Water & Oceans

"If Catherine Flowers ever received a calling to take on a career in environmental activism, it likely came in the form of mosquito bites."

"A coalition of conservation groups is advocating for the establishment of three new marine protected areas (MPAs) in East Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula and the Weddell Sea, which would encompass 4 million square kilometers (1.5 million square miles) of the Southern Ocean, or 1% of the global ocean."

"U.S. states hope to tap Canada’s network of large dams to meet low-carbon goals, but do better options exist closer to home?"

"A mining company said Tuesday that it plans to dig for minerals without a federal permit at the edge of the vast wildlife refuge in the Okefenokee Swamp, a big step for a once-embattled project that’s now benefiting from the Trump administration’s rollback of environmental rules."

"The federal government has approved new protections for 500 square miles of deep-sea coral habitat in the Gulf of Mexico."

"Nearly half of the continental United States is gripped by drought, government forecasters said Thursday, and conditions are expected to worsen this winter across much of the Southwest and South."

"Just south of the Galapagos’ Marchena Island, there’s a dive spot known by locals as the “fish arena.” There, within the choppy, cool waters of the Pacific, thousands of colorful fish swim in schools, lobsters poke their long antennae out of rocky outcrops, dolphins bear their young and moray eels gape menacingly at visitors who swim too close."

"The Trump administration will let some leaking or otherwise dangerous coal ash storage ponds stay in operation for years more and some unlined ponds stay open indefinitely under a rule change announced Friday."

"Nearly 200 countries are nearing a legally-binding agreement to reduce pollution from the world’s cargo ships, a step forward after two years of talks on how the industry should clean up its emissions."