- There are many important conservation and environmental stories Mongabay isn’t able to cover.
- Here’s a digest of some of the significant developments from the week.
- If you think we’ve missed something, feel free to add it in the comments.
- Mongabay does not vet the news sources below, nor does the inclusion of a story on this list imply an endorsement of its content.
Tropical forests
Brazil is on track for near-record-high deforestation in 2019 (The Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald) …
… While the country’s environmental protection agency is working on an operation to address the trend (Reuters).
More than 2,000 people have been diagnosed with Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Nature).
The U.S. will once again accept wildlife trophies from Tanzania (All Africa).
A lawyer has been recognized for taking on a palm oil company to protect forests in his native Liberia (Living on Earth).
Aerosols are collecting over the Brazilian Amazon thanks to urban pollution in Manaus (Scienmag).
Rainfall is vitally important to locking away carbon in the soils of temperate rainforests, researchers have found (Physics World).
Other news
A scientist found a fossilized school of 259 fish in a dinosaur museum in Japan (The Atlantic).
Trump’s rollback of automobile pollution standards could create a “nightmare scenario,” carmakers say (The New York Times).
Meeting the Paris climate goals could prevent heat-related deaths in major cities, a study predicts (The New York Times).
Climate change could cost large companies $1 trillion over the next five years (The New York Times).
Research shows that fear tactics to engender concern for climate change could backfire (Pacific Standard).
Scientists aren’t sure why gray whales are dying in alarming numbers off the West Coast of the U.S. (Los Angeles Times).
Presidential candidate Joe Biden borrows from the progressive Green New Deal in his plan to address climate change (The Washington Post).
Here’s a rundown of where all the current candidates for the Democratic nomination stand on climate change (The Washington Post).
The U.K. expanded its “blue belt” of marine protected areas (The Guardian).
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg committed $500 million to halting the production of energy from coal and natural gas (The New York Times).
Trees on Canada’s Vancouver Island, cut by illegal loggers, are another casualty of the opioid crisis (The Atlantic).
Stable ringed seal populations in Alaska have led to a push to remove the species from protection under the Endangered Species Act in the U.S., but their success may belie an uncertain future in a warmer climate (Hakai Magazine).
Targeted hunting of wolves in the U.S. allowed the expansion of another predator: the coyote (The Washington Post).
Scientists are using sea sponges and the DNA they filter from the water to catalog the species living in the ocean (The Economist).
A new technique finds massive amounts of microplastics deep in the ocean (The Atlantic).
Banner image of an African lion by John C. Cannon/Mongabay.
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