Water & Oceans

"Rare footage of a sperm whale giving birth has offered scientists a window into the behavior of these large, elusive mammals."

"The United States has spent nearly a year pursuing deep sea mining without cooperation from the rest of the world. Now, Japan has said it will help out." "The arrangement could signal a fracture in the decades-long effort among nations to reach consensus on how to mine the ocean floor while protecting ecosystems."

"Vital Arctic sea ice shrank to tie its lowest measured level for the winter, the season when ice grows, as a warming Earth shattered records across the continents."

"Cahokia Heights, ​a Black Illinois community, was already drowning in sewage. Now it faces the loss of crucial federal repair money."

"Donald Trump has signalled a new flexibility in allowing oil into Cuba, hours before a Russian oil tanker under US sanctions arrived in the Caribbean island amid a de facto oil blockade imposed by Washington."

"It’s the best of times in recent memory for Chesapeake Bay oysters. It’s just the opposite, though, for the Maryland and Virginia watermen who make a living harvesting them."

"The US has caused an eye-watering $10tn in global damages to the world over the past three decades through its vast planet-heating emissions, with a quarter of this economic pain inflicted upon itself, new research has found."

"The Pentagon is behind the first-ever request to convene the “God Squad” to exempt all oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act due to national security reasons, the Justice Department said in a Wednesday court filing."

"New research shows the carbon absorbed by the Everglades is equal to 10 percent of the emissions coming from Florida roadways, but the watershed’s methane emissions complicate the picture."

"Crews on Tuesday began evaluating damage from a surprise downpour that sent floodwaters raging through a neighborhood near downtown Honolulu — the latest bout in a series of storms and flooding that have pummeled the state over the past two weeks."