"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."
"This fall, the Sipekne’katik First Nation has pressed ahead with off-season lobster fishing despite racist rhetoric and vigilantism that the RCMP has been criticized for failing to stop."
A forthcoming U.S. National Climate Assessment, due in 2022, faces delays, thanks to Trump administration foot-dragging, according to the new WatchDog Opinion column. And the Supreme Court, possibly with a new Justice Amy Coney Barrett aboard, is about to hear arguments on a freedom of information case involving the Endangered Species Act.
"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."
"Nearly a decade after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan’s government has decided to release over one million tonnes of contaminated water into the sea, media reports said on Friday, with a formal announcement expected to be made later this month."
"President Donald Trump on Tuesday created what he called a “subcabinet” for federal water issues, with a mandate that includes water-use changes sought by corporate farm interests and oil and gas.
An executive order from Trump put Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler in charge of the interagency water body.
Establishment of a water subcabinet “will streamline decision-making processes” across federal agencies, the EPA said in a statement.
"Decades ago several bird species in the Great Lakes—including the iconic bald eagle—faced an uncertain future because toxic chemicals were threatening their populations. While several bans and policies have offered some protection, the same chemicals threatening these birds 60 years ago continue to accumulate in their bodies—and new chemical threats are adding to their toxic burdens, according to two new studies."
"Smalltail shark populations have declined by 90% in Brazil, and new research finds that overfishing has pushed the species perilously close to extinction."
"The industry that operates America’s hydroelectric dams and several environmental groups announced an unusual agreement Tuesday to work together to get more clean energy from hydropower while reducing the environmental harm from dams, in a sign that the threat of climate change is spurring both sides to rethink their decades-long battle over a large but contentious source of renewable power."
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