""Sixteen states, the District of Columbia and environmental activist groups are suing the U.S. Postal Service to block its purchase of 148,000 gas-guzzling delivery trucks over the next decade, alleging the agency has vastly underestimated the vehicles’ costs and adverse ecological impact."
"As endangered whales begin to migrate past San Francisco Bay, there’s a new effort to protect them from getting struck by cargo ships, a leading cause of death."
"Federal conservation programs are supposed to distribute taxpayer dollars to farmers who use practices that improve water quality, build soil health, and preserve and restore ecosystems. But a portion of the funding supports practices that some say fail to deliver on those goals."
"U.S. wildlife officials have agreed to craft a new habitat plan for the snow-loving Canada lynx that could include more land in Colorado and other western states where the rare animals would be protected, according to a legal agreement made public Tuesday."
"An H3N8 strain of bird flu has been detected in humans for the first time, in China’s central province of Henan." "Experts say widespread transmission of flu in birds is increasing scope for avian viruses to mix and mutate."
"A disaster-weary globe will be hit harder in the coming years by even more catastrophes colliding in an interconnected world, a United Nations report issued Monday says."
"About 20 percent of reptile species risk extinction, mainly because people are taking away their habitats for agriculture, urban development and logging, according to the first global reptile assessment of its kind."
"The Metropolitan Water District said Wednesday that the unprecedented decision to reduce outdoor watering to one day a week for about 6 million Southern Californians could be followed by even stricter actions in September if conditions don’t improve, including a total ban in some areas."
"Damage to the Earth’s lands, largely caused by the expansion of agriculture, has put the planet on “crisis footing,” say the authors of a sweeping new report that urgently calls for the restoration of billions of acres of terrain to forestall the worst impacts of climate change."
"The Biden administration on Wednesday identified new areas for potential offshore wind development off the coasts of Oregon and several central Atlantic states, its latest step toward bolstering the nascent U.S. industry."
