Biodiversity

"The United Nations is warning countries in northwest Africa to boost monitoring and begin early control measures as swarms of desert locusts move into the region."

"A planned fish farm off Florida’s Gulf Coast has received an environmental permit allowing operators to discharge nutrient-laden water from what could be the first commercial-scale saltwater aquaculture operation in the Gulf of Mexico."

"Environmentalists are challenging in court President Trump’s executive order that they say strips core protections from the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument and opens the area to harmful commercial fishing."

"Multiple efforts are underway to stop a parasitic fly from swarming Texas and the rest of the U.S. and wreaking havoc on the nation’s multi-billion-dollar cattle industry."

"House Republicans have scrapped public land sales from the latest version of their tax cut, energy and border security megabill, according to text released Wednesday evening."

"Bees and other pollinators have been on the decline for years, and experts blame a combination of factors: insecticides, parasites, disease, climate change and lack of a diverse food supply. A significant part of the human diet comes from plants pollinated by bees — not just honeybees, but hundreds of species of lesser-known wild bees, many of which are endangered."

"Debra Shankland was a kid when the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire in 1969. ... Shankland was one of many speakers at the latest listening session led by the EPA as the agency crafts a new definition for the long controversial language “waters of the United States” contained in the Clean Water Act. The interpretation of that phrase, commonly shorthanded as WOTUS, can have massive implications for the health of small streams, remote wetlands, creeks and other waters."

"A vanishing species of whale gave birth to few babies this birthing season, raising alarms among scientists and conservationists who fear the animal could go extinct. The whale is the North Atlantic right whale, which numbers only about 370 and has declined in population in recent years."

"The destruction of seagrass could derail progress in reining in planet-warming emissions and cost billions in environmental damage."

"JOHANNESBURG - Alongside forests, soil and wetlands, another powerful natural carbon absorber critical to tackling climate change lies hidden beneath the ocean surface: seagrass.

The loss of these underwater meadows, also known as blue carbon, could hobble efforts to tackle climate change, both financially and environmentally, a new study has found.

So what exactly is this marine vegetation, and what else did the research find?

"For more than 50 years, the Endangered Species Act has helped scores of species — from whooping cranes to red wolves to California condors — claw their way back from the edge of extinction. Its success has made it supremely popular with the American public — far more popular, for instance, than Congress. But now, like all those species it helps protect, the law itself is in grave peril. The Trump administration, Congress, and their allies have launched a barrage of legislation, litigation and regulatory maneuvers in recent months that together could tear the teeth out of our most powerful wildlife conservation statute."