Schoenherr's blue weevil (Eupholus schoenherri) a spectacular blue and turquoise beetle from Indonesian New Guinea. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Twenty percent of invertebrates are at risk of extinction, according…
Approximate site of preliminarily approved drilling by Shell in the Chukchi Sea. Pink outline is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Image made with Google Earth. In the same week…
Giant ceiba tree in Panamanian rainforest. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. A dispute over the implementation of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) in Panama has pitted the United…
UPDATE: An investigation by the Venezuelan government has found no evidence of the purported massacre. In addition, Survival International, an indigenous rights group, which was one of the first to…
Imbak Canyon, Sabah. Photo by Rhett Butler Sabah, a state in Malaysian Borneo, has reclassified 183,000 hectares (700 sq km) of forest zoned for logging concessions as protected areas. The…
Annual emissions from deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by about 57 percent between 2004 and 2011, 20 percentage points lower than the recorded drop in deforestation, reports a new…
The now famous poodle moth, species unknown. Photo by: Arthur Anker. A white moth from Venezuela that bears a striking resemblance to a poodle has become an Internet sensation, after…
US oil consumption and fuel economy. Data from the EIA. The Obama administration finalized rules that will boost the national fuel economy standard for cars and light trucks to 54.5…
Brazil's Supreme Court orders Belo Monte dam construction to resume Construction of the Belo Monte Dam project, near Altamira. Photo by © Greenpeace/Daniel Beltra.. Brazil's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered…
The larva known as Cerataspis monstrosa. Photo courtesy of Bracken-Grissom et al. With blue devil-shaped horns and red armor, the monster larva, or Cerataspis monstrosa, kept scientists guessing for nearly…
A parasitic wasp attacks an aphid in the first study to prove the theory that the extinction of one predator can lead to the extinction of another. Photo by: Dirk…
The Las Gralarias glass frog is the world's newest glass frog. It was discovered by Carl Hutter on the Reserva las Gralarias, after which the researcher subsequently named the new…
Forest cover in Sumatra, 1990-2010. The extent of old-growth forest in Sumatra shrank by 40 percent over the past 20 years, while overall forest on the Indonesian island declined by…
Eurasian otter in Britain. The Japanese river otter was a subspecies of the Eurasian. Photo by: Catherine Trigg. Japan's Ministry of the Environment today declared the Japanese river otter (Lutra…
Sea ice extent hits record low on August 26th. Image courtesy of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). One of the most visible impacts of climate change—melting…
A fisherman on the Mekong River in Laos. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Fish are a hugely important protein source for many people around the world. This is no more…
Yao Ming walks with Kinango, an infant elephant whose mother was killed by poachers at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya. Photo by: Kristian Schmidt/WildAid. Former NBA Basketball player…
Freshly-collected specimens of Phallostethus cuulong. Photographed and retouched by L.X. Tran and K. Shibukawa, respectively. A bizarre penis-headed fish has been discovered in Vietnam, according to a new paper published…
UPDATE: After failing to slow down Gazprom by occupying its oil rig, Greenpeace is trying a different tact: activists have now attached their boat to a Gazprom passenger vessel preventing…
Migrating Whimbrels — a type of shorebird — may struggle for hours against winds when trying to cross the Caribbean during hurricane season but get a huge boost as they…
Brazil's Supreme Court overruled the Federal Appeals Court's decision on August 28, 2012. Construction resumed the same day. Construction site of the Belo Monte Dam and hydropower project, near Altamira.…
The new species, Moore's forget-me-not (Myosotis mooreana) is known from only a single location. Photo by: Lehnebach et al. New Zealand scientists have discovered two new species of forget-me-nots (flowers…
Two blue-throated macaws perch on a branch in the historic aviary at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Queens Zoo. Photo by: Julie Larsen Maher. Found in only one location in northern…
An official warned that Myanmar is facing a deforestation crisis due to poor forest management, illegal logging, and fuelwood collection, reports Chinese state media. U Thein Lwin, secretary of the…
Deforestation for oil palm plantations in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. As of today, August 22nd, humanity has overshot the world's annual ecological…
A rodent unlike any other: Paucidentomys vermidax. Photo from: Esselstyn et al. The Indonesian island of Sulawesi is a workshop of bizarre evolutionary experiments. Think of the babirusa, pig-like species…
Bottom blue line represents sea ice extent as of August 13th, tracking well below the record set in 2007. Graph courtesy of U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center. Click…
Click image to enlarge Flooded grasslands and savannas in Latin America are disappearing nearly three times faster than tropical rainforests in the region, finds a new study published in the…
Efforts to save the Sumatran rhino in Borneo have sped up ever since the capture of Puntung last Christmas. A female rhino, who lost one foot to a snare, Puntung…
Chinook salmon. Photo by: USGS. In March of this year the Elwha Dam, which had stood for 99 years, was demolished in the U.S. state of Washington. Five months later,…
