Environment
News you might have missed about climate change, biodiversity, pollution, conservation and related policy and politics.
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Humans are not the only species that is threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Animals are also endangered by both the disease and the way people respond to it. The problem of bear bile China’s National Health Commission is recommending the use of bear bile for treatment of COVID-19, and conservationists are concerned. One of the […]
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The ecological effects of the coronavirus-driven global economic slowdown seem weirdly hopeful, as smog decreases over major cities and reports of resurgent animal life inspire positive social-media messages. Whether these changes are lasting, meaningful — or even real — is another question altogether. Amidst the hype and hope, the ultimate intersectional issue — the world’s […]
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The novel coronavirus sweeping the planet in 2020 has apparently followed a familiar path — from the depths of rainforests and other wild habitat to places human beings congregate, such as marketplaces and cooking hearths. We’ve already seen this happen with Ebola, which likely came to humans from chimpanzees used as “bush meat”; MERS, which […]
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Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest, oldest, and most powerful mining companies, is fully on board the climate-change bandwagon. The corporation announced that it plans to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, largely thanks to pressure from the investor group Climate Action 100+. Baby steps A conglomerate based in the United Kingdom […]
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The largest animal ever to have lived on Earth appears to be making a comeback. Record numbers of the Antarctic blue whale have been tallied off South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic, spurring hopes that this species will join the recovery of humpbacks and other whales that were once decimated by commercial whaling. Whaling […]
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Spurred by climate change, civil war and poverty, a new plague of locusts is sweeping though northeastern Africa. And experts say the out-of-control insect swarms are going to get worse before they get better. Previously, locusts — also known as short-horned grasshoppers — haven’t appeared in such numbers in the region since the 1950s. Tens […]
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