U.S. gov’t gives conditional approval for offshore Arctic drilling
Chukchi, where the proposed exporatory drilling is to take place, is home to about 2,000 polar bears. The species is currently declining as global warming melts the sea ice on…
Scientists call on Obama to stop logging in old growth forests
Clear-cut logging in Alaska. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Seven conservation societies have joined a campaign to push the Obama administration to end old-growth forest logging in Alaska's Tongass National…
Throng of 35,000 walruses is largest ever recorded on land, sign of warming arctic
No longer able to find sea ice, walruses turn to land to rest, breed, give birth A mass of thousands of walruses were spotted hauled up on land in northwest…
Alaska roasting: new NASA map shows the Final Frontier in grip of January heatwave
Temperatures in Alaska from January 23-30, 2014 as compared to same period average from 2001-2010. Image by: NASA. Alaska got California weather at the end of January, as displayed by…
Yukon Flats experiencing more wildfires now than in the last 10,000 years
The Yukon Flats area of Alaska is today burning more frequently and severely than it has in the last 10,000 years, according to new research published in the Proceedings of…
NASA image shows nearly ice-free Alaska as temps top 96 degrees
After a colder-than-average spring, Alaska is suffering a sudden and record-breaking heatwave. Temperatures on Monday, June 17th hit a stunning 96 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) in Talkeetna, Alaska, just…
Shell suspends Arctic oil drilling for the year
Royal Dutch Shell announced today that it was setting "pause" on its exploratory drilling activities in the Arctic for 2013. Shell's operations are currently under review by the federal government…
Arctic oil rig runs aground
On Monday night, an oil drilling rig owned by Dutch Royal Shell ran aground on Sitkalidak Island in southern Alaska, prompting fears of an oil spill. As of yesterday no…
Legislation leaves future of world’s largest temperate rainforest up in the air
Stream and forest in the Tongass National Forest, the world largest temperate rainforest located in Southeast Alaska. Photo by: Matthew Dolkas. Although unlikely to pass anytime in the near term,…
Picture of the day: Shell drilling rig within view of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Royal Dutch Shell drilling rig off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Photo ©: Gary Braasch/World View of Global Warming. Twelve miles off shore from the Arctic National…
Future of the Tongass forest lies in salmon, not clear-cut logging
Stream in the Tongass National Forest. Photo by: Ian Majszak. The Parnell administration's Timber Task Force recently unveiled a proposal to carve out two million acres of the Tongass National…
Another mishap kills Shell’s Arctic oil drilling for the year
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. Following global protests, a…
Shell begins offshore drilling in the Alaskan Arctic
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. With the approval of…
Obama approves preparation for oil drilling in Arctic, Shell en route
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…
Shell running out of time to drill in U.S. Arctic – this year
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. The clock is running…
Featured video: restoring rivers in the Tongass Rainforest
A new video highlights recent efforts to restore rivers in the Tongass Forest, the world's largest intact temperate rainforest. Industrial logging in vital watersheds have hurt salmon populations and other…
Obama Administration, Shell moving ahead with Arctic oil exploitation
Approximate site of preliminarily approved drilling by Shell. Pink outline is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Image made with Google Earth. Last week, the U.S. Department of the Interior…
Alaskan fishermen tell government to focus on salmon, not logging
Tongass temperate rainforest. Photo of Southeast Alaska, courtesy of BigStock. Alaskan fishermen and tour operators visited Washington D.C. last week to urge the federal government to shift the focus from…
U.S. legislation threatens oldest, tallest trees in Tongass rainforest
Old-growth tree in Tongass temperate rainforest. Such trees may be as old as 800 years. Photo by: John Schoen. Up to 17 percent of the tallest old-growth trees in the…
Opposition rising against U.S. Arctic drilling
Approximate site of preliminarily approved drilling by Shell. Pink outline is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Image made with Google Earth. Drilling in the Arctic waters of the U.S.…
Photos: camera traps reveal oil’s unexpected impact on Arctic birds
An Arctic fox charging a greater white-fronted goose nest defended by the adults, in the Prudhoe Bay oilfields. Photo by: WCS. A study in the Alaskan Arctic, employing camera traps,…
Obama administration opens more of the Arctic to drilling
Approximate location of Chukchi Lease 193 as seen on Google Earth, though the lease spans nearly 30 million acres. The Chukchi Sea is north of the Bering Straight. On the…
Deepwater spill ‘meets the Titanic’: groups sue to stop Arctic drilling
Approximate site of preliminarily approved drilling by Shell. Pink outline is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Image made with Google Earth. Following the Obama administration's approval of Royal Dutch…
Shell spills over 50,000 gallons of oil off Scotland
Yesterday, Royal Dutch Shell estimated that to date 54,600 gallons of oil had spilled into the North Sea off the east coast of Scotland, spreading some 19 miles wide (30…
Goodbye national parks: when ‘eternal’ protected areas come under attack
Outline of Yellowstone National Park, the world's first modern protected are, as seen by Google Earth. Yellowstone was opposed by many when it was first created including logging and mining…
Birnam Wood in the 21st Century: northern forest invading Arctic tundra as world warms
In Shakespeare's play Macbeth the forest of Birnam Wood fulfills a seemingly impossible prophecy by moving to surround the murderous king (the marching trees are helped, of course, by an…
Arctic fish catch vastly underreported (by hundreds of thousands of metric tons) for 5 decades
From 1950 to 2006 the United Nation Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) estimated that 12,700 metric tons of fish were caught in the Arctic, giving the impression that the Arctic…
Kite-photography gives new perspective to whale migration
A new project sponsored by Nokia uses KAPing - kite aerial photography - to get an innovative look at whale behavior. The project will be taking place in Hawaii and…
New hope for polar bears
Once thought of as a doomed species, new research published in the journal Nature and conducted by scientists from several institutions, including the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Geological…
Unprecedented tundra fire likely linked to climate change
A thousand square kilometers of the Alaskan tundra burned in September 2007, a single fire that doubled the area burned in the region since 1950. However, a new study in…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Bolivia’s El Curichi Las Garzas protected area taken over by land-grabbers
- Authorities struggle to protect Bolivian national park from drug-fueled deforestation
- Poverty and plantations: Nigerian reserve struggles against the odds
- Logging, road construction continue to fuel forest loss in Papua New Guinea
Oceans
- Warming seas push India’s fishers into distant, and more dangerous, waters
- No protection from bottom trawling for seamount chain in northern Pacific
- Annual ocean conference raises $11.3b in pledges for marine conservation
- Caribbean startups are turning excess seaweed into an agroecology solution
Amazon Conservation
- Amid record-high fires across the Amazon, Brazil loses primary forests
- A web of front people conceals environmental offenders in the Amazon
- Brazil boosts protection of Amazon mangroves with new reserves in Pará state
- Cross-border Indigenous efforts in Peru & Brazil aim to protect isolated groups
Land rights and extractives
- Hyundai ends aluminum deal with Adaro Minerals following K-pop protest
- Brazil’s illegal gold trade takes a hammering, but persists underground
- Maluku bone collector unearths troubling consequence of coastal abrasion
- New FPIC guide designed to help protect Indigenous rights as mineral mining booms
Endangered Environmentalists
- Indonesian activists face jail over FB posts flagging damage to marine park
- Vietnamese environmentalist sentenced to 3 years in prison for tax evasion
- Son of slain Quilombola leader will still strive for community’s rights
- Video: Five Tembé Indigenous activists shot in Amazonian ‘palm oil war’
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
Conservation Effectiveness
- The conservation sector must communicate better (commentary)
- Thailand tries nature-based water management to adapt to climate change
- Forest restoration to boost biomass doesn’t have to sacrifice tree diversity
- How scientists and a community are bringing a Bornean river corridor back to life
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
