By Lisa Friedman
The New York Times
WASHINGTON>> In one of its most consequential climate decisions, the Biden administration is planning to greenlight an enormous $8 billion oil drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska, according to two people familiar with the decision.
Alaska lawmak...
LIVING SHORELINES”
By Wayne Parry
The Associated Press
NEPTUNE, N.J.>> Coastal communities around the world are adding a tropical twist to shoreline protection, courtesy of the humble coconut.
From the sands of the Jersey Shore to the islands of Indonesia, strands of coconut husk, known as...
By Gabe Stern
The Associated Press
CARSON CITY, Nev.>> Nevada lawmakers are considering a remarkable shift in allowing the water agency that manages the Colorado River supply for Las Vegas to limit single-family residential use in the desert city and surrounding county.
It’s another potenti...
Select committee looking for ways to protect customers from skyrocketing rates
By Judith Kohler
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As Colorado legislators and officials from the state’s regulated utilities sorted through ways to avoid a repeat of this winter’s huge increases in heating bills, one lawmaker as...
By Nic Coury and Stefanie Dazio
The Associated Press
WATSONVILLE, Calif.>> A Northern California agricultural community famous for its strawberry crop was forced to evacuate early Saturday after the Pajaro River’s levee was breached by flooding from a new atmospheric river that pummeled the ...
WILDLIFE
Pythons, invasive and hungry, are making their way north in Florida
By Patricia Mazzei
The New York Times
MIAMI>> So much for all the efforts to slow the proliferation of Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades over the last two decades, including with paid contractors, trained ...
Water sources across state contain potentially hazardous levels of toxins under new plan
By Conrad Swanson
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Dozens of water sources across Colorado previously thought to be safe would now violate the federal maximum contaminant level for PFAS, or toxic “forever chemicals,” ...
The virus has claimed geese, ducks, even 2 Chilean flamingos, data shows
By Conrad Swanson
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The highly pathogenic avian influenza — or bird flu — sweeping across the globe has killed more than 12,000 wild birds in Colorado, and the virus is jumping into mammal populations a...
By Julie Bielenberg
Aspen Times
On the last day of February and the last Aspen City Council meeting before the upcoming elections, the current council unanimously approved the strictest composting ordinance of their term and one of the most stringent in the state or the nation.
The city w...
As Colorado River shrinks, water-saving practice on the table
By Suman Naishadham
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON>> Tom Brundy, an alfalfa grower in California’s Imperial Valley, thinks farmers reliant on the shrinking Colorado River can do more to save water and use it more efficiently. Th...
By Tom Krisher and Mark Thiessen
The Associated Press
TOK, Alaska>> Alaska’s rugged and frigid interior, where it can get as cold as minus 50 Fahrenheit, is not the place you’d expect to find an electric school bus.
But here is Bus No. 50, with a cartoon horse decal on its side, quietly tra...
COMPOSTING
No more pizza boxes
By Noelle Phillips
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The primary company accepting compostable materials across Colorado’s Front Range plans to stop taking packaging and service ware such as carryout containers, plates, paper towels, greasy pizza boxes, cups and utensils — ...
U.S. to focus on bison restoration
By Matthew Brown
The Associated Press
U.S. officials will work to restore more large bison herds to Native American lands under a Friday order from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland that calls for the government to tap into Indigenous knowledge in its efforts to co...
By Michael Levenson
The New York Times
The ethanol-fueled fungus known as whiskey fungus has thrived for centuries around distilleries and bakeries. It’s been the source of complaints from residents who live near Kentucky bourbon distilleries, Canadian whisky makers and Caribbean rum manufacturers...
WASHINGTON>> For the first time, United Nations members have agreed on a unified treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas — representing a turning point for vast stretches of the planet where conservation has previously been hampered by a confusing patchwork of laws.
The U.N. Conventio...
The member states of the UN have reached an agreement to protect the high seas from climate change, overfishing, seabed mining, and other dangers that threaten marine life. The world’s ocean covers nearly three-quarters of the planet, but there has never been a comprehensive international treaty to ...
COMPOSTING
What goes in bins to change
No more pizza boxes; firm trying to get rid of contaminated products
By Noelle Phillips
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The primary company accepting compostable materials across Colorado’s Front Range plans to stop taking packaging and service ware such as carry...
By Amy Taxin
The Associated Press
FRESNO, Calif.>> Mabu saunters across a grassy field and raises his long, gray trunk to wrangle food from a hole carved inside a large boulder, captivating the attention of a girl propped up on her father’s shoulders.
At this zoo in a central California far...
WILDLIFE By Susan Montoya Bryan
The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE>> Endangered Mexican gray wolves are making more strides, as more breeding pairs and pups have been documented since reintroduction efforts began in the southwestern U.S. more than two decades ago, federal wildlife manager...
By Tracey Tully and Winston Choi-Schagrin
The New York Times
First, a North Atlantic right whale, a critically endangered species, washed ashore in Virginia. Then, a humpback floated onto a beach in New Jersey. Not long afterward, a minke whale, swept in on the morning tide, landed on the Rockaway...
