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What’s one thing you wouldn’t expect at the bottom of the deepest natural trench in the world? Plastic pollution. But scientists have now found plastic in organisms in the Mariana trench.1 Plastic pollution enters the environment by the ton. Plastic foam never fully degrades, meaning every single bit of polystyrene foam ever made is still out there, polluting our oceans and threatening […]
Did you know that as many as a billion birds die each year by colliding with buildings?1 Bird-safe buildings can make a difference. Hundreds of millions of birds are at risk. It’s a disturbing sight many of us have seen: A small bird flying full-speed towards a window or all-glass-walled building, only to crash with an audible thwack against a window and […]
The modern drive to “give me convenience or give me death” can be found even in the most intimate corners of American life. For example, take the act of, shall we say, human posterior hygiene (aka butt-wiping). While Europeans (especially those in the southern part of the continent) commonly use bidets to minimize the need for paper wipes, Americans have […]
For sea otters, an oil spill isn’t just a nuisance. It can be life or death. To save otters and other wildlife, we need to stop offshore drilling before it starts . Thick, tarry oil not only turns their homes near shore into a toxic wasteland but it can also coat their fur, disrupting their ability to warm themselves and, at worst, […]
Alaska’s Bristol Bay is teeming with wildlife. It’s also now one giant step closer to becoming home to Pebble Mine, a proposed open-pit gold and copper mine. Bristol Bay is in terrible danger. On Feb. 20, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ released its 1,400-page draft environmental impact statement for the Pebble Mine project. But it’s what the statement doesn’t say that’s […]
It’s now or never for gray wolves in the Lower 48 states: The Interior Department just moved to end wolves’ Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections.1 Gray wolves need our help right now. This could be a disaster. Delisting wolves in this way would leave them vulnerable across the entire Lower 48 states. Hunting, trapping and poisoning nearly drove wolves to extinction in the […]
Image credits: Staff It’s bad enough for the environment that more than 400 billion plastic bottles will be used this year for water. It’s even worse that 70 percent of those sold in the U.S. won’t be recycled. The rest end up in landfills or in tiny pieces scattered across land and water, where they’re unwittingly and often fatally consumed […]
Last year was the deadliest year for Mexican gray wolves since their reintroduction program began.1 If these wolves are going to continue to recover, they need all the support they can get. Mexican gray wolves are worth protecting. The unique, beautiful landscape of the American southwest echos with the howls of the rarest subspecies of gray wolf in our nation. Mexican gray wolves, or “lobos,” have been the subject of conservation efforts […]
The population of monarch butterflies spending the winter in California is now less than 0.5 percent of its historical size — and this year’s population is down by roughly 86 percent compared to 2017.1 We could lose monarch butterflies if we don’t act soon. This June, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will decide whether they’ll list monarch butterflies under the […]
The Trump administration is barreling ahead with approvals for destructive oil and gas drilling in the sensitive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — some of the best polar bear denning habitat in the country.1 The Threat to Polar Bears and the Arctic Make no mistake. Drilling is bad for wildlife and the environment. Land near the Arctic Refuge bears the scars from fossil fuel […]