Water & Oceans

"Improved “weather forecasts” for oceans hold hope for reducing devastation to fisheries and ecosystems around the world".

"The share of Americans living in counties and parishes that are at least partially protected by earthen and concrete levee systems increased to 62%, or more than 201 million people, in 2019, compared to 55% a decade earlier, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency statistics obtained by Levees.org, a New Orleans-based advocacy group.

"Harmful algal blooms are a health hazard in all 50 states. But Lake Erie, the shallowest, and therefore the warmest, of the five Great Lakes, is uniquely vulnerable to algal blooms. Like most other water bodies suffering from blooms, the lake is overloaded with nutrients, forming the perfect breeding ground for a bacteria known to poison pets, contaminate drinking water and create oxygen-deprived "dead zones" that kill aquatic life."

"Anxious residents of the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius stuffed fabric sacks with sugar cane leaves Saturday to create makeshift oil spill barriers as tons of fuel leaking from a grounded ship put endangered wildlife in further peril."

"Much of Canada’s remaining intact ice shelf has broken apart into hulking iceberg islands thanks to a hot summer and global warming, scientists said."

"It’s not the first time the president has boasted about a formal directive he never actually gave."

"The first beavers to live naturally in the wild in England for over 400 years have been given the green light to stay after a five-year trial showed their dam-building activities were good for wildlife and people."

"At least 388 manatees have died in Florida this year, slightly more than average, but in about a third of those cases, scientists did not recover the body to figure out the cause. Blame the coronavirus pandemic."

"The decades-long battle over an effort to raise the height of Shasta Dam took another turn Thursday when the Trump Administration released a new environmental report on the plan, just five years after completing a similar study."

"Following a record number of Atlantic Ocean storms over the past two months, including five that struck the United States, government scientists on Thursday updated their forecast for the remainder of the hurricane season, saying it was likely to be extremely active."