"Fewer than 100 Rice’s whales remain on Earth. Here’s what they sound like when they communicate. They live only in the Gulf of Mexico, where air guns firing sonic blasts are used to survey the ocean floor for oil and gas. The low frequency of the blasts overlaps with the frequency of the calls of the whales."
"Critics are outraged that the Trump administration is moving to roll back chemical safety rules even as the U.S. faces deadly industrial chemical incidents."
"With a puny snowpack in the Western mountains and a widespread drought, the nation is a tinderbox. A reorganization of federal firefighting efforts and the departure of many staff qualified to join the fight are heightening concern."
"The Trump administration is dismantling a $368 million deep-ocean observation system that was put in place a decade ago to monitor coastal environments, marine ecosystems and powerful currents that affect the global climate."
"National Park Service officials repeatedly raised legal and environmental concerns over the Trump administration’s plan to lease public parkland, including the site of a professional tennis tournament, to a private operator widely expected to be the tournament’s operator, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post."
"A pair of House Democrats is asking a congressional watchdog to probe the Trump administration’s disaster declarations after high-profile denials of disaster aid requests."
"A judge has temporarily stopped the National Science Foundation from removing the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder from its leadership of the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center in Cheyenne."
"President Donald Trump said new regulatory rollbacks on chemical refrigerants will reduce the prices consumers pay for groceries and will not impact the environment. However, U.S. chemical, refrigeration and air-conditioning manufacturers said the changes will raise prices and his administration’s own projections show that greenhouse gas pollution will increase."
"Executive orders limiting off-road vehicle access to federal lands signed decades ago by Presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter have been revoked by President Donald Trump, drawing concerns over possible impacts to Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands and perhaps some in the National Park System."
"Trackers that ping satellites every time a whale surfaces for air. Thermal cameras that can detect the animals day and night. Acoustic devices that monitor their calls." "Innovative systems to keep ships from hitting North Atlantic right whales are coming into use. The Trump administration is weighing whether they can replace a bedrock protection."
