California News

As you may have noticed, over the weekend Mongabay.com changed. This is the first phase of a roll-out that will take place over the next few weeks.

An aerial view of part of the spill on Wednesday, May 20, 2015. Photo credit: Refugio Response Information website. On Tuesday, an underground oil pipeline burst near Goleta, California, spilling…

Redwoods in Big Basin State Park, California. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. If you Google "rainforest," you're almost assured to get a page of search results mostly about the tropics.…

Researchers find 80 percent chance of megadrought in American West due to climate change this century Dust storm in Texas during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. New research finds…

Sierra Nevada fox caught on camera trap in Yosemite National Park. Photo by: National Park Service. For years, biologists believed the Sierra Nevada fox (Vulpes vulpes necator) was down to…

A new study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examines how California’s forests have changed since the 1930s--and, according to its authors, can help us understand…

Baby elephant in South Africa. California congresswoman, Toni G. Atkins, introduced a bill yesterday (AB 96) that would close a major loophole allowing ivory to be sold all over the…

The most important environmental and wildlife stories from the last year Also see our Top 10 HAPPY Environmental Stories of 2014 1. The Year of Zero Deforestation Pledges: In 2014,…

Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink I moved to San Francisco six months ago and my umbrella hasn’t left its dusty sleeve yet. Scientists and politicians, everyone…

Last week I received the Parker/Gentry Award for Conservation from the Field Museum. Several people have asked about my award acceptance speech, so I've included the introduction and the conclusion…

Scientists discover that Graneledone boreopacifica has the longest brooding time of any animal on the planet The ultimate goal of all species on the planet is procreation, the act of…

Animation: The 2013-2014 California drought. By Rhett A. Butler using NASA imagery. A pair of satellite images released this week by NASA reveal the shocking impact of California's drought, which…

Courtesy of Jintai Lin et al. (2014) Twenty percent of China's air pollution can be attributed to goods exported to America, with some of those emissions drifting back to the…

While many of the world's national governments move tepidly (if at all) to combat climate change, cities are showing increasing leadership. The San Francisco Bay Area's Air District Board signed…

Complete deforestation of the Amazon rainforest could reduce rainfall in the Pacific Northwest by up to 20 percent and snowpack in the Sierra Nevada by up to 50 percent, suggests…

Photo by Officer Mark Bussey Another sea-serpent-like oarfish has been found dead along the coast in Southern California, reports the San Diego Union Tribune. The 14-foot-long oarfish washed up on…

The dead "sea monster' spotted off the coast of Southern California on Sunday is actually an oarfish, a deepwater fish species that can reach a length of 55 feet (17…

On an isolated beach in Bird’s Head Peninsula, Indonesia, a female leatherback turtle shuffles out of the ocean and onto the shore, ready to lay her eggs. Under the cover…

An initiative that is developing a framework for REDD+ programs at state and provincial levels gained three more members last week. The Peruvian departments of San Martin, Loreto, and Ucayali…

Four previously unknown species of legless lizard have been described in California, report researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and Cal State-Fullerton. The species, all members of the…

Often misunderstood, REDD+ forest carbon offsets are a “must have” for any realistic climate-change mitigation strategy. Californians are known as innovation leaders, and once again, we are on the verge…

A panel of scientific experts has released a final report outlining how carbon credits generated from tropical forest conservation could be used under California's cap-and-trade system while minimizing risks to…

The 2013 Zoos and Aquariums: Committing to Conservation (ZACC) conference runs from July 8th—July 12th in Des Moines, Iowa, hosted by the Blank Park Zoo. Ahead of the event, Mongabay.com…

A giant mako shark caught by a sports-fisherman in California Monday has spurred a conversation about declining shark populations worldwide, reports the Associated Press. The female shark caught Monday off…

As the public comment period for California's cap-and-trade program draws to a close, an alliance of environmental activists have stepped up a heated campaign to keep carbon credits generated by…

The Sierra Club has launched a campaign against clear-cutting by a logging giant in California. Two weeks ago the environmental group sent a letter to Sierra Pacific Industries asking it…

Photo of the 'super mega-pod' by Antonio Ramirez, a passenger aboard the Hornblower Cruise that spotted the dolphins last Thursday. A 'super mega-pod' of some 100,000 dolphins was spotted off…

Carbon credits generated by forest conservation activities in tropical countries could play a role in California's cap-and-trade program, helping mitigate climate change and providing benefits to local communities, said a…

Mendocino coastline. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Today President Obama announced the government would add almost 3,000 square miles of California coastline to the National Marine Sanctuary system, reports the…

A rare jay found on an island off the California coast may be endangered, but its population is rebounding due to conservation efforts, reports a new study published in the…