Natural Resources

"A widely touted effort to clean up the embattled carbon-offsets market has been met with disappointment among experts."

"The Bureau of Land Management unveiled a sweeping draft rule Thursday that would represent a fundamental shift in how the agency manages millions of acres of public lands that are under increasing threat from climate change, drought and wildfires."

"The Senate on Wednesday afternoon approved a resolution against the Biden administration’s signature water policy, in a move all but guaranteed to spark the president’s second veto ever."

"In the fast-changing Bering Sea, a small tribe makes a big push to save their island".

"From a distance, it is hard to tell whether the three figures walking the salt playa are human, bird or some other animal. Through binoculars, I see they are pelicans, juveniles, gaunt and emaciated without water or food. In feathered robes, they walk with the focus of fasting monks toward enlightenment or death."

"First it was the eerie images of barrels leaking on the seafloor not far from Catalina Island. Then the shocking realization that the nation's largest manufacturer of DDT had once used the ocean as a huge dumping ground—and that as many as half a million barrels of its acid waste had been poured straight into the water."

"A big-wave surfer at Mavericks is essentially an ocean sensor. Grant Washburn can tell you the approximate depth of the seafloor beneath him, the size of a 40-foot wave and the wind speed blowing foam off the peak, all based on the crescendo in his nervous system."

"Scientists for the federal government say documents that Georgia state regulators relied upon to conclude a proposed mine won’t harm the nearby Okefenokee Swamp and its vast wildlife refuge contain technical errors and “critical shortcomings” that render them unreliable."