"Record emissions, temperatures and population mean more scientists are looking into possibility of societal collapse, report says"

"Even greater efforts to strip carbon dioxide from the atmosphere will fail to avert climate change catastrophe as rising global temperatures threaten to cross a key threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), scientists said on Wednesday."

"Wildlife populations around the world continue dropping precipitously, according to an important but limited and often misinterpreted assessment that’s issued every two years."

"128 “Grazer” made Fat Bear Week history Tuesday night by becoming the first competitor to win the tournament while caring for a cub. Her victory over 32 “Chunk” also felt deeply personal for legions of her online fans; earlier this summer, Grazer’s enormous rival attacked the second of her offspring, who later died of the injuries."

"The destruction of global forests increased in 2023, and is higher than when 140 countries promised three years ago to halt deforestation by the end of the decade, an analysis shows."

"Two years after a landmark UN-brokered deal to protect nature from a massive wave of destruction, delegates will gather at a new COP in Colombia in late October to assess their progress."

"New research shows how toxic chemicals hitch a ride with seabirds flying from southern latitudes to the Arctic."

"The largest dam removal project in U.S. history was completed Wednesday, marking a major victory for tribes in the region who fought for decades to free hundreds of miles of the Klamath River near the California-Oregon border."

"Russ Lewis has picked up some strange things along the coast of Long Beach Peninsula in Washington state over the years: Hot Wheels bicycle helmets with feather tufts, life-size plastic turkey decoys made for hunters, colorful squirt guns." ... "These items aren’t like the used fishing gear and beer cans that Lewis also finds tossed overboard by fishers or partygoers. They’re the detritus of commercial shipping containers lost in the open ocean."

"The country’s most-visited national park site, the Blue Ridge Parkway, will remain closed indefinitely, the National Park Service (NPS) said Wednesday. The closure affects the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway, though some parts were hit harder than others by storm damage. It comes right as the region and scenic road typically see a boom in tourism, as weather cools and the leaves change colors."