Natural Resources

"Breakthrough genetic research at a Massachusetts lab could save the world’s vanishing kelp forests—and support American kelp farming, too."

"They bring traffic to a standstill, spread diseases and can be life-threatening. DW looks at how sandstorms form and why are they becoming more frequent."

"Under the denuded slopes of Mount Nyiragongo volcano in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, traders in Kibati town bartered over sacks of charcoal, a product of deforestation that an ongoing conflict has pushed to unprecedented levels, the United Nations says."

"When a wildfire started in the mountains of Fresno County late last month, much of California was on the cusp of a heat wave that would go on to smash records both for its intensity and duration. Over the next week and a half, as the Basin fire swelled to more than 14,000 acres and temperatures in the area reached 112 degrees, at least nine firefighters were treated for heat-related illness. Four were taken to local hospitals, three of them airlifted from the fire line."

"Coastal residents are conflicted over the planned location of a facility that advocates say will help launch Maine's offshore wind industry."

"The Environment Programme report focuses on potential dangers to the planet, from disease to unlivable places."

"Standing water lies beneath the home Sonny Curley shares with his parents and three children on the Quinault reservation a few steps from the Pacific Ocean in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The back deck is rotting, and black mold speckles the walls inside, leaving the 46-year-old fisherman feeling drained if he spends too much time in the house."

"The United Nations' International Seabed Authority (ISA) will meet on Monday to consider new rules allowing firms to extract minerals from the ocean floor, despite mounting concerns about the economic and environmental risks."

"When Bill Keener started working at the Marine Mammal Center as a field biologist in the 1970s, there were no whales or dolphins in San Francisco Bay. ... Starting in the late 2000s, things began to change."