Biodiversity

"In Maine, Maryland, and beyond, the industry is using a well-worn playbook to slow legislators’ attempts to get forever chemicals out of food and water."

"Experts believe three more cats in Los Angeles County have been infected with H5N1 bird flu. Two others succumbed to the disease earlier this month after drinking recalled raw milk from Fresno-based Raw Farm LLC dairies."

"The hunt for invasive “murder hornets” is over in Washington and the rest of the U.S. after three years without confirmed detections, state and federal officials said Wednesday."

"Paul Watson, the anti-whaling campaigner, has spoken of delight that he will be reunited with his young children for Christmas after Denmark rejected Japan’s extradition request and released him from prison in Greenland."

"An invasive predator that can grow up to 20ft, weigh over 100kg and devour prey six times its size – it is enough to make anyone’s skin crawl. That’s what residents of southern Florida have been struggling with for the past few decades, with the rapid growth of the Burmese python population in the Everglades."

"You never forget your first time seeing a giant salamander, according to Andy Hill. He was a teenager, standing thigh-high in the Watauga River outside Boone, North Carolina, casting a line on an early fall day when he saw his first eastern hellbender. The salamander stretched 2 feet long and was camouflaged among rocks beneath the clear water."

"Despite two weeks of U.N.-sponsored talks in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh, the participating 197 nations failed to agree early Saturday on a plan to deal with global droughts, made longer and more severe by a warming climate."

"The reintroduction of endangered wolves to Yellowstone National Park 30 years ago was a major conservation victory. But as wolves have spread across the West, anger and resentment at the apex predator has escalated, with hunters in some states increasingly targeting them."

"A humpback whale has made one of the longest and most unusual migrations ever recorded, possibly driven by climate change, scientists say."