Biodiversity

"A total eclipse isn’t just a spectacle in the sky. When the moon consumes the sun on April 8, day will plunge into twilight, the temperature will drop — and nature will take notice."

"This spring, as Russian missiles and drones continued to rain destruction upon Ukraine, a more hopeful symbol appeared in the skies about the embattled nation. The cranes had returned."

"During the last century, federal agencies have undertaken a campaign to destroy huge tracts of piñon pines and juniper trees in the arid reaches of the American West."

"A new count of the gray whale population along the West Coast shows “signs of recovery” five years after hundreds of them washed ashore and the population began declining, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric [Administration]."

"In March, Enviva, the world’s largest woody biomass producer for industrial energy, declared bankruptcy. That cataclysmic collapse triggered a rush of political and economic maneuvering in the U.S. (a key wood pellet producing nation), and in Europe (a primary industrial biomass energy user in converted coal plants)."

"Trillions of evolution’s bizarro wonders, red-eyed periodical cicadas that have pumps in their heads and jet-like muscles in their rears, are about to emerge in numbers not seen in decades and possibly centuries."

"A toxic grass that threatens a quarter of U.S. cows is spreading. Can it be stopped?"

"The Biden administration released updated rules Friday for importation of live African elephants and trophies derived from them."

"A highly virulent bird flu first detected in dairy cows in Texas and Kansas this week has spread to additional herds, bringing the number of affected states to five and adding evidence the virus may be spreading cow-to-cow."