Natural Resources

"Companies that profit from plastics are pushing forward laws to keep Americans hooked on disposable plastic products"

"For millions of years, North America was home to a zoo of giants: mammoths and mastodons, camels and dire wolves, sloths the size of elephants and beavers as big as bears. And then, at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch about 12,000 years ago, most of them vanished."

"The Senate and House reached a final agreement Tuesday on a major bipartisan water infrastructure bill, which authorizes a range of federal projects to reduce flooding, improve ports and restore ecosystems."

"Louisiana has long relied on a vast levee system to rein in the Mississippi River and protect surrounding communities from flooding. But cutting off the natural flow of the river with man made barriers has been slowly killing one of the nation’s largest forested wetlands."

"Recordings by biologist Heike Vester reveal how oil and gas exploration as well as cruises, fishing boats and even whale-watchers are adding to the din underwater"

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week finalized a recovery plan for Canada lynx, a species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and proposed new critical habitat designations to increase federal protections for the winter-adept felines in some areas. "

"Monarch populations have plummeted due to habitat loss, pesticide use and climate change. Eastern monarch populations that migrate between Canada and overwintering sites in Mexico are estimated to have declined by more than 80 percent since the 1990s."

"Raúl Grijalva, the top Democrat on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, will not seek to remain in that position in the next Congress, he said in a written statement Monday."

"A new legal petition filed by more than 170 top environmental groups demands that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) begin monitoring for microplastics in drinking water, an essential first step to reining in pollution viewed as one of the nation’s most pressing public health threats."

"Restoring the world's degraded land and holding back its deserts will require at least $2.6 trillion in investment by the end of the decade, the U.N. executive overseeing global talks on the issue told Reuters, quantifying the cost for the first time."