Biodiversity

"More than a third of the world’s tree species are threatened with extinction, according to the first comprehensive assessment of trees by the world’s leading scientific authority on the status of species."

"Damage to oceans is releasing vast amounts of CO2, despite efforts to market fish as a sustainable food."

"New research provides evidence that chemicals used in farming may be more harmful to insects than previously thought, contributing to worldwide declines in important species."

"Enormous swathes of pristine forest are being cut down across Indonesia to supply the rapidly rising international demand for biomass material seen as critical to many countries’ transitions to cleaner forms of energy."

"The red-cockaded woodpecker, an iconic bird in southeastern forests, has recovered enough of its population to be downlisted from an endangered species to a threatened one, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday."

"New York, New Jersey and Delaware were accused in federal lawsuits Thursday of improperly allowing Atlantic sturgeon to be killed by commercial fishing operations even as the prehistoric fish is on the brink of disappearing."

"For the first time under President Joe Biden, a federal permit for a new lithium mine has been approved for a Nevada project essential to his clean energy agenda, despite conservationists’ vows to sue over the plan, which they say will drive an endangered wildflower to extinction."

"The handful of rangers who protect one of Earth’s most remote and biologically diverse reefs have only each other for company for months at a time. They worry about running out of gas for boat patrols, their drinking water can get dangerously low and rising seas are nipping away at the tiny island that hosts their station."

"Countries are expected to reach a deal at this month's U.N. COP16 nature summit on how the world uses and pays for genetic information extracted from nature, according to negotiators."

"Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ranks as one of the wildest places on Earth. In the winter, it’s a haven for some of the last polar bears that traverse land and sea. In the summer, millions of birds descend to build their nests and gather fuel for their journey south."