"Up to half of the Amazon rainforest could transform into grasslands or weakened ecosystems in the coming decades, a new study found, as climate change, deforestation and severe droughts like the one the region is currently experiencing damage huge areas beyond their ability to recover."

"Opponents of a sprawling national monument surrounding the Grand Canyon National Park on Monday launched a pair of lawsuits challenging the site, opening another front in a Republican effort to roll back presidential authority to protect federal lands."

"Environmental groups on Monday petitioned the U.S. government seeking endangered species protection for the American horseshoe crab, a "living fossil" under threat from commercial harvests for bait and biomedical use as well as from habitat loss and climate change."

"First responders and volunteers from Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday sought to contain an oil spill detected last week in the Caribbean country's waters and clean areas of Tobago island's coast already affected by the incident."

"Dirt, it turns out, isn’t just worm poop. It’s also a humongous receptacle of carbon, some 2.5 trillion tons of it — three times more than all the carbon in the atmosphere."

"For pronghorn, those antelope-like creatures of the American West, this grassland north of Flagstaff is prime habitat. It gives the animals the food and conditions they need to survive fall and winter. But for a nation racing to adopt renewable energy, the land is prime for something else: solar panels."

"Nearly half of the world’s migratory species are in decline, according to a new United Nations report released Monday. Many songbirds, sea turtles, whales, sharks and other migratory animals move to different environments with changing seasons and are imperiled by habitat loss, illegal hunting and fishing, pollution and climate change."

"A company’s plan to mine minerals near the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp and its federally protected wildlife refuge neared final approval Friday as Georgia regulators released draft permits for the project, which opponents say could irreparably harm a natural treasure."

"The same flood-control system that protected L.A. from the atmospheric rivers also saw tens of billions of gallons of stormwater flush to the sea."

"The Fish and Wildlife Service has launched an in-depth study of whether a teensy-tiny snail that inhabits springs in a small slice of lithium-rich Nevada desert should enjoy federal protections under the Endangered Species Act."