Natural Resources

"Death’s come knocking a last time for the splendid ivory-billed woodpecker and 22 more birds, fish and other species: The U.S. government is declaring them extinct."

"Over the past couple of years, hundreds of corporations from Amazon to Visa have announced plans to move toward “net-zero” greenhouse gas emissions. Look more closely, though, and the promises also reflect something else: the growing prominence of a controversial environmental accounting tool generally known as “carbon offsets,” or “carbon credits.”"

"Firms say what’s underneath the Salton Sea could fuel a green-energy boom. But struggling residents have heard such claims before".

"One of the largest mining operations ever seen on Earth aims to despoil an ocean we are only barely beginning to understand".

"What is arguably the world's most important satellite has launched to orbit from California. Landsat-9 is the continuation of a series of Earth-observing spacecraft stretching back almost 50 years."

"When Hurricane Ida barreled into the Louisiana coast with near 150 mile-per-hour winds on Aug. 30, it left a trail of destruction. The storm also triggered the most oil spills detected from space after a weather event in the Gulf of Mexico since the federal government started using satellites to track spills and leaks a decade ago."

"Glaciers vanishing in Glacier National Park. Sand dunes blowing away at White Sands in New Mexico. Wildfire smoke obscuring the Tetons, flames licking at the sequoias near their namesake park, Joshua trees dying out in their namesake park. These are just some of the ways that global heating is reshaping America’s public lands."

"The creation of synthetic fertilizers in the early 20th century was a turning point in human history, enabling an increase in crop yields and causing a population boom. But the overuse of nitrogen and phosphorus from those fertilizers is causing an environmental crisis, as algae blooms and oceanic “dead zones” grow in scale and frequency."

"A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration violated the law when it declined to grant Endangered Species Act protections to the iconic Joshua tree."

"Climate change and environmental destruction have inspired court cases around the country—and the globe—aimed at protecting the natural world."

"For Chuck O’Neal, a lifelong outdoorsman and environmentalist, the moment of truth came on election night 2020, as results rolled in from perhaps the most partisan campaign season in American history.