"The Biden administration will move to rescind two Trump-era rollbacks of protections for endangered species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced Tuesday."
Plastic waste, already the subject of preliminary international talks, could be increasingly targeted after UN meetings in early 2022. Meanwhile, this ubiquitous product is polluting land, ocean and air in its various forms, as well as through little-understood microplastic particles. The latest TipSheet has the backstory on efforts to forge an international plastics treaty, as well as ideas for how to cover plastic pollution locally.
"The White House announced last night the intention to nominate Martha Williams as director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, capping nine months in which she has already been leading the agency as the administration overhauls key policies."
"A judge on Friday halted Wisconsin’s fall wolf season two weeks before hunters were set to take to the woods, siding with wildlife advocacy groups who argued that holding the hunt would be unconstitutional."
"Researchers say years of civil war and poaching in Mozambique have led to a greater proportion of elephants that will never develop tusks."
"While global attention is currently focused on COVID-19 and other zoonotic diseases that jump from animals to humans, diseases that breach the species barrier also pass from people and domestic animals to wild species."
"As Florida's record manatee die-off nears 1,000 victims so far this year, the state's top wildlife official asked lawmakers for $7 million more in 2022 to save starving sea cows and suggested that his agency temporarily do what would today get you a $500 fine and/or up to 60 days in prison: tossing them a few scraps of leafy blades."
"Hydroelectric dams are a major source of carbon-free electricity, but their output is way down in much of the West."
"Dwindling populations of the American bumblebee and their complete disappearance from eight states has led to a call for the bee to be placed under the Endangered Species Act before they face extinction."
"Almost 90% of the 180 recognized RNA viruses that can harm humans are zoonotic in origin. But disease biosurveillance of the world’s wildlife markets and legal trade is largely absent, putting humanity at significant risk."
