Published by the World Wildlife Fund Mangroves protect and stabilize coastlines – particularly important as climate change brings more extreme storms and increased wave action. They also act as sinks, sequestering 3–5 percent more carbon per unit area than any other forest system. But mangroves are disappearing, cleared for urban and tourism development or felled for […]
Published by the United Nations [UN] Environment Programme – Ministers of Environment, Agriculture, Tourism , Fisheries and Forestry agree on urgent coordinated action to advance progress on biodiversity targets – Meeting adopts Cancun Declaration on Mainstreaming the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity for Well-Being – Countries also announce ambitious commitments in support of Aichi Targets […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund John Martinez Pavliga For months, California’s state agencies have been building a framework to fulfill Governor Brown’s vision of making water conservation a “way of life.” The governor’s executive order in May aimed to bolster California’s climate and drought resilience long-term. Earlier this week, the agencies finally […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Haverstraw Bay, the widest portion of the Hudson R. Friedman It’s difficult to put into words my appreciation for the Hudson River. From its source in Lake Tear of the Clouds at the foot of Mount Marcy to its terminus in New York Harbor, the Hudson continues to […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund smalljude/Flickr Sound is a powerful weapon. Flash-bang grenades can stun and disorient unruly mobs, and loud music is sometimes played to weaken detainees before interrogations. Even innocuous-seeming sounds can drive a person mad if they go on long enough. When the United States invaded Panama in 1989, Manuel […]
Published by the World Wildlife Fund In the waning days of 2016, it’s important to pause for a moment to celebrate all we’ve accomplished for wildlife, people, and the planet in the past 12 months. Together, we pushed for new regulations to help shut down the illegal elephant ivory trade within our borders and to stop […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund The Waccamaw River Liane Harrold/Alamy Stock Photo On the banks of South Carolina’s Waccamaw River, just west of Myrtle Beach, sit two large pits containing coal ash, the toxic byproducts of coal combustion. Such holding ponds pockmark most major waterways in the Southeast, and all too often they […]
Published by Ocean Conservancy There’s no doubt about it: ocean plastic pollution is a big problem. An estimated eight million metric tons of plastic waste flow from land into the ocean every year, meaning that by 2025 there could be one ton of plastic for every three tons of fish! And there’s much more to the problem […]
Published by the World Wildlife Fund One of the last great stands of rain forest in the deforestation hotspot of the Indonesian island of Sumatra has welcomed an exciting new addition: a baby female orangutan. The infant is the first orangutan born in the Thirty Hills conservation concession since WWF and its partners began managing the […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Co-authored with Karan Chouksey As the cost and demand for power dramatically rise in south India, Hyderabad and the state of Telangana are turning to energy efficiency as a solution. The cost to purchase power doubled in Telangana from September to this month, raising alarms about energy prices […]
Published by Ocean Conservancy This post originally appeared on National Geographic’s Ocean Views blog. During this bruising presidential campaign, there was an eerie sense that we had moved into a post-truth world, with fake news circulating on Facebook and the veracity of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump continually called into question. In fact, Oxford Dictionaries just declared “post-truth” its […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund You love your pet. You care about the environment. But what do the two have to do with each other? More than you may realize, it turns out. How you treat your pets, how you feed them, and how you clean up after them have a sizable impact […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Ivory store window in San Francisco (C) Daniel Stiles (2015) The Los Angeles Superior Court has upheld California’s ivory ban (Assembly Bill 96; now California Fish and Game Code Section 2022) against a lawsuit brought by the Ivory Education Institute, which claimed the law was unconstitutional. NRDC, which […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund This week, about 46 million turkeys will appear on tables across the United States. As families give thanks and try to steer conversations away from politics, they should also give a nod of appreciation to the ancient Mayans, who were the first to domesticate that bird on their […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund A federal appeals court is reviewing whether Connecticut’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) violates the Federal Power Act and the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. On November 22, NRDC and several allied groups filed a “friend of the court” brief in defense of the RPS, which requires an increasing […]
Published by Ocean Conservancy Last week, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation approved nearly $370 million in new projects to help the Gulf of Mexico recover from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. Among these new projects is Mississippi’s Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Conservation Recovery and Monitoring Program, a nearly $10 million, five-year project. This […]
Published by the World Wildlife Fund Earlier this year, WWF estimated an increase in the number of tigers worldwide, up to 3,890 in 2016 from an estimated 3,200 in 2010. But success to date is tenuous: According to a new report from WWF, tigers now face a threat far greater than many we’ve tackled before: linear […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund By Francine Kershaw and Grace Goldberg (originally published November 17th, 2016, on OpenChannels) Genetic data is often overlooked and geneticists are rarely at the top of the marine planning party guest list. This results in a significant gap in the protection of evolutionary processes, that are essential for the long-term […]
Published by the World Wildlife Fund The following piece was written by summer WWF intern Kate Rasmussen to offer readers a glimpse into the life of a next-generation rancher from the Northern Great Plains, one of the largest remaining intact grasslands in the world. These grasslands are dependent on grazing animals, and these days, cattle are […]
Published by Ocean Conservancy The film crew records an exciting moment on the Miss Britt II. Last week, two filmmakers and I went to South Florida to document how ocean acidification can touch communities, like Miami’s, that don’t depend heavily on shellfish harvests. Known for its marine life, beaches, coral reefs and sunny weather, Miami and […]