Natural Resources

"The forests that blanket the foothills of the Coast Range are crucial to holding onto freshwater and keeping it drinkable. But for years, local residents have suspected that clearcutting by private logging companies in the area has endangered their precious freshwater resource. Now, a new joint report from NASA and Oregon-based nonprofit Oregon Wild confirms coastal residents’ observations and echoes their concerns."

"The group of otters floats between amber stalks of kelp, preening their coats and foraging for urchins. Sheltered in a natural bay off Haida Gwaii, one of the most unforgiving coastlines on the west coast of Canada, the skittish mammals are hidden – from the fast-moving currents, and from groups that have pledged to shoot them on sight."

"Want to produce a huge amount of lithium for electric vehicle batteries — and also batteries that keep our homes powered after sundown — without causing the environmental destruction that lithium extraction often entails? Then the Salton Sea may be your jam."

"On Nov. 21, Mexico became the latest nation to call for a moratorium on deep-sea mining in international waters."

"The balance of an ecosystem hangs on the survival of a scraggly mountain tree. In northwest B.C., ecologists are facing climate change, droughts and wildfires as they work to protect whitebark pine and the species that rely on it".

"Very few of Ontario’s quickly vanishing marshes and swamps are safe from development. A group of citizens managed to preserve one, but they also found deep flaws in the system".

"The North American wolverine will receive long-delayed threatened species protections under a Biden administration proposal released Wednesday in response to scientists’ warnings that climate change will likely melt away the rare species’ snowy mountain refuges and push them toward extinction."

"The Biden administration faces a backlash in Wyoming as it puts more emphasis on conservation, recreation and renewable energy on public lands."

"“We need protection,” one migrant at the U.S. border said. But the legal system for refugees never envisioned the millions displaced by global warming."