook
Construction equipment has arrived to build a
border wall through the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, a protected habitat for more than 200 species of wild butterflies and other unique wildlife.
A planned 5.5 mile section of concrete and steel border wall that is already funded will cut off 70 percent of the
100-acre property. The barrier will be built on top of a levee of the Rio Grande that runs through the sanctuary.
Acting Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head
Andrew Wheeler is one step closer to deregulating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The former coal lobbyist, who critics say is even worse for the environment than his scandal-plagued predecessor Scott Pruitt, secured a key approval by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday, sending President Trump's nominee to the full Senate for approval.
Trump wants to build a seawall on a public beach to protect his luxury golf resort in Ireland. Anne Estonilo / mouseROAR 2018
Before fixating on the U.S.-Mexico border, Donald Trump has sought for years to build a wall to protect his luxury golf resort in the west of Ireland.
In December 2017, the Trump International Golf Links in Doonbeg received approval from Clare County Council to build two 2,067-feet and 853-feet seawalls in length on a public beach for "coastal erosion management works." The walls are meant to protect the property from "global warming and its effects," according to its 2016 permit application.
Former California Gov. Jerry Brown, left, and former Secretary of Defense William Perry unveil the Doomsday Clock. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
The Doomsday Clock is still set at two minutes to midnight due to a lack of progress on nuclear weapons and
climate change, as well as growing concerns of "information warfare," the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced Thursday, describing this bleak time as "the new abnormal."
Mother and cub in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge near Kaktovik, on the north slope of Alaska. cheryl strahl / Flickr
By Rebecca Bowe
Send an army of industry workers into remote polar bear territory in the dead of winter, and things are not going to end well.
Yet that's just what the Trump administration would open the door to as it prepares for oil and gas drilling and moves to authorize seismic testing, a precursor to drilling in the Arctic Refuge.
The current U.S. government shutdown could worsen ongoing wildlife disease outbreaks or even delay responses to new epidemics, according to federal insiders and outside experts who work with federal wildlife employees.
Now,
in a epic Facebook post shared more than 100,000 times, an actual structural and civil engineer explained why the project is also a "monumental waste of money" and will be ineffective if it ever goes up.
Volunteer Alexandra Degen cleans a restroom at Joshua Tree National Park on Jan. 4 in Joshua Tree National Park, California. Mario Tama / Getty Images
As the partial government shutdown drags on, volunteers across the country are rolling up their sleeves to preserve our beloved national parks.
At Joshua Tree National Park—which nearly closed due to a buildup of trash, human waste and vandalism—a team of volunteers have helped clean the park's overflowing toilets and dumpsters on just about every day of the government impasse, Outside Online reported.
