"Researchers have created the first reliable population estimates for the now-rare New Zealand southern right whale."

"The bend-don’t-break adaptability of trees extends to handling climate change, according to a new study that says forests may be able to deal with hotter temperatures and contribute less carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than scientists previously thought."

"A record surge in temperatures in 2016, linked to global warming and an El Nino weather event in the Pacific, is adding urgency to a deal by 195 governments in December to curb greenhouse gas emissions to slow climate change, scientists said on Monday."

"Climate science has progressed so much that experts can accurately detect global warming’s fingerprints on certain extreme weather events, such as a heat wave, according to a high-level scientific advisory panel."

"Two months after Arch Coal filed for bankruptcy protection amid a steep decline in the coal industry, the company has announced that it will stop pursuing a project in the grasslands of southeastern Montana that would have been one of the larger surface coal mines in the country."

"The Zika virus damages many fetuses carried by infected and symptomatic mothers, regardless of when in pregnancy the infection occurs, according to a small but frightening study released [last] Friday by Brazilian and American researchers."

"The World Health Organization advised pregnant women on Tuesday to avoid travel to areas where the Zika virus is spreading."

"We lost a strong, colorful voice for environmental journalism this week. Photographer Gary Braasch, who spent his life chronicling the beauty and injustices of our changing planet, died while snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef Sunday. He was 70 years old.

I met Gary through the Society of Environmental Journalists and had the honor of working with him on several projects while I was editor of The Daily Climate. He was a man of 1,000 ideas, constantly on the move.

"A new scientific study released Thursday has delivered yet another burst of bad news about Greenland — the vast northern ice sheet that contains 20 feet of potential sea level rise. The ice sheet is “darkening,” or losing its ability to reflect both visible and invisible radiation, as it melts more and more, the research finds. That means it’s absorbing more of the sun’s energy — which then drives further melting.