An adult female black bear was euthanised by Yellowstone National Park staff after displaying repeated food-conditioned behaviours, according to a park press release.

Newsweek contacted Yellowstone National Park for comment via online form on Sunday outside of usual working hours.

Why It Matters

This marks the first black bear euthanised in Yellowstone for food conditioning since July 2020. In May of this year, an unrelated 11-year-old male grizzly was also euthanised after flipping over multiple bear-resistant dumpsters in high-traffic areas like Old Faithful and Nez Perce Picnic Area, as reported by East Idaho News.

What To Know

Park officials said the actions took place around 5 p.m. on July 11, at a backcountry campsite in the Blacktail Deer Creek drainage in northern Yellowstone.

Officials said that the bear's escalating behavior, including property damage and obtaining a significant food reward, posed a clear threat to visitor safety and warranted removal.

The release states that the decision to kill the bear was based on ongoing concern for human safety, property damage to camping equipment, and the bear learning to defeat the park's backcountry food storage poles to obtain human food.

The bear had previously crushed an unused tent on June 7 and later climbed a properly secured food storage pole to access campers' food bags on July 11.

Although incidents involving bears obtaining human food at Yellowstone remain uncommon, when they do occur, the animal may quickly lose its natural wariness of humans. Park authorities warned that such bold behaviour raises serious safety concerns.

Yellowstone National Park stretches from Wyoming into Montana, and Idaho and was established as a national park by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. It is the first national park in the United States. The park spans more than 3,468.4 square miles.

Yellowstone is home to both grizzly bears and black bears, one of the few places south of Canada where the two species live side by side.

What People Are Saying

Yellowstone's bear management biologist Kerry Gunther said in the news release: "We go to great lengths to protect bears and prevent them from gaining access to human food in all areas of the park. But occasionally, a bear outsmarts us or overcomes our defenses. When that happens, we sometimes have to make the difficult decision to remove the bear from the population to protect people and property."

The park's website states: "Visitors should be aware that all bears are potentially dangerous. Park regulations require that people stay at least 100 yards (91 meters) from bears (unless safely in your car as a bear moves by).

"Bears need your concern, not your food; it is against the law to feed any park wildlife, including bears. All of Yellowstone is bear habitat – from the deepest backcountry to the boardwalks around Old Faithful. Prepare for bear encounters no matter where you go by learning more about bear safety."

What Happens Next

Yellowstone continues to require all backcountry campers to use either food storage poles or bear-resistant food containers at the park's 293 campsites. Officials emphasise that proper food storage, except when actively cooking or eating, is vital for visitor safety and wildlife protection.

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Ione Wells, South America correspondent

A new law in Brazil could cause "significant environmental harm and human rights violations", and represents a "rollback for decades" of protections in Brazil, including for the Amazon, a UN expert has told BBC News.

Plans to speed up approvals for development projects were criticised by Astrid Puentes Riaño, a UN special rapporteur, as the country prepares to host the COP30 climate summit this year.

Lawmakers passed plans to simplify environmental licences for infrastructure including roads, dams, energy and mines this month, though the president has not formally approved the bill.

Critics have dubbed it the "devastation bill" and say it could lead to environmental abuses and deforestation.

Proponents say a new nationwide licensing regime would simplify the long and complex process that companies face to prove to authorities that planned developments do not cause unacceptable environmental harm.

Under the changes, some developers would be able to self-declare their environmental impact through an online form for projects deemed smaller - a move supporters say would reduce bureaucracy but critics feel is a major concern.

Ms Riaño told the BBC she feared the lighter regulations would "apply to some mining projects" and will "impact the Amazon region".

She also said was "very worried" about plans for automatic renewal of some projects' licences where no major changes have occurred, saying: "This will prevent environmental impact assessments from being done on these projects. Some of the projects will include mining projects or infrastructure projects where a full assessment is needed.

"It will also cause deforestation. Modifications or continuations of projects might mean deforestation in the Amazon without a proper assessment."

A lot of deforestation and land-clearing in the Amazon has been driven by agriculture and mining, sometimes illegally - but Ms Riaño said the bill is "going backwards" on efforts to prevent that.

Her intervention comes two months after new analysis was published showing vast swathes of the Amazon were destroyed in 2024, with forest fires fuelled by drought adding to man-made deforestation pressures.

Under the new law, environmental agencies would have 12 months - extendable to 24 - to make a decision about whether to grant a licence for strategic projects. If that deadline was missed, a licence could be automatically granted.

Supporters say this would give businesses certainty by preventing delays that have plagued projects, including hydroelectric dams for clean energy, or rail lines to transport grain.

Ms Riaño said she understood the need for more efficient systems but assessments must be "comprehensive" and "based on the science."

The law would also relax the requirement to consult indigenous or traditional quilombola communities - descendents of Afro-Brazilian slaves - in some situations unless they are directly impacted.

UN experts raised concerns that fast-tracking assessments could remove some participation and affect human rights.

Supporters of the bill say it will encourage economic development, including for renewable energy projects, held to grow the economy, and reduce costs for businesses and the state.

But critics fear weakening environmental protections could increase the risk of environmental disasters and violate indigenous rights.

In particular, UN experts argue it could contradict constitutional rights guaranteeing the right to an ecologically balanced environment - which means legal challenges could lie ahead.

The Senate and Chamber of Deputies have approved the bill and it is now pending presidential approval.

President Lula da Silva has until 8 August to decide whether to approve or veto the new law.

Brazil's Environment and Climate Change minister, Marina Silva, has strongly opposed the bill, condemning it as a "death blow" to environmental protections.

But she has been at odds with the president on other issues in the past, including proposals to explore oil drilling in the Amazon basin.

Even if the president vetoes it, there is a chance the conservative-leaning congress could try to overturn that.

Brazil's Climate Observatory has called the bill the "biggest environmental setback" since Brazil's military dictatorship, in which the construction of roads and agricultural expansion led to increased Amazon deforestation and the displacement of many indigenous people.

Ms Riaño said scientists in Brazil estimate the bill "will lift protections for more than 18 million hectares in the country, the size of Uruguay," adding "the consequences are huge".

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By removing carbon dioxide from the ocean, Captura disrupts a natural balancing act between the gas in the water and the gas in air, enhancing the ocean's ability to absorb the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.

Jun 17, 2025 By Gary E. Frank

A drink becomes carbonated when carbon dioxide is added to make it fizzy. Anyone who opens a bottle of soda sees bubbles start to rise, and eventually, it turns flat. This is Henry’s Law in action. 

The amount of carbon dioxide in the liquid is at balance with the amount of carbon dioxide putting pressure on it from above. When the seal is cracked, pressure is released, and the gas inside the soda is released to maintain the balance. The same is true for the reverse. If you were to increase the pressure on the bottle, more gas would dissolve inside the soda. 

Captura, a California-based startup, is applying Henry’s Law to climate action through a process called direct ocean capture. It removes carbon dioxide from seawater, upsetting the gas balancing act, to enhance the ocean’s ability to absorb it from the atmosphere.

“If you remove carbon dioxide from the ocean, it disrupts the balance. The atmosphere then replenishes the carbon dioxide in the ocean,” Captura CEO and founder Steve Oldham told TriplePundit. “Now imagine doing that at the scale of the ocean, and you get a cost-effective way to remove large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere.”

The world’s oceans hold 60 times more carbon than the atmosphere and absorb nearly 30 percent of carbon dioxide from human activities, according to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. 

Captura’s technology captures carbon dioxide using only ocean water and renewable electricity, without requiring input materials or producing waste, Oldham said. It delivers a clean, measurable stream of carbon dioxide, similar to direct air capture, but avoids the use of chemical absorbents.

“That means no materials need to be mined, transported, or disposed of — an enormous benefit when scaling this technology to the level of today’s global energy sector,” Oldham said. 

The captured carbon dioxide is used for various applications, including sequestration for generating carbon credits, producing synthetic fuels, and serving as a climate-friendly feedstock for industrial use, Oldham told 3p. The startup is also exploring carbon dioxide supply opportunities for the food and beverage industry at its Hawaii plant.

One way Captura’s direct ocean capture carbon removal process stands out from the similar, but still different, direct air capture method is energy use. Captura’s method uses less energy than direct air capture and can operate on intermittent or curtailed power, Oldham said. This allows the system to run primarily on otherwise unused renewable energy — like surplus wind power at night — making it well-suited to align with the variable nature of wind, solar or wave energy.

“We design our plants to maximize use of this surplus energy, which is a significant value proposition,” Oldham said. “Our energy use is about 2 kilowatt-hours per kilogram of carbon dioxide removed, on the lower end of the direct air capture spectrum, and we expect roughly 50 percent of that energy to come from curtailed sources not otherwise in demand.”

One of the biggest hurdles Capture had to overcome was demonstrating that the technology worked.

“For technology, we had to show that the previous concerns raised by others when assessing ocean-based carbon removal are overcome by Captura's approach and our in-house electrodialysis technology,” Oldham said.

To do so, Captura operates two pilot sites: a facility at the Port of Los Angeles capable of capturing 100 tons of carbon dioxide each year, and one in Kona, Hawaii, capable of capturing 1,000 tons per year. Innovations are tested in Los Angeles, then scaled and validated in Hawaii before moving to commercial deployment.

The company is ready to build its first commercial-scale plant after successfully validating its technology through the two pilot projects. Captura secured an initial agreement and is pursuing others, but it needs supportive policy, commercial capital, or both to proceed, Oldham said.

The startup's other big challenge is demonstrating that its direct ocean capture process is benign to the ocean, Oldham told 3p. The company's approach of physically removing carbon dioxide from seawater helps reduce ocean acidification, unlike other marine-based carbon dioxide removal methods that add carbon back as bicarbonate, he said. 

“We add no materials into the ocean and help mitigate ocean acidification, but we wanted to demonstrate that our process does not harm marine life,” Oldham said. “We've done that through a series of demonstrations and tests as part of an ongoing research program, the results from which we publish.”

Moving forward, the advantage of Captura’s approach is its flexibility. The company’s technology can be deployed almost anywhere with access to seawater. Since it doesn’t introduce new materials and generates no waste, the technology is “inherently scalable,” Oldham said. 

“I see our solution as one essential piece of the broader climate toolkit. One major differentiator compared to other ocean-based carbon dioxide removal methods is that we don’t sequester carbon in the ocean — we extract it and produce a measurable stream of carbon dioxide,” he said. “This simplifies permitting and makes the carbon accounting more transparent and verifiable.” 

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story stated Captura's Hawaii plant is located in Kaui. It is located in Kona, Hawaii, and the story was updated on June 17, 2025, to reflect this. 

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Posted 6:15 AM, Jun 18, 2025 and last updated 1:54 PM, Jun 19, 2025

(WXYZ) — Crews from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources were able to remove a plastic lid from the neck of a young bear after around two years. It happened in Montmorency County.

According to the Michigan DNR, it isn't known where or how the male bear got its head stuck in a five-inch hole in the lid. It's similar to a lid that fits 55-gallon drums used by hunters to bait bears. The DNR said that baiting is a legal method for hunting bears, but bait containers can only be used on private land and may only have holes either 1 inch or less in diameter or 22 inches or greater in diameter.

DNR biologists at the Atlanta field office became aware of the bear in 2023 after trail camera photos of the then-cub with its head stuck in the lid. Officials say the bear would prove elusive over the next two years and occasionally appear on trail cameras but then disappear.

In late May, a resident spotted the bear and alerted the DNR. With the resident's permission, biologists set up a baited enclosure trap and caught the animal on June 2.

They were able to anesthetize the bear, cut off the lid and collect body measurements and other data.

“Container openings of a certain size can result in bears and other wildlife getting their heads or other body parts stuck in them, leading to injury or death,” said Cody Norton, the DNR’s bear, furbearer and small game specialist. “It’s important to remember that the opening diameter is more important than the size of the container.”

According to the DNR, the bear weighed 110 pounds which is standard for a 2-year-old bear, but had scarring and an abscess on its neck. Otherwise, the bear was healthy. It was released back into the wild.

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New research finds long-term impacts on flood size and frequency decades after trees are removed

Lou Bosshart | Jul 17, 2025

Clear-cutting can make catastrophic floods 18 times more frequent with effects lasting more than 40 years, according to a new UBC study.

In one watershed, these extreme floods also became more than twice as large, turning a once-in-70-years event into something that now happens every nine.

“This research challenges conventional thinking about forest management’s impact on flooding,” said senior author Dr. Younes Alila, a hydrologist in the UBC faculty of forestry. “We hope the industry and policymakers will take note of the findings, which show that it matters not only how much forest you remove but also where, how and under what conditions.”

Same treatment, different floods

The UBC-led study draws on one of the world’s longest-running forest experiments at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in North Carolina and is published in the Journal of Hydrology.

The research team analyzed two adjacent watersheds, one north-facing, the other south-facing, that were both clear-cut in the late 1950s.

“We found seemingly minor landscape factors—like the direction a slope faces—can make or break a watershed’s response to treatment,” said first author Henry Pham, a doctoral student in the faculty of forestry.

In the north-facing watershed, which receives less direct sunlight and retains more moisture, floods became four to 18 times more frequent. Average flood sizes increased by 47 per cent compared to pre-treatment levels, and the biggest floods grew by as much as 105 per cent.

In the south-facing watershed, the same treatment had virtually no impact on flood behaviour.

Old flood models inadequate

Most conventional flood models use simplified assumptions: cut X per cent of trees, expect Y per cent more water runoff. But this study found that such models fail to account for extreme and erratic flood patterns that emerge after landscape disturbances.

“This experimental evidence validates our longstanding call for better analysis methods,” said Dr. Alila. “When we apply proper probabilistic tools to long-term data, we find much stronger and more variable impacts than older models suggest.”

In short, he adds, forest treatments don’t just raise average flood levels—they can fundamentally reshape a watershed’s entire flood regime, making rare and catastrophic events much more common.

The most concerning finding was that flood effects in the north-facing watershed persisted for over 40 years, confirming that forestry treatments can lead to long-term changes in a watershed’s flood response, especially as climate change brings more extreme weather, putting downstream communities at greater risk.

Policy implications

The findings have immediate relevance for forest management practices, particularly in B.C. where there are similar terrain types and forestry operations in the form of clear-cut logging.

Dr. Alila noted that the model used in this study can be used to predict which parts of B.C. are currently more at risk of extreme flooding. It can also be used to investigate how much of the severity of Sumas Prairie floods in 2021 and the more recent Texas floods can be attributed to global warming and/or land use and forest cover changes. “Our findings highlight how multiple landscape factors interact in complex ways. As climate conditions shift, understanding those dynamics is becoming increasingly important for forest and water management.”

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Bernd Debusmann Jr | BBC News, Washington

The Trump administration has announced a plan to scrap a landmark finding that greenhouse gases are harmful to the environment, severely curbing the federal government's ability to combat climate change.

Known as the "Endangerment Finding", the 2009 order from then-President Barack Obama allowed the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create rules to limit pollution by setting emissions standards.

The US is a major contributor to global climate change, and ranks second only to China which emits more planet-warming gases like carbon dioxide – and the US still emits more per person.

Experts have warned that the move could have a devastating impact on the environment.

President Donald Trump has long argued that climate regulations stifle US economic growth, and on his first day back in office in January ordered that the EPA submit recommendations "on the legality and continuing applicability" of the Endangerment Finding.

The Endangerment Finding stemmed from a 2007 Supreme Court case in which the court ruled that greenhouse gases are "air pollutants" - meaning that the EPA has the authority and responsibility to regulate them under the US Clean Air Act.

In 2009, the EPA made an official decision, the Endangerment Finding, which found that greenhouse gas emissions from sources such as cars, power plants and factories cause climate change and could pose a public health risk.

The decision forms the core of the federal government's authority to impose limits on carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases.

In a statement, the EPA said that, if finalised, the move will save Americans $54bn (£40bn) in costs annually through the repeal of greenhouse gas standards, including an electric vehicle mandate passed by the Biden administration.

Speaking in an episode of the conservative "Ruthless" podcast released on Tuesday, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said the move was "basically driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion".

Zeldin said that emissions standards were a "distraction" and that the policy change was "an economic issue". "Repealing it will be the largest deregulatory action in the history of America," he said.

In a previous statement on reconsidering the findings in March, Zeldin said that "the Trump Administration will not sacrifice national prosperity, energy security, and the freedom of our people for an agenda that throttles our industries, our mobility, and our consumer choice while benefiting adversaries overseas."

The new draft rule from the EPA will now go undergo a public comment period before being subject to an interagency review.

If it is successful, the rule will immediately revoke rules governing tailpipe emissions from vehicles.

According to the EPA statement, the revocation of those standards will begin with those set in 2010 for light-duty vehicles, as well as those set in 2011 for medium and heavy-duty vehicles and engines.

The EPA's move is likely to face legal challenges, and some experts have questioned whether the administration's decision will make it through the courts at all.

But Richard Revesz, the former administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Biden administration and a law professor at New York University, told the Washington Post that the announcement will still have an impact on US climate change policies until a final decision is made in the court system.

"If the endangerment finding fell, it would call into question essentially all or almost all of EPA's regulation of greenhouse gases," he said.

Also among those to condemn the announcement was California Governor Gavin Newsom, who in a joint statement with Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers accused the Trump administration of "reckless abandonment of science and the law."

"Americans deserve to know the truth from the federal government about the climate crisis," the statement said.

"No amount of buying research of firing scientists will change the facts: greenhouse gas pollution causes climate change and endangers our health and welfare - period," it added.

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Georgina Rannard | Climate and science correspondent

A tiny, obscure animal often sold as aquarium food has been quietly protecting our planet from global warming by undertaking an epic migration, according to new research.

These "unsung heroes" called zooplankton gorge themselves and grow fat in spring before sinking hundreds of metres into the deep ocean in Antarctica where they burn the fat.

This locks away as much planet-warming carbon as the annual emissions of roughly 55 million petrol cars, stopping it from further warming our atmosphere, according to researchers.

This is much more than scientists expected. But just as researchers uncover this service to our planet, threats to the zooplankton are growing.

Scientists have spent years probing the animal's annual migration in Antarctic waters, or the Southern Ocean, and what it means for climate change.

The findings are "remarkable", says lead author Dr Guang Yang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, adding that it forces a re-think about how much carbon the Southern Ocean stores.

"The animals are an unsung hero because they have such a cool way of life," says co-author Dr Jennifer Freer from British Antarctic Survey.

But compared to the most popular Antarctic animals like the whale or penguin, the small but mighty zooplankton are overlooked and under-appreciated.

If anyone has heard of them, it's probably as a type of fish food available to buy online.

But their life cycle is odd and fascinating. Take the copepod, a type of zooplankton that is a distant relative of crabs and lobsters.

Just 1-10mm in size, they spend most of their lives asleep between 500m to 2km deep in the ocean.

In pictures taken under a microscope, you can see long sausages of fat inside their bodies, and fat bubbles in their heads, explains Prof Daniel Mayor who photographed them in Antarctica.

Without them, our planet's atmosphere would be significantly warmer.

Globally the oceans have absorbed 90% of the excess heat humans have created by burning fossil fuels. Of that figure, the Southern Ocean is responsible for about 40%, and a lot of that is down to zooplankton.

Millions of pounds is being spent globally to understand how exactly they store carbon.

Scientists were already aware that the zooplankton contributed to carbon storage in a daily process when the animals carbon-rich waste sinks to the deep ocean.

But what happened when the animals migrate in the Southern Ocean had not been quantified.

The latest research focussed on copepods, as well as other types of zooplankton called krill, and salps.

The creatures eat phytoplankton on the ocean surface which grow by transforming carbon dioxide into living matter through photosynthesis. This turns into fat in the zooplankton.

"Their fat is like a battery pack. When they spend the winter deep in the ocean, they just sit and slowly burn off this fat or carbon," explains Prof Daniel Mayor at University of Exeter, who was not part of the study.

"This releases carbon dioxide. Because of the way the oceans work, if you put carbon really deep down, it takes decades or even centuries for that CO2 to come out and contribute to atmospheric warming," he says.

The research team calculated that this process - called the seasonal vertical migration pump - transports 65 million tonnes of carbon annually to at least 500m below the ocean surface.

Of that, it found that copepods contribute the most, followed by krill and salps.

That is roughly equivalent to the emissions from driving 55 million diesel cars for a year, according to a greenhouse gas emissions calculator by the US EPA.

The latest research looked at data stretching back to the 1920s to quantify this carbon storage, also called carbon sequestration.

But the scientific discovery is ongoing as researchers seek to understand more details about the migration cycle.

Earlier this year, Dr Freer and Prof Mayor spent two months on the Sir David Attenborough polar research ship near the South Orkney island and South Georgia.

Using large nets the scientists caught zooplankton and brought the animals onboard.

"We worked in complete darkness under red light so we didn't disturb them," says Dr Freer.

"Others worked in rooms kept at 3-4C. You wear a lot of protection to stay there for hours at a time looking down the microscope," she adds.

But warming waters as well as commercial harvesting of krill could threaten the future of zooplankton.

"Climate change, disturbance to ocean layers and extreme weather are all threats," explains co-author Prof Angus Atkinson from Plymouth Marine Laboratory.

This could reduce the amount of zooplankton in Antarctica and limit the carbon stored in the deep ocean.

Krill fishing companies harvested almost half a million tonnes of krill in 2020, according to the UN.

It is permitted under international law, but has been criticised by environmental campaigners including in the recent David Attenborough Ocean documentary.

The scientists say their new findings should be incorporated into climate models that forecast how much our planet will warm.

"If this biological pump didn't exist, atmospheric CO2 levels would be roughly twice those as they are at the moment. So the oceans are doing a pretty good job of mopping up CO2 and getting rid of it," explains Prof Atkinson.

The research is published in the journal Limnology and Oceanography.

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Google dubbed an error from its Med-Gemini model a typo. Experts say it demonstrates the risks of AI in medicine.
by Hayden Field | Aug 4, 2025, 7:00 AM PDT

Scenario: A radiologist is looking at your brain scan and flags an abnormality in the basal ganglia. It’s an area of the brain that helps you with motor control, learning, and emotional processing. The name sounds a bit like another part of the brain, the basilar artery, which supplies blood to your brainstem — but the radiologist knows not to confuse them. A stroke or abnormality in one is typically treated in a very different way than in the other.

Now imagine your doctor is using an AI model to do the reading. The model says you have a problem with your “basilar ganglia,” conflating the two names into an area of the brain that does not exist. You’d hope your doctor would catch the mistake and double-check the scan. But there’s a chance they don’t.

Though not in a hospital setting, the “basilar ganglia” is a real error that was served up by Google’s healthcare AI model, Med-Gemini. A 2024 research paper introducing Med-Gemini included the hallucination in a section on head CT scans, and nobody at Google caught it, in either that paper or a blog post announcing it. When Bryan Moore, a board-certified neurologist and researcher with expertise in AI, flagged the mistake, he tells The Verge, the company quietly edited the blog post to fix the error with no public acknowledgement — and the paper remained unchanged. Google calls the incident a simple misspelling of “basal ganglia.” Some medical professionals say it’s a dangerous error and an example of the limitations of healthcare AI.

Med-Gemini is a collection of AI models that can summarize health data, create radiology reports, analyze electronic health records, and more.

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The nest at a site in South Carolina had a radiation level 10 times what is allowed by federal regulations, but it does not present a danger, officials said.

By The Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Workers at a site in South Carolina that once made key parts for nuclear bombs in the U.S. have found a radioactive wasp nest but officials said there is no danger to anyone.

Employees who routinely check radiation levels at the Savannah River Site near Aiken found a wasp nest on July 3 on a post near tanks where liquid nuclear waste is stored, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The nest had a radiation level 10 times what is allowed by federal regulations, officials said.

The workers sprayed the nest with insect killer, removed it and disposed of it as radioactive waste. No wasps were found, officials said.

The report said there is no leak from the waste tanks, and the nest was most likely radioactive through what it called “onsite legacy radioactive contamination” from the residual radioactivity left from when the site was fully operational.

The watchdog group Savannah River Site Watch said the report was at best incomplete since it doesn’t detail where the contamination came from, how the wasps might have encountered it and the possibility there could be another radioactive nest if there is a leak somewhere.

Knowing the type of wasp nest could also be critical — some wasps make nest out of dirt and others use different material which could pinpoint where the contamination came from, Tom Clements, executive director of the group, wrote in a text message.

“I’m as mad as a hornet that SRS didn’t explain where the radioactive waste came from or if there is some kind of leak from the waste tanks that the public should be aware of,” Clements said.

The tank farm is well inside the boundaries of the site and wasps generally fly just a few hundred yards from their nests, so there is no danger they are outside the facility, according to a statement from Savannah River Mission Completion which now oversees the site.

If there had been wasps found, they would have significantly lower levels of radiation than their nests, according to the statement which was given to the Aiken Standard.

The site was opened in the early 1950s to manufacture the plutonium pits needed to make the core of nuclear bombs during the start of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Now the site has shifted toward making fuel for nuclear plants and cleanup.

The site generated more than 165 million gallons of liquid nuclear waste which has, through evaporation, been reduced to about 34 million gallons, according to Savannah River Mission Completion.

There are still 43 of the underground tanks in use while eight have been closed.

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By Jonah Fisher | BBC environment correspondent

Thousands of water tests to identify potential harmful pollution in rivers, lakes and estuaries in England have been cancelled in the last three months due to staff shortages, the BBC has learned.

The Environment Agency confirmed the cancellations after campaigners showed us internal emails and documents with plans for extensive cuts to monitoring programmes.

The cancelled tests are for so-called inorganic pollutants - substances such as nitrates and phosphates that can indicate sewage or agricultural pollution.

The EA says its testing programme "remains robust" but this week a landmark report said it had "struggled to effectively oversee and manage the water system".

In the three months from May to July the water regulator says that 10,000 scheduled tests at its main laboratory at Starcross in Devon did not take place due to staff shortages.

Others were combined with other tests or postponed in what the EA says was an "optimisation" process.

The Environment Agency said seven national inorganic testing programmes had been completely "paused". They include programmes that track chemical pollution in rivers, lakes and estuaries as well as one that monitors the regulator's plans for dealing with drought.

Jo Bradley, who worked at the Environment Agency's water quality team for more than 20 years, told the BBC: "Some inorganic substances, such as copper and zinc, are directly toxic to aquatic organisms, including fish and insects,"

"Others, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, are nutrients and they can affect river health when they are present in high quantities.

"These substances must be tested routinely, at many hundreds of locations, so that we can see trends in river chemistry and quickly identify problems."

The EA said it "paused" 17.5% of its inorganic testing at the Starcross Laboratory from May to July.

Over the entire year it said it was expecting to operate at 15% below capacity.

A spokesperson blamed the reduction in tests on "fluctuations in staffing capacity" and said the laboratory would be working at full capacity again by October.

Staffing problems are nothing new at the EA. In 2023 its chairman Alan Lovell told parliament that it had "struggled with recruitment and retention of staff".

Internal emails obtained by campaign groups Greenpeace and Desmog through freedom of information requests were shared with the BBC. They show EA officials discussing the impact of staff departures on testing and saying that others planned to leave.

One senior official, writing an email to her colleagues, said it was "not good news I'm afraid" adding "this isn't where we want to be (again)".

Helen Nightingale, who worked at the Environment Agency as a catchment planner, analysing data from its water quality programme until 2022, says that while she was there she saw a shift of focus away from serious investigation to trying to find "successes".

She also said that morale was low: "The pay is not great – we didn't have pay rises for years due to austerity,

"But a lot people are in it [the EA] because they want to make a difference – and when you're not even getting that - well, what's the point?"

Documents seen by the BBC show that the work affected by the cuts to testing this year included investigations into the water industry in various parts of the country, and monitoring of protected areas including the River Wye, which is currently facing a pollution crisis linked to intensive chicken farming.

Stuart Singleton White from the Angling Trust which has been running its own citizen scientist testing programme., said: "This spring, while the EA cut 10,000 water samples, our Water Quality Monitoring Network collected its 10,000th.

"Our latest annual report showed that 34% of sites breached "good ecological status" for phosphate, and 45% showed signs of nitrate pollution. Pollution is out of control, and extensive testing is key to addressing the problem."

Singer-turned-campaigner Feargal Sharkey said the cancelled tests are further confirmation of the EA's limitations.

"When is a regulator not a regulator? When it's the Environment Agency," Mr Sharkey told the BBC.

"With impeccable timing the Environment Agency reminds us all of exactly why they to should be added to Sir Jon Cunliffe's bonfire of the quangos [the Water Commission]. Institutionally incompetent, complacent and discredited."

This week, Sir Jon recommended that a single water regulator be created, with the EA handing over responsibility for monitoring water pollution.

A spokesperson for the EA said: "We are committed to protecting the environment and water quality testing remains a top priority having received an extra £8m in funding."

"Our water quality testing programme remains robust and prioritised on the basis of need - only a small proportion of tests were impacted by this issue, with no impact on pollution incidents and bathing water testing."

Using advanced computational modeling, a Rutgers professor, in collaboration with researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Stony Brook University, reveal both the immediate and delayed climate benefits of solar power

Increasing solar power generation in the United States by 15% could lead to an annual reduction of 8.54 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, according to researchers at Rutgers, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Stony Brook University.

The study, published in Science Advances, found that the climate benefits of solar power differ markedly throughout U.S. regions, pinpointing where clean energy investments return the greatest climate dividends.

In 2023, 60% of U.S. electricity generation relied on fossil fuels, while 3.9% came from solar, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Because fossil fuel-generated electricity is a leading source of carbon dioxide, or CO2, and harmful air pollutants such as fine particulate matter, expanding solar could not only mitigate CO2 but help reduce illness, hospitalizations and premature deaths linked to air pollution exposure.

Researchers examined five years of hourly electricity generation, demand and emissions data from the Energy Information Administration starting July 1, 2018. They focused on the 13 geographic regions in the United States.

With this dataset, the researchers constructed a statistical model to explore how increases in hourly solar energy generation would affect CO2 emissions within a given region and in its neighboring regions.

The study quantified both immediate and delayed emissions reductions resulting from added solar generation. For example, the researchers found that in California, a 15% increase in solar power at noon was associated with a reduction of 147.18 metric tons of CO2 in the region in the first hour and 16.08 metric tons eight hours later.

“It was rewarding to see how advanced computational modeling can uncover not just the immediate, but also the delayed and far-reaching spillover effects of solar energy adoption,” said the lead author Arpita Biswas, an assistant professor with the Department of Computer Science at the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences. “From a computer science perspective, this study demonstrates the power of harnessing large-scale, high-resolution energy data to generate actionable insights. For policymakers and investors, it offers a roadmap for targeting solar investments where emissions reductions are most impactful and where solar energy infrastructure can yield the highest returns.”

The researchers said their methods provide a more nuanced understanding of system-level impacts from solar expansion than previous studies, pinpointing where the benefits of increased solar energy adoption could best be realized. In some areas, such as California, Florida, the mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, Texas and the Southwest, small increases in solar were estimated to deliver large CO2 reductions, while in others, such as New England, the central U.S., and Tennessee, impacts were found to be minimal – even at much larger increases in solar generation.

In addition, the researchers said their study demonstrates the significant spillover effects solar adoption has on neighboring regions, highlighting the value of coordinated clean energy efforts. For example, a 15% increase in solar capacity in California was associated with a reduction of 913 and 1,942 metric tons of CO2 emissions per day in the northwest and southwest regions, respectively.

“I am very excited about this study because it harnesses the power of data science to offer insights for policymakers and stakeholders in achieving CO2 reduction targets through increased solar generation,” said Francesca Dominici, director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative and Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population and Data Science and a corresponding author of the study.

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Some of the new online resources debunk the more outlandish claims of government weather control.

By Pilar Melendez and Evan Bush
July 10, 2025, 12:37 PM PDT / Updated July 10, 2025, 2:09 PM PDT

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday appeared to nod to conspiracy theories that have swirled around recent extreme weather events, directing people to the agency’s website for science-based information on geoengineering and contrails.

In a post on X, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said that people “have legitimate questions about contrails and geoengineering, and they deserve straight answers.”

“We’re publishing everything EPA knows about these topics on these websites,” he wrote in a news release Thursday that promised “total transparency with the American public.”

“EPA shares the significant reservations many Americans have when it comes to geoengineering activities," he said.

The new websites offer a variety of information that appears to stick closely to generally accepted definitions and science around geoengineering and the government’s ongoing research on contrails. Some sections even debunk the more outlandish claims of government weather control.

“Has large-scale solar geoengineering deployment already happened?” the EPA’s new “Frequent Questions” section asks, answering: “No. The U.S. government is not engaged in any form of outdoor solar geoengineering testing (e.g., small-scale experiments designed to study injection technologies) or large-scale deployment (e.g., intentional use of SRM to cool the Earth).” SRM refers to solar radiation modification.

Severe weather events have hammered parts of the United States in recent days. In Texas, at least 120 people have died and 173 are still missing after a devastating flood wiped out at least six communities July 4. Four days later, in New Mexico, at least three people died after a flood in Ruidoso, a resort town already susceptible to mudslides and runoff after two catastrophic fires last year.

Scientifically baseless claims of weather control have become an increasingly common reaction to extreme weather, moving from the fringe and into some mainstream discourse. Many of these claims center on fears of government control of the weather, with some pointing to technologies like cloud seeding, a technique used to increase rain and snowfall. Others offer a vague assertion that whatever is happening to the weather is not natural.

“Fake weather. Fake hurricanes. Fake flooding. Fake. Fake. Fake,” Kandiss Taylor, a Republican congressional candidate in Georgia, said in a July 5 post on X about the Texas flood, now pinned on her page.

The inclusion of contrails, a natural phenomenon from aircraft or rockets, also seemed to point to long-running conspiracy theories about “chemtrails,” which have included repeatedly debunked claims of shadowy programs meant to poison Americans.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has repeated chemtrail misinformation, welcomed Zeldin’s move.

“Im so proud of my friend Lee Zeldin and President Donald Trump for their commitment to finally shatter the Deep State Omerta regarding the diabolical mass poisoning of our people, our communities, our waterways and farms, and our purple mountains, majesty,” he wrote in a post on X in reply to Zeldin.

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By Ben Noll

Smoke from relentless wildfires in Canada was expanding across the Northeast early Monday after a weekend of smoke-filled air across the Midwest and Great Lakes. In the coming days, the smoke will spread across the Atlantic and toward Europe.

A high-pressure system will settle near the East Coast this week, which would normally bring generally clear and pleasant weather. However, because of the prevalence of wildfire smoke, that won’t be the case. The smoke will get trapped underneath the lid of high pressure, with weak winds unable to blow the smoke away for much of the week.

Air quality alerts are in effect for a dozen northern states as of early Monday, warning of code orange and code red air quality levels — which range from unhealthy for sensitive groups to unhealthy for all.

Detroit, Chicago and Canada’s Montreal and Toronto, were in the top 10 worst cities for air quality on the planet early Monday, according to IQAir.

Wildfire smoke will also blow thousands of miles across the Atlantic, reaching Ireland on Tuesday and Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in the West, elevated-to-critical fire conditions are forecast across several states starting on Monday, as smoke from several active fires — such as the Gifford Fire, which has prompted evacuations near San Luis Obispo, California — fuel hazy skies.

Places that can expect a smoky week

The smokiest regions of the country will be the Midwest, Great Lakes, Northeast and Southwest this week.

Eastern states

Significant amounts of near-ground wildfire smoke stretched from eastern Iowa to Maine as of early Monday — including in Chicago; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Detroit and Buffalo; as well as Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

This band of smoke will drift southward through the day, reaching Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Surface smoke concentrations are forecast to generally remain low in the Mid-Atlantic, including Baltimore and D.C., although there will probably be a noticeable haze from smoke aloft.

Smoke will spread more than 5,000 miles from Canada to the United States to Europe this week. (Ben Noll/Data source: Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service)

Smoke is forecast to remain anchored in many of the same places Tuesday, potentially becoming more expansive across Pennsylvania and the northern Mid-Atlantic.

Increasing winds across the Midwest may cause a reduction in smoke by Wednesday, but high pressure hovering near the Northeast will keep smoke — and a campfire-like smell — locked in through at least Friday.

Western states

The largest active fires by size in the United States, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, are the White Sage fire near Fredonia, Arizona (58,985 acres) and the Monroe Canyon fire near Monroe, Utah (55,642 acres) as of early Monday.

Smoke from these fires is expected to spread eastward in Colorado, southern Wyoming and northern New Mexico on Monday and Tuesday, blown by strong winds.

Meanwhile, the coverage of wildfire smoke will probably also expand across Southern California.

Elevated-to-critical fire weather risks cover several Western states from Monday into Tuesday. (Ben Noll/The Washington Post/Data source: NOAA/SPC)

The state had 16 active fires as of early Monday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The largest fire, covering nearly 50,000 acres as of Monday morning, is the Gifford Fire. Mandatory evacuations are in effect for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.

These strong winds, combined with locally record-breaking high temperatures, will raise the wildfire risk into the elevated-to-critical range for several Western states starting Monday.

How far the smoke will spread

A strong jet stream crossing the Atlantic will take wildfire smoke on a winding, 5,000 mile journey from the Canadian Prairies to Western Europe this week.

The smoke will be lofted well above the surface, so while it won’t affect air quality, it could enhance sunrises and sunsets from Ireland to Norway and Germany as it spreads into Western Europe from Tuesday to Thursday.

This is not the first time this year that smoke has spread across the Atlantic. In early June, Canadian wildfire smoke reached Russia.

Where the smoke is coming from

Dozens of out-of-control wildfires stretching from Canada’s Northwest Territories to western Ontario are the main source of the smoke blowing into the United States.

An air mass that was over central and northern parts of Canada last week has drifted into the Northern United States, dragging cooler air — and smoke — along with it.

Parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and western Ontario in Canada, have experienced extreme levels of drought this year.

These tinder-dry conditions have contributed to wildfires that have burned through over 16.3 million acres so far this year — the third-highest on record, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center.

There have been 247 large wildfires across Canada so far this year, including 165 burning on Aug. 4. (Ben Noll/The Washington Post/Data source: Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center)

There have been a total of 247 large wildfires in Canada in 2025, with 165 out of control across several provinces as of early Monday. The largest number of large fires, 53, have occurred in Saskatchewan, followed by 47 in Manitoba.

While rainfall in the region with active fires has been especially sparse, storms later this week may bring much-needed moisture to the Prairies.

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As the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continues to accelerate, trees, plants and even the ocean’s tiny plankton all convert the gas into oxygen. But scientists say they’re not able to keep up with years of ongoing pollution. NBC News’ Chase Cain follows a research team from California in Antarctica as it examines the link between whales and the ocean phytoplankton that pull as much carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere as four Amazon rainforests.

See video and read more here

By Erica Schwiegershausen

It’s 9 a.m. on a sunny spring morning in London, and Yael Cohen is in a basement-level room a few blocks from Selfridges rubbing numbing cream on her arms. “I’m terrified of needles,” she says, though she’s about to spend the next two hours with a cannula in each arm. The former wife of megamanager Scooter Braun is now the CEO of Clarify Clinics, a British-based start-up offering a procedure it claims can remove microplastics from one’s blood — for around $13,000. After having the “Clari procedure” done on herself for the first time in January, Cohen wrote on Instagram that she saw “a 90 percent reduction in microplastics after just one session” and posted screenshots of her before-and-after bloodwork. This is her second go-round.

The clinic has been open since the end of last year, she says; it’s fairly bare-bones, just a nurse, a doctor, and a single room. They don’t yet have FDA approval in the U.S. but intend to apply for it “imminently,” per Cohen. In the meantime, there is no shortage of people ready to visit here in London. Venture capitalists have been making appointments, as have various executives and celebrities: Orlando Bloom recently posted a picture of himself hooked up to the clinic’s machine. “Thanks for the help @clarifyclinics,” he wrote on Instagram alongside a prayer-hands emoji.

“Medicine has always been my passion,” says Cohen back at her hotel, where we headed for scones after her treatment. Still, her path to longevity entrepreneur hasn’t been so straightforward. She was born in South Africa and spent her childhood  bouncing around Africa, the U.S., and Canada as her father, David Cohen, moved among high-level jobs at natural-resource companies. She enrolled at the University of British Columbia with plans to become a doctor but switched her major to political science after she went on a semester abroad. (“I came back inspired to fix the system,” she says.) After graduating, she took a job in finance. But in 2009, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Cohen made T-shirts for her family with FUCK CANCER printed across the front. The phrase found an accidental audience. “A man in a three-piece suit stopped me on the street and told me he found out he had cancer when he wet himself in a board meeting,” she says. “I was like, I think we have something here.” Later that year, she left her job and founded Fuck Cancer, a nonprofit that used social-media campaigns to encourage young people to talk to their parents about the importance of regular cancer screenings.

Braun reached out to Cohen after seeing her give a TEDx Talk on her work. “He decided he needed to meet me,” she said on a podcast. “He told me he was going to marry me on our first date.” When they got engaged in 2014, his client Carly Rae Jepsen announced the news on Twitter with the hashtag #truelove. They got married in Whistler, British Columbia, later that year in front of Usher and Tom Hanks. A few years later, Cohen was a mother of three — but she still found time to make it to both the Met Gala and the Biebers’ wedding party.

In 2015, she and her father began investing in what he described back at the clinic as “the initial seed” of the technology that would become Clari. The more they learned, the more they became convinced that the procedure had radical potential — and the more closely they wanted to be involved. Now, it’s a family business: David is the chairman of the biotech company that makes the device, and Cohen oversees outpatient procedures. She calls working with her father a “dream.” She addresses him by his initials, D.C., and describes him more than once as a “human encyclopedia.” She jokes that she’s had to start introducing him as her father in business meetings after people assumed they were married.

“I spent the past 15 years with people on the worst day of their lives,” she says. She sees Clari as a way to help people avoid getting sick in the first place. She also sees it as a fresh start — in 2021, she and Braun separated after seven years of marriage, leading to a media frenzy. “I’ve never worked in entertainment,” she says. “Even when we were married, I was doing a fellowship at Stanford and starting companies. But I was just Scooter Braun’s wife. Now, the other stuff gets to sit at the center.”

Here’s how the Clari procedure is supposed to work: Blood is taken out of the body and put in a centrifuge to separate the red blood cells from the plasma. Then that plasma is run through a clear plastic column. That column is filled with what look like tiny rocks and beads — a mix of activated charcoal and “proprietary resins” the company insists can remove all manner of terrible things, like “inflammatory cytokines, microplastics, forever chemicals, and pesticides.” Says Cohen blithely, biting into a scone, “When patients have more inflammation, their plasma is often cloudy or milkier, sometimes with a green or brown tint. By the end of the procedure, it’s a pure golden liquid.” After two hours, the ostensibly “cleaned” plasma is returned to the body and “you’re on your way.” All of this is in a medical middle ground. Though the company doesn’t have FDA approval in the U.S., a similar procedure, called Therapeutic Plasma Exchange, has been used in hospitals for decades to treat patients with a wide variety of conditions, including Guillain-Barré syndrome. Lately, it’s been gaining popularity among longevity obsessives: Bryan Johnson, the tech founder who has devoted his life to avoiding aging, recently bragged that his TPE regimen has drastically reduced the microplastics in his bloodstream.

Unlike TPE, the Clari procedure doesn’t replace your plasma with donor fluid — it simply cleans it and gives it back to you. Before and after, patients are given a third-party test to detect the number of plastic particles in a drop of blood — and most see an improvement. The Cohens are bullish on the procedure. David points to a study published last year in the Journal of Intensive Care Medicine showing that, in a group of 107 patients in the ICU with severe COVID in 2020 and 2021, those who received the Clari procedure were three times more likely to survive compared to patients who weren’t given the treatment. “That’s off-the-charts significant,” he says. They also say the procedure can be helpful for people with long COVID, “post-treatment Lyme disease,” and those taking Ozempic. They claim regular treatments could potentially slow the progression of Alzheimer’s and provide immediate relief for people suffering from some autoimmune conditions. For couples trying to conceive, they recommend “one-to-two procedures for both partners before conception.” Cohen says she’s heard from a number of patients who want to remove their microplastics before getting pregnant, noting that they have been found in breast milk.

Experts are skeptical of all this. Zbigniew M. Szczepiorkowski, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Dartmouth Health, figures it’s plausible that the Clari filter could remove at least some microplastics from the blood. But even so, he’s doubtful it would be all that beneficial. Ultimately, “plasma is a relatively small volume of your body,” he says. If microplastics are really accumulating in our organs — as a growing body of evidence suggests they are — removing the plastics circulating in your blood would probably make barely a dent.

Cohen isn’t fazed by criticism. Microplastics is a new and messy field, she tells me. Sure, their procedure might not be a perfect solution. But, she says, it’s the best we have. “To me, it’s like saying, ‘You’ve smoked already. Why stop now?’”

And people are clamoring for the procedure. A 40-year-old venture capitalist tells me he found out about Clari from a friend. He already limits salt and alcohol and goes on regular detox retreats in Austria, but after having his blood filtered in February, he felt amazing. “I had a lot more energy and felt more clear-minded” he says. A woman who traveled from Beirut to have the procedure after several failed rounds of IVF says the treatment raised her AMH level. Now, she’s feeling hopeful about conceiving naturally. A 55-year-old investor from London told me the Clari procedure cured his long COVID. Five days after the treatment, “my lung capacity shot up,” he says. He didn’t think twice about the cost. “If you equate it to luxury purchases, it’s a long weekend in an expensive hotel. It’s a starter-price Rolex.”

The ability to have the procedure done whenever she wants is a big perk of Cohen’s new job. Increasingly, she says, she’s talking about aging with her friends — not just how to look younger but how to feel younger: “It’s like, ‘Are you going to be able to maintain critical thought and conversation and get up stairs?’” Clari, she says, has improved her sleep and anxiety, and she believes it will help keep her brain healthy as she ages. She also swears by blue-light blockers, movement, and morning sun. At her home in Los Angeles, where she lives with her and Braun’s children, all the water is filtered and there are air purifiers in every room. And, of course, avoiding plastic, though that’s easier said than done. “I’ll go to friends’ houses and throw out all their black plastic utensils,” she says. “I haven’t had a plastic water bottle since” — she catches herself. “Well, I had one on the airplane yesterday.” The machine they run the Clari procedure on is plastic, down to the tubes that carry the supposedly “clean” plasma back to your veins.

For Cohen, the difficulty of escaping plastic only underscores the necessity of the procedure. “I firmly believe I don’t want these things in my body,” she says, and she’s confident others feel the same. “Instead of their midlife-crisis cars, people are buying whatever procedure helps them to age well.” When she talks about Clari with her friends, she says everyone wants to try it: “I’ve yet to hear someone be like, ‘Why?’

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Donald Trump’s blitz on federal science agencies has increased the risk of endangered species going extinct, fired government experts have warned.

The new administration, and its so-called “department of government efficiency”, led by the billionaire Elon Musk, has fired thousands of employees at science agencies, with funding halted at the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Nick Gladstone, a cave biologist for nearly a decade, was a lead recovery biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service for 15 federally endangered cave and subterranean invertebrates – including rare beetles and spiders – in central Texas. He is one of more than 400 probationary employees fired at the agency this month.

“Without my position filled, these species will be neglected for years to come,” Gladstone said. He said his firing left these species, among the most at risk under the Endangered Species Act, in particular danger due to the difficulty in finding and protecting them as their habitats face threats from development.

“These are classic ‘canary in the coalmine’ species,” said Gladstone, who noted their condition was an indicator of the relative integrity of subterranean systems connected to the Edwards Aquifer, the sole water source for more than 2 million Texans. “I’m deeply disheartened and worried that future conservation efforts for these animals will cease.”

Staffers in charge of recovery for the endangered black-footed ferret have also been fired by the Trump administration, among other scientists, and funds for recovery have been frozen.

Project 2025, the rightwing manifesto published ahead of last year’s election, argued the Endangered Species Act had a “dismal” record and claimed it impeded economic development, calling for the delisting of the gray wolf and grizzly bear.

View image in fullscreen

Ferrets peek out of a hole at the Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center near Wellington, Colorado. Photograph: Will Singleton/AP

While a termination letter claimed that Gladstone’s “knowledge, skills and abilities” did not meet the department’s needs, his supervisor stated at a recent performance review that they had “never experienced a new employee completing what Nick accomplished in his first few months on the job”. He had worked for the service since May 2024.

“There is an enormous amount that needs to be done in order to adequately protect these species, and even my role was insufficient in keeping up with it all,” said Gladstone.

His story is not unique. A wildlife biologist at the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington DC, whose role included improving efficiency for environmental reviews related to endangered species, said most of their department was fired as probationary employees. They lost their job, too.

“We’ve been understaffed. We don’t have the funding to get the work done we need,” the biologist said. “And then, when we try to improve and get species to a recovery species so they are no longer listed [as endangered], it feels like all those efforts to get to recovery have been halted and set back.”

The situation “feels really hopeless”, they added. “It is baffling to me, because so many people literally take these jobs because they care about the mission, they want to serve people, the land we live on, we want to protect, especially in my agency, species and natural resources.”

Scientists working to address the climate crisis and protect US food systems have also had their work halted with firings.

“The work I do in particular is really indispensable,” said a climate adaptation scientist with the US Geological Survey, who was fired as a probationary employee earlier this month. “We’re not in a time where we can slow-roll climate research. We were focused on how the climate is changing and conducting scenario planning and forecasting to better use our resources.

“None of the work they have done here in cutting positions left and right, with no considerations whether these people can adapt to the policies of this administration, or to the amount of effort it took to hire these people, and likely for some to get rehired, it is just promoting more government waste.”

The federal government’s scientific operation was “just being gutted”, the scientist said. “We are going to fall behind other countries. This isn’t the sort of thing you can pause or cut … It’s not something that can be privatized. It’s a wildly inefficient endeavor to do that requires consistent investment over decades, building teams and knowledge. It’s essentially washing away any of the incentives for people to devote their careers and lives for the betterment of society.”

The office of special counsel has determined some of the firings of probationary employees carried out by the Trump administration are unlawful and has requested some employees be reinstated with backpay, turning over enforcement to the Merit Systems Protection Board and requesting a 45-day stay of the firings.

“The Trump administration has interfered with life-saving medical research and meetings on cancer, vaccines, antibiotic resistance and more,” said Gretchen Goldman, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “They have pulled funding for job-boosting technology initiatives and are working hard to fire civil servants who, for example, enforce laws that protect us from air and water pollution.

“In addition, the Trump administration is burying information that the US public has paid for and demolishing government functions we all depend on.”

US Fish and Wildlife, the US Geological Survey and US Department of Agriculture did not respond to requests for comment.

Read more here

March 20, 2025

The Trump administration is putting America’s most treasured public lands on the chopping block—handing them over to billionaires and corporate polluters while gutting protections for millions of acres of wildlife habitat, cultural sites, and outdoor recreation areas. Trump’s executive orders and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s policies are fast-tracking drilling, mining, and deforestation, wiping out hard-won conservation efforts and silencing local voices in the process.

What’s at Stake?

National Monuments & Public Lands Under Attack
Trump’s orders target over 160 national monuments, setting the stage for massive
rollbacks—just like when he slashed Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante by 85% and
47% in his first term.
Over 13.5 million acres of protected lands could be handed over to oil, gas, and mining
industries, including recently designated Sáttítla.

Water, Wildlife, and Outdoor Recreation in Danger
6.7 million acres of critical wildlife habitat for endangered and threatened species could be wiped out.
5,000 miles of rivers and streams—a lifeline for 2.4 million Americans’ drinking water—face pollution and destruction.
Auctioning off our public lands to billionaires would block regular Americans' access to hiking, camping, hunting, and fishing.
Trump’s sweeping hiring freeze is already shutting down trails and campgrounds at national parks and monuments, making it harder for all of us to visit these places.

Alaska’s Wildlands & Forests Up for Grabs
Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other public lands in Alaska threatens Indigenous communities, migratory birds, and pristine wilderness.
Trump’s orders could remove roadless protections from the Tongass National Forest, one of the world’s last intact temperate rainforests.

A Corporate Giveaway Disguised as “Energy Dominance”
Trump’s plan isn’t about energy security—it’s a handout to the fossil fuel industry, prioritizing corporate profits over conservation and climate action.
Biden-era rules that protect public lands and hold polluters accountable could be scrapped entirely, allowing unchecked development with little oversight.

Rural Economies & Tribal Communities Betrayed
The $640-billion outdoor recreation industry—a lifeline for many small towns—is at risk, threatening millions of jobs.
Indigenous communities who fought for national monument protections are being ignored and disrespected as Trump pushes to shrink their lands for industry profits.

The Fight Isn’t Over - The last time Trump attacked public lands, nearly 3 million Americans spoke out. Now, he’s back with an even bigger land grab. We must rise up again to protect our parks, wildlife, and way of life. Public lands belong to all of us—not just the highest bidder. Will you stand up and fight? Tell your members of Congress to protect our national treasures and stop this land grab.

You can TAKE ACTION NOW by:
📞CALLING YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
☎️Dial 1-855-980-5638 to be connected to your Senators.

Tell them: "Hi, my name is [your name] and I live in [your city/state], my zip code is [your zip code]. I join the vast majority of Americans who love public lands and waters. I want Senator [your Senator’s name] to oppose Trump's oil industry lobbyist nominations to oversee our public lands and waters and to stand with the federal workers who were unjustly let go. I love visiting public lands because [your personal message] / Giving away public lands to corporate polluters concerns me because [your personal message] / Supporting federal public workers is important to me because [your personal message].

POST ON YOUR CONGRESS MEMBERS] SOCIAL MEDIA
Share a story or relevant experience—why these lands matter to you!
Ask questions, lead with curiosity, and engage with kindness and respect.

EMAIL YOUR CONGRESS MEMBERS
Use this quick tool to send a message: sc.org/LandAction
Then, share on social media to spread the word!

WRITE A LOVE LETTER TO PUBLIC LANDS
Public lands belong to all of us, and one of the most powerful ways to show support is by writing a
Letter to the Editor (LTE) to your local paper. 

Gold isn’t as rare as you may think—it’s just hard to reach. 99.999 percent of Earth’s precious metals lay hundreds of miles beneath the surface, trapped inside the planet’s molten core. If the sheer distance didn’t make accessing gold difficult enough, we’re also separated from the ore by (literal) tons of solid rock. Fortunately, Earth is making it easier for us humans. According to a new study published in the journal Nature, Earth’s core is “leaking” gold.

Now, don’t get too excited—gold isn’t spewing out of the ground in cartoon-esque fountains—but the researchers on the study did find evidence that precious metals are oozing out of Earth’s core and into the mantle. Unlike the core, the mantle is mostly solid, and makes up most of the planet (84 percent of the Earth’s volume to be exact). Comparatively, the mantle also has less of a platinum-group-metal called ruthenium, or Ru. Scientists discovered traces of Ru while studying samples of volcanic rocks from Hawaii and concluded that they must have come from Earth’s core.

“When the first results came in, we realized that we had literally struck gold,” first author of the study Nils Messling said in a press release. “Our data confirmed that material from the core, including gold and other precious metals, is leaking into the Earth’s mantle above.”

New procedures developed by the University of Göttingen allowed researchers to detect the microscopic markers that indicate the Ru actually came from the molten core. According to the paper, when Earth’s core formed 4.5 billion years ago, the Ru came from a different source than the trace amounts of the element that naturally occur in the mantle. The differences in the isotopes are so small, however, that it was previously impossible to distinguish them.

On top of procedural revolutions, the study is also notable in that it supports wider geological theories. Evidence from the study affirms the plate tectonics theory that oceanic islands formed from molten material.

“Our findings not only show that the Earth’s core is not as isolated as previously assumed,” Matthias Willbold, another author of the study, said in the release. “We can now also prove that huge volumes of super-heated mantle material–several hundreds of quadrillion metric tonnes of rock–originate at the core-mantle boundary and rise to the Earth’s surface to form ocean islands like Hawaii.”

As for the future, the researchers expressed that there is still much to learn, particularly when it comes to the timeline of the “leak.”

“Whether these processes that we observe today have also been operating in the past remains to be proven,” Messling explained. “Our findings open up an entirely new perspective on the evolution of the inner dynamics of our home planet.”

Read more here

Scientists from the Oregon State University conducted chemical analyses on air bubbles trapped within the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide ice core.

They discovered that, in the last glacial period, Earth experienced its highest CO2 increase: 14 parts per million in just 55 years. Not, our planet experiences that increase every five years.

The mechanism of these natural CO2 increases suggest that increasing westerly winds in the Southern hemisphere could weaken the Southern Ocean’s ability to absorb CO2.

A favorite refrain among the dwindling number of climate deniers is that increases in temperature and carbon dioxide levels are a natural part of the Earth’s atmospheric cycle. And while the planet has certainly seen some rise and falls in both of those metrics over thousands (and even millions) of years, what the planet is currently experiencing far outstrips everything that has come before.

In a new study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientists from Oregon State University identified the fastest natural rates of CO2 rise over the past 50,000 years. To do this, the research team tapped into bubbles of air trapped in West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide ice core that essentially preserved the delicate balance of gasses present in Earth’s atmosphere at the time of their icy entombment.

The team had to drill some 2 miles deep to get enough ice to study a 50,000 year time span. After conducting an extensive chemical analysis, the researchers discovered just how extreme and outlier the current rising CO2 levels fueling our current climate crisis are compared to the rest of Earth’s recent geologic history.

“Studying the past teaches us how today is different. The rate of CO2 change today really is unprecedented,” OSU’s Kathleen Wendt, the lead author of the study, said in a press statement. “Our research identified the fastest rates of past natural CO2 rise ever observed, and the rate occurring today, largely driven by human emissions, is 10 times higher.”

During the most recent glacial period, CO2 levels rose 14 parts per million in the span of roughly 55 years—today, a similar increase takes only 5 or 6 years.

Usually—that is, when humans aren’t sowing the seeds of own climate destruction—the Earth experiences periodic increases in CO2 levels due to an effect known as Heinrich Events. Named after German marine geologist Hartmut Heinrich, these events coincide with a cold spell in the North Atlantic caused by icebergs breaking off from the Laurentide Ice Sheet. This causes a kind of chain reaction that leads to a change in global climate patterns.

“We think [Heinrich events] are caused by a dramatic collapse of the North American ice sheet,” OSU’s Christo Buizert, a co-author on the study, said in a press statement. “This sets into motion a chain reaction that involves changes to the tropical monsoons, the Southern hemisphere westerly winds and these large burps of CO2 coming out of the oceans.”

This small bit about westerly winds is particularly bad news. Climate models suggest that these winds will only increase as the planet warms, meaning the Southern Ocean could lose a lot of its much-needed carbon dioxide-absorbing ability.

While this news is all definitely one big climate bummer, maybe there’s at least some hope that this last vestige of climate denialism will finally face oblivion, and humanity can focus on the hard and necessary work of cleaning up our mess.

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President Donald Trump’s executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund requires that the United States come up with heaps of cash quickly, which may make selling out and selling off public lands irresistible.

On February 3, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund (SWF), saying the United States will have one of the largest funds in the world. That requires raising trillions of dollars very quickly. For context, Norway’s fund is currently worth $1.8 trillion U.S. dollars. Sovereign wealth funds are typically financed with surplus revenue from trade or natural resource development. Given that the United States is roughly $36 trillion in debt, experts question where the money would come from. The Trump administration seems to be signaling that selling out and selling off the nation’s public lands to the highest bidder might provide the necessary funding. Selling federal public lands would turn America’s treasured places into a financial asset for the Trump administration without the need for surplus revenue, making it a potentially enticing idea for the administration.

What is a sovereign wealth fund and how would it be funded?

An SWF is a state-owned investment fund made up of money generated by the government, often derived from a nation’s natural resource revenues, budget surpluses, or foreign currency reserves. President Trump’s order charges the secretaries of the treasury and commerce departments with developing a plan for finding the money needed within 90 days of its signing. At the signing ceremony, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained where some of the money might come from: “We are going to monetize the asset side of the U.S. balance sheet for the American people. We are going to put the assets to work.”

What exactly does this mean? Doug Burgum, President Trump’s secretary of the interior, explained that the nation’s parks, public lands, and natural resources—including timber, fossil fuels, and minerals—are assets on “the nation’s balance sheet.” Burgum speculated in his confirmation hearing that federal lands could be worth as much as $200 trillion. He argued that the U.S. government, run like a business, should know the value of the corporation’s assets and use those assets “to get a return for the American people.” Under Trump’s proposal, the value of public lands would be determined by their potential market value to grow an SWF, and not by their value to hunters and fishermen; family ranchers; and communities that rely on clean water and air as well as jobs and income that come from natural resource development, recreation, and tourism.

Selling off America’s public lands

Simply increasing the leasing of natural resources will not be enough to seed an SWF. Leasing for oil and gas, timber, mining, and grazing brought in less than $17 billion in 2024. Oil and gas production is already at record levels, and the oil and gas industry has said it will not increase drilling substantially to avoid hurting its profit margins. To generate hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars, the Treasury Department may find that selling public lands to the highest bidders is the only way to raise that kind of money quickly.

Selling public lands has long been on the agenda of the antiparks caucus, and some Republicans in Congress and in states have worked to undermine federal ownership of lands. For example, Utah’s governor asked the Supreme Court to rule federal land ownership unconstitutional; the court declined to hear the case in January 2025. The Republican Party platform includes selling federal lands for housing development. The U.S. House of Representatives adopted new rules that free it from having to consider the value of public lands if they are sold. These rules would make it easier for the Trump administration to give public lands over to the Treasury and Commerce departments to see how much money they could make to grow the SWF.

Land sell-off and the privatization of public lands to this extent would deprive Americans and local economies of the access to nature and resources that sustain them. Giving money managers and financiers control over land management is more than just a land grab; it is an attack on the democratic and meritocratic ideals that make America great. The future of U.S. public lands—and the values they represent—depends on the willingness of Congress and the American public to stand up and defend public ownership and multiple uses, including for conservation, recreation, and wonder.

An investment risk waiting to happen

Once an SWF has accumulated wealth, that wealth is invested in stocks, bonds, real estate, and other financial instruments to earn even more money. Without proper sideboards between politicians and investment decisions, the SWF would likely serve to enrich Trump and his allies—not the American public. For example, David Sacks, Trump’s White House crypto czar, suggested that the SWF could buy bitcoin, which would reward campaign donors by inflating asset values and exerting ever more control over the nation’s economy. The secretaries of the treasury and commerce departments have yet to demonstrate that they would constrain the president’s or their own political influence over the SWF by setting up independent fund managers, auditors, or appropriate firewalls between government and private interests.

A better way

Creating an SWF to use as a tool is not an inherently bad idea. In fact, it could be designed to solve the real problems rural and energy-dependent communities face. A lot has changed since the 1970s, when timber harvests, coal mines, and grazing permits sustained family wage jobs; taxes and royalties from those activities paid for good local schools and improved public safety; and local businesses thrived. Today, even where natural resource activity is booming, a basic social contract has been broken: Tax cuts, automation, and increasing corporate ownership mean leasing on federal lands does not deliver the same benefits to local workers, businesses, and schools as it used to.

An SWF could be part of the solution for communities left behind by changes in the United States and the global economy. For example, the Center for American Progress has suggested that the federal government establish an energy SWF modeled after the ones in Norway and New Mexico. This proposal would end direct oil and gas revenue-sharing payments and replace them with a permanent solution. A one-time, up-front endowment to capture and save fossil fuel revenue and provide stable and permanent distributions to communities. The ultimate result would be an immediate, predictable, and permanent source of income for resource-dependent communities as they transition—and it would not cost U.S. taxpayers anything.

These funds are designed to build intergenerational wealth and provide stable and permanent revenue that state and local governments depend on to fund schools, sheriff’s departments, public libraries, parks, and emergency services. With proper firewalls between land managers and fund managers, an SWF could be designed to build wealth when resources are extracted from public lands and keep public lands in public hands.

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Mark Poynting, Climate reporter, BBC News

The Earth could be doomed to breach the symbolic 1.5C warming limit in as little as three years at current levels of carbon dioxide emissions.

That's the stark warning from more than 60 of the world's leading climate scientists in the most up-to-date assessment of the state of global warming.

Nearly 200 countries agreed to try to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C above levels of the late 1800s in a landmark agreement in 2015, with the aim of avoiding some of the worst impacts of climate change.

But countries have continued to burn record amounts of coal, oil and gas and chop down carbon-rich forests - leaving that international goal in peril.

Climate change has already worsened many weather extremes - such as the UK's 40C heat in July 2022 - and has rapidly raised global sea levels, threatening coastal communities.

"Things are all moving in the wrong direction," said lead author Prof Piers Forster, director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds.

"We're seeing some unprecedented changes and we're also seeing the heating of the Earth and sea-level rise accelerating as well."

These changes "have been predicted for some time and we can directly place them back to the very high level of emissions", he added.

At the beginning of 2020, scientists estimated that humanity could only emit 500 billion more tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) - the most important planet-warming gas - for a 50% chance of keeping warming to 1.5C.

But by the start of 2025 this so-called "carbon budget" had shrunk to 130 billion tonnes, according to the new study.

That reduction is largely due to continued record emissions of CO2 and other planet-warming greenhouse gases like methane, but also improvements in the scientific estimates.

If global CO2 emissions stay at their current highs of about 40 billion tonnes a year, 130 billion tonnes gives the world roughly three years until that carbon budget is exhausted.

This could commit the world to breaching the target set by the Paris agreement, the researchers say, though the planet would probably not pass 1.5C of human-caused warming until a few years later.

Last year was the first on record when global average air temperatures were more than 1.5C above those of the late 1800s.

A single 12-month period isn't considered a breach of the Paris agreement, however, with the record heat of 2024 given an extra boost by natural weather patterns.

But human-caused warming was by far the main reason for last year's high temperatures, reaching 1.36C above pre-industrial levels, the researchers estimate.

This current rate of warming is about 0.27C per decade – much faster than anything in the geological record.

And if emissions stay high, the planet is on track to reach 1.5C of warming on that metric around the year 2030.

After this point, long-term warming could, in theory, be brought back down by sucking large quantities of CO2 back out of the atmosphere.

But the authors urge caution on relying on these ambitious technologies serving as a get-out-of-jail card.

"For larger exceedance [of 1.5C], it becomes less likely that removals [of CO2] will perfectly reverse the warming caused by today's emissions," warned Joeri Rogelj, professor of climate science and policy at Imperial College London.

'Every fraction of warming' matters

The study is filled with striking statistics highlighting the magnitude of the climate change that has already happened.

Perhaps the most notable is the rate at which extra heat is accumulating in the Earth's climate system, known as "Earth's energy imbalance" in scientific jargon.

Over the past decade or so, this rate of heating has been more than double that of the 1970s and 1980s and an estimated 25% higher than the late 2000s and 2010s.

"That's a really large number, a very worrying number" over such a short period, said Dr Matthew Palmer of the UK Met Office, and associate professor at the University of Bristol.

The recent uptick is fundamentally due to greenhouse gas emissions, but a reduction in the cooling effect from small particles called aerosols has also played a role.

This extra energy has to go somewhere. Some goes into warming the land, raising air temperatures, and melting the world's ice.

But about 90% of the excess heat is taken up by the oceans.

That not only means disruption to marine life but also higher sea levels: warmer ocean waters take up more space, in addition to the extra water that melting glaciers are adding to our seas.

The rate of global sea-level rise has doubled since the 1990s, raising the risks of flooding for millions of people living in coastal areas worldwide.

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For years, a powerful ‘Big Ag’ trade group served up information on activists to the FBI. Records reveal a decade-long effort to see the animal rights movement labeled a “bioterrorism” threat.

Hundreds of emails and internal documents reviewed by WIRED reveal top lobbyists and representatives of America’s agricultural industry led a persistent and often covert campaign to surveil, discredit, and suppress animal rights organizations for nearly a decade, while relying on corporate spies to infiltrate meetings and functionally serve as an informant for the FBI.

The documents, mostly obtained through public records requests by the nonprofit Property of the People, detail a secretive and long-running collaboration between the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate (WMDD)—whose scope today includes Palestinian rights activists and the recent wave of arson targeting Teslas—and the Animal Agriculture Alliance (AAA), a nonprofit trade group representing the interests of US farmers, ranchers, veterinarians, and others across America’s food supply chain.

Since at least 2018, documents show, the AAA has been supplying federal agents with intelligence on the activities of animal rights groups such as Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), with records of emails and meetings reflecting the industry’s broader mission to convince authorities that activists are the preeminent “bioterrorism” threat to the United States. Spies working for the AAA during its collaboration with the FBI went undercover at activism meetings, obtaining photographs, audio recordings, and other strategic material. The group’s ties with law enforcement were leveraged to help shield industry actors from public scrutiny, to press for investigations into its most powerful critics, and to reframe the purpose and efforts of animal rights protesters as a singular national security threat.

The records further show that state authorities have cited protests as a reason to conceal information about disease outbreaks at factory farms from the public.

Zoe Rosenberg, a UC Berkeley student and animal cruelty investigator at DxE, says she’s hardly surprised that powerful private-sector groups are working to surveil the organization, but she finds their work with the police paradoxical. “If anyone should have the ear of law enforcement, it’s animal cruelty investigators exposing rampant violations of the law leading to real animals suffering and dying horrific deaths,” she tells WIRED.

Profiled by WIRED in 2019, DxE is a grassroots animal rights organization dedicated to nonviolent direct actions, including covert operations that often involve rescuing animals and documenting practices at factory farms that the group considers inhumane.

Rosenberg, 22, is facing charges in California for removing four chickens from a slaughterhouse in Sonoma County in 2023. In addition to minor charges such as trespassing, she was also hit with a felony count of conspiracy to commit those misdemeanors—a discretionary charge that Sonoma County’s prosecutor justified by portraying Rosenberg as a “biosecurity risk” in light of avian flu.

According to Rosenberg, DxE relies on biosecurity protocols that go “above and beyond” industry standards, including quarantining its investigators from birds for a full week before and after entering farms. “All of our investigators before entering a facility shower with hot water and soap and put on freshly washed clothes that have been washed thoroughly and dried on high heat to kill viruses and bacteria,” she says. “Everything is sanitized and then sanitized again upon leaving the facility.”

Rosenberg does not deny removing the chickens, which she named Poppy, Aster, Ivy, and Azalea. “Generally, if we feel an animal is going to die from neglect or maltreatment if we don’t remove them from the facility, then we feel that it is justified and necessary to step in to save their life,” she says. Her attorney, Chris Carraway, says that DxE tried reporting allegations of health violations at the facility to “the point of futility.” Rosenberg says reporting alleged violations often leads to getting bounced between offices; a “never-ending loop of no one agency wanting to take responsibility and enforce animal welfare laws.”

The birds Rosenberg removed, she says, were all smaller and weaker than their flockmates, showing signs of what she believed to be infection and dehydration, along with open wounds and other visible injuries. Under veterinary care, Rosenberg says, Poppy was diagnosed with a respiratory infection, while Aster’s feet were found to be “full of pus.” Each of the birds had contracted coccidiosis, she says, referring to a parasite that causes diarrhea, inflammation, and bleeding.

Tinker Tailor Corporate Spy

To gather intelligence on DxE, records show, the Animal Agriculture Alliance has surveilled the group for years. Confidential documents obtained separately by WIRED reveal undercover operators for the AAA embedded within the animal rights group and fed the trade organization daily reports about protests and meetings, as well as photographs, audio recordings, and other documentation.

During a November 2018 meeting, AAA board members discussed attending DxE events to develop “protective information,” adding they were already in contact with a “security company” that had previously attended DxE’s training. At a manager’s meeting the following April, the group disclosed that it wanted to “hire someone” to attend a DxE conference in Berkeley, California. Minutes from that meeting show the “total price would be about $4,500.” A confidential report, authored several months later by an undercover on assignment from private intelligence firm Afimac Global, reveals the results of the operation. (Another confidential report—not attributed to a specific intelligence firm—shows the AAA would again infiltrate a DxE conference in 2021. The report identifies members of DxE and other attendees, including Rosenberg, and describes interviews with activists and observations about their protest activities.)

Afimac did not respond to a request for comment.

At a regulatory conference in early 2018, the AAA had delivered a talk on “Bioterrorism and activist groups.” Internal AAA documents show that, within a few months, the FBI contacted AAA with a request. “They reached out to us a few weeks ago and asked for records of activist incidents on farms,” say notes from a meeting that May. At the same meeting, members discussed their difficulty getting prosecutors to charge activists with crimes, with one industry representative saying the issue was their lack of legal standing.

The rep suggested calling on law enforcement to deploy “terrorism” charges instead—as one national pork producer had reportedly considered. The AAA had already “been in contact with the FBI about this situation,” the notes claim.

In an email to WIRED, AAA spokesperson Emily Ellis denied the organization has a formal relationship with the FBI. “In the course of our work to support a secure food system, we have occasionally communicated with authorities to flag concerns where there is a potential risk to people, animals, or critical infrastructure.” The nonprofit declined to answer questions about its hiring of undercovers and did not respond when asked whether it had any specific evidence showing activists have caused outbreaks.

“The Alliance cannot speak to how law enforcement officials choose to communicate or act on information,” Ellis wrote. “We do not direct the actions of any government agency, and we categorically reject the suggestion that the Alliance instructs or influences the FBI or any such organization.”

Records show that in the spring of 2019, the AAA moved to establish a firmer connection with the FBI. In an email to the bureau that May, the group’s then-president and CEO, Kay Johnson Smith, noted having met with Stephen Goldsmith, a veterinarian at the FBI’s WMDD, a month earlier at a conference aimed at strengthening ties between the government and agriculture sector. The email goes on to remind Goldsmith of her presentation at the event concerning DxE; an “extremist group,” she wrote, “that has executed several mass protests on farms, in retail stores and in restaurants.” Smith then called on the WMDD to help the AAA share information about DxE “with law enforcement officials nationwide,” claiming the group is planning an “extremist campaign.”

Smith passed along an alert about an upcoming DxE protest, a march from a local police station to a nearby grocery store, asking if the FBI would connect the group “with law enforcement officials nationwide.” Goldsmith forwarded the alert to another FBI official who forwarded it along to several more, before it eventually reached a counterterrorism center in Washington and a federal investigator with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The WMDD issued an intelligence memo roughly three months later titled “Animal Rights Extremists Likely Increase the Spread of Virulent Newcastle Disease [vND] in California,” citing with “high confidence” claims that violent extremists were “likely” to “spread vND”—a highly contagious and often fatal disease that affects birds—“in the near term” by neglecting biosafety procedures. The FBI highlighted two instances in which it claimed there was “no evidence” of activists following proper protocols.”

Analysts at the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC), a multi-agency hub that supports law enforcement, soon threw cold water on the FBI’s claims. “Animal rights activists are probably not responsible for any of the identified vND incidents” in the state, the NCRIC said less than four months later, citing federal scientific research, records first obtained by the transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets show. The agency further noted that despite law enforcement’s claims that DxE “almost certainly” violated biosecurity protocols, police reports showed activists had taken “biosecurity precautions to prevent contamination or spread of disease.”

If the activists were to engage in criminal activity, the NCRIC decided, the crimes were likely to be “non-violent” and “low level.”

That same fall, Goldsmith’s chemical-biological countermeasure unit within the WMDD quietly circulated a presentation to state law enforcement officials pointing to “unsubstantiated reports” that PETA, the animal rights nonprofit, had played some sort of role in the 2015 avian flu outbreak—allegedly collecting “contaminated carcasses” in an effort to spread the virus. Goldsmith had already previously dismissed a similar claim while working for the same unit four years prior. (A trade publication paraphrased the FBI official in 2015 telling a crowd “there is no evidence of that actually happening.”)

Goldsmith did not respond to a request for comment. The FBI declined to comment about any specific groups but noted it frequently shares information with members of the private sector. “Our goal is to protect our communities from unlawful activity while at the same time upholding the Constitution,” the agency said in an emailed statement. “The FBI focuses on individuals who commit or intend to commit violence and activity that constitutes a federal crime or poses a threat to national security. The FBI can never open an investigation based solely on First Amendment protected activity.”

New Ammunition

By the end of 2019, the Animal Agriculture Alliance was relying heavily on “bioterrorism” claims to justify further calls for law enforcement intervention. To gain the attention of local police in California and the state’s Rural Crimes Task Force, the AAA contacted Michael Payne, an outreach coordinator at the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security at UC Davis. One of its members, they said, had heard from an unidentified trucker who was growing increasingly frustrated with animal rights activists. And the driver’s concerns extended to “bioterrorism.”

The activists were taking photos of the driver’s truck, the AAA said, and “feeding his pigs grapes.”

Payne had previously attended a presentation by the AAA on “dealing with animal rights activists,” according to emails between them. He’d later invited the AAA to collaborate on a range of dairy-farm proposals in California, alongside multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.

Neither Payne nor UC Davis responded to requests for comment. Nor did the California Rural Crime Prevention Task Force. Attempts to reach Payne by phone were unsuccessful.

Months after the FBI circulated its now-disputed assessment of activists spreading the virulent Newcastle disease, Payne issued a memo under the rural taskforce’s letterhead encouraging his “FBI colleagues” to read an article translated and amplified by a Beijing-based podcast host. The article concerns Chinese “swine stir-fry syndicates” purportedly using drones to spread African swine flu in an alleged scheme to manipulate the price of pork.

Payne suggests weaponizing the allegations to achieve specific policy goals here in the US, such as allowing farmers to declare livestock facilities “no fly zones.” “Combined with the assessment from the FBI indicating activist trespass is a real and present biosecurity threat,” he writes, the Chinese pig-gang claims hand the industry “ammunition” to ensure sheriffs do a “proper job” when responding to complaints.

Significantly, the podcast host (whose blog was shared by Payne) openly rejected the pig-gang allegations, drawing attention to the Chinese government’s ownership of the news outlet that originally reported the story, as well as counter-reporting by a “respected” independent outlet.

Payne’s email notes that he forwarded the article to a slew of local sheriffs’ departments, as well as the state’s WMDD office, “which in turn passed it on to FBI HQ ‘for their situational awareness.’”

Information gathered on DxE’s activities by the AAA was widely disseminated to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies around the US, as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In a February 2021 email, the group provided the WMDD office information on three events that DxE and other activist groups had planned, including a Zoom class and a vigil at a pork processing plant for Regan Russell, an activist killed in 2020 by a livestock transport truck outside an Ontario slaughterhouse.

Goldsmith circulated the AAA’s tips to several FBI agents, as well as a supervising special inspector in the animal health branch of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). Several federal agencies and at least 27 state and local police departments received the email. At least 10 agricultural trade groups and lobbyists were copied.

Big Ag’s Back Channel

Ryan Shapiro, executive director at Property of the People, says the hundreds of records amassed by his organization offer an unprecedented look at how Big Ag lobbyists allegedly vied to conceal incidents of animal cruelty and disease and targeted law enforcement agencies specifically for capture. “This is a shameless assault on civil liberties, human health, and basic decency,” he says.

“There’s an inherent relationship between cruelty and disease on factory farms,” says Shapiro, whose MIT doctoral dissertation explored the intersections of national security and controversies over animals. “When you have that many animals packed in so tightly they can’t stand up, can’t turn around, can’t spread their limbs, and are pressed up against each other in their own filth, in their own sickness, of course disease is going to be rampant.”

The furor over DxE’s activism within the animal agriculture industry reached a fever pitch two months later with the launch of Project Counterglow, an online interactive map of more than 27,500 farms and animal-ag facilities drawn from public regulatory and business records, reporting by individual activists, and artificial intelligence that scanned satellite imagery to reveal previously unknown facilities.

Citing Project Counterglow the following month, the Food Protection and Defense Institute, a university-based consortium working alongside the Department of Homeland Security, disclosed in a memo that the FBI and AAA had jointly “profiled the current risk environment” at an industry-government coordinating event within days of the map’s launch. According to the memo, the FBI was in the process of supplying the AAA with a list of WMDD coordinators with whom members were encouraged to share knowledge about activists.

The FBI would eventually provide the group with a dedicated inbox to inform on DxE and other animal rights groups. In a 2023 email, the alliance reminded members to report “animal rights activity” directly to the FBI using the group’s own “Activist Activity Notification Form” and the email address NF_ARVE_INTAKE@fbi.gov.

The Food Protection and Defense Institute did not respond to a request for comment.

Delays, Denials, and Disease

Preventing animal rights activists from learning about outbreaks has at times taken priority over notifying the public about them.

Emails from 2023 show officials at the USDA and the California Department of Food and Agriculture discussing how best to delay news about a highly pathogenic avian flu detected at two Sonoma County farms; a state official having previously warned that “protesters” were likely to be in the area. The solution, put forth by a USDA official, was to simply not enter the information into the state’s emergency management response system, delaying the alert for at least another three days.

“Much longer than that and it raises too many questions,” they said.

At least a quarter of a million birds were culled around the same time as the emails. And a year later, the CDFA released a report that pointed the finger at the protesters, alleging it was “plausible” they may have spread the virus.

Steve Lyle, a CDFA spokesperson, says the possibility of people showing up to a farm without proper biosecurity training always raises concerns about virus spread. “In any animal disease incident, more movement of people and equipment brings a greater risk of spread,” he says.

A “crisis response plan” crafted by Washington State livestock and agricultural groups, obtained through a public records request, notes that the federal government’s policy is “to assume that any animal disease outbreak or large-scale food contamination incident is an intentional act until proven otherwise.”

When rumors about cattle being poisoned or intentionally infected with a virus began circulating around the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) and other agencies, the claims were put to rest by the head of an field dairy investigative unit out of Washington State University, whose team had discovered a “serious outbreak” among several herds of yearling cattle.

The investigator noted that while a cattle owner was convinced the outbreak was “sabotage from animal rights activists,” other probable sources were clearly present. The investigator said his team had “spent a lot of time trying to convince [the ranchers] that the disease outbreak most likely had nothing to do with bioterrorism, and is most likely due to husbandry and management issues which we laid out very clearly for them.”

But ranchers, he said, seemed to “prefer to follow conspiracy.” After reading this, a WSDA official told others in the email chain to “keep this information private and not forward [it] on.”

Pressed by a reporter in 2021 as to why the WSDA kept no tally of livestock in the state, officials noted internally that, while the short answer was it’s never been directed to, “privacy is very important to producers, especially with ongoing threats associated with agro-terrorism and activist groups.”

The AAA, meanwhile, has worked for years to keep its communications with the government secret from the public, moving documents subject to public records requests behind a “password protected link” in 2018, records show. That same year, it joined a coalition of food industry groups in filing an amicus brief with the US Supreme Court aimed at limiting public access to corporate records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)—expressing enthusiasm at the time that the court’s conservative majority would back its play. “Animal activist groups routinely use FOIA to obtain confidential information submitted to the government,” a meeting agenda from the time reads.

The case, ultimately decided in the food industry’s favor, redefined the meaning of “confidential” under FOIA to include information that the industry itself decided should be private.

In October 2024, Goldsmith attempted to intercede against a state-level records request by Property of the People, incorrectly informing the Washington State Department of Agriculture that the requester—Shapiro—was a member of a known criminal group.

Records later obtained by Shapiro under the state’s public records act show Goldsmith telling the WSDA that the “timing” of his request was suspicious because it coincided with a recent bird flu outbreak. That outbreak occurred in an “unusual location in the building,” he said, and did not match the virus’s “expected epidemiological pattern.” While stressing that there’d been a report of a simultaneous outbreak at another farm owned by the same company, Goldsmith also cited the AAA in his email as an organization monitoring “animal rights violent extremists.”

“Transparency is not terrorism,” says Shapiro, “and the FBI should not be taking marching orders from industry flacks.”

WSDA officials, while correcting Goldsmith’s allegation that Shapiro is a member of a criminal group, advised the FBI not to mention the infected farm by name, providing Goldsmith and other FBI officials with a code word in case their communications were discovered through a public records request. A WSDA spokesperson tells WIRED that it is customary to do so when a farm is placed under quarantine, “to protect the identity of the operation, consistent with confidentiality provisions.” The FBI was later waived off by the WSDA entirely in an email emphasizing that the two cases Goldsmith thought potentially connected were “completely unrelated.”

“WSDA responded to the inquiry,” a spokesperson tells WIRED, adding that the strains of disease at the two locations were “genetically different” and “did not raise concerns.”

Updated at 2:30 pm ET, June 3, 2025: Added details about the original source of the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center records described in this article.

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Liz Else | 21 May 2025

These images from the Earth Photo 2025 competition shortlist tell revealing, inspiring and unexpected stories about the climate and life on our planet.

Pictured top, photographer Ami Vitale’s image Pandamonium shows a giant panda keeper checking the health of a panda cub in the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan province, China. The keeper’s outfit is part of an effort to reduce the impact of human contact on the bears. Next, below, is Sue Flood’s Crabeater Seals, shot on an ice floe in the Southern Ocean, off the Antarctic Peninsula. For Flood, such photos can bring the region’s wonder to those who may never visit.

View photos and read more here

In 2022, the world discarded around 268 million tonnes of plastic waste, but just 14 per cent of that – around 38 million tonnes – was recycled, according to a new analysis. The rest was either burned or, more likely, dumped in landfill.

Despite growing concern over the public health and environmental impacts of plastic pollution, the global recycling rate for this material has remained largely stagnant for years. Is it time to admit defeat for plastics recycling?

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A destructive species of ant is spreading through Germany faster than expected, with scientists warning that the proliferation of insects may be unstoppable.

The discovery of the Tapinoma magnum ant started with innocuous-seeming plants at garden centres in Coswig and Dresden, in the far east of the country. But when the biologist Bernhard Seifert peered into the soil, he found traces of what is now considered one of Germany’s most destructive invasive species.

The tiny species, measuring barely 4mm, was once confined largely to the warmer climates of the Mediterranean area. It has been found to have settled early on in Italy, either naturally or through the flourishing trade between Ancient Rome and its “breadbasket” in northern Africa. Lately, it has been settling in Germany’s southwest and Rhineland areas.

The insects first wreaked havoc in places such as Kehl, near the French border. The city reported damage to public infrastructure, and cuts to power and the internet, caused by the ants.

Seifert’s discovery suggests that the species is spreading rapidly throughout Germany, said Manfred Verhaagh, one of the scientists behind a Tapinoma research project at the Natural History Museums of Karlsruhe and Stuttgart. He said that he was receiving reports of the ants from new places every week.

The ants have also been found in ten European countries, including France, Belgium, the UK and even Azerbaijan. Verhaagh noted, however, that Germany appeared to be a stronghold, possibly because of the growing interest in potted plants from the Mediterranean area, which have become more popular as Germany’s winters get milder.

The ants penetrate cavities in buildings and infiltrate electrical boxes, using cables to move into the spaces, which caused the power cuts in Kehl. In Karlsruhe, the city’s suburban railway is struggling with loose pavements near the platforms, undermined by ant colonies.

In Marlen, a suburb of Kehl, a children’s playground had to be closed after the ground began to buckle under the sheer number of ants tunnelling beneath it. There is also a psychological cost as the animals settle in private gardens, where they leave bite marks on their hosts’ limbs, invade their homes and lead to a proliferation of plant lice, whose manure serves as nutrition for the ants.

“Some people don’t even dare to go on holiday any more as they fear that the ants will move into their home in their absence,” Verhaagh said. Biologists warn that the species’ spread may be unstoppable in their new habitat, lacking the natural enemies of their previous environments.

Prompted by requests on how to get rid of the ants, Verhaagh has spent “hours” researching a way to defeat them. “I’ve found almost nothing,” he said, adding that aggressive pesticides are often forbidden in Germany and may fuel the growing decline in all insects.

Municipal teams in cities such as Tübingen and Kehl now deploy boiling water at 95°C into the soil to avoid chemicals. But Tapinoma magnum is also known to be able to weather extreme temperatures by retreating further into the ground, where it can survive temperatures below minus 10C.

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By Alana Semuels

February 3, 2025 11:29 AM EST

Walk down your grocery aisle, and you’ll spot many foods containing ingredients you won’t find in Europe. The unusual way the U.S. regulates ingredients is in the news and the hot seat right now, thanks to the recent ban of a food additive—red dye 3, an artificial dye linked to cancer in animals—and the rise of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). During his confirmation hearing on Jan. 30, Kennedy said that compared to Europe, the U.S. “looks at any new chemical as innocent until proven guilty.”

“It needs to end,” he said.

Here’s what to know about some of the most controversial food additives under the microscope and why additives are regulated differently in the U.S.

Key ingredients banned in Europe but allowed in the U.S.

Titanium dioxide is used to make foods and beverages whiter and brighter. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers it safe for human consumption, but it isn’t found in foods in Europe. In 2022, the European Food Safety Authority banned titanium dioxide, saying that after reviewing thousands of studies, it could no longer consider the additive safe because it has the potential to damage DNA or cause chromosomal damage.

“A chemical that builds up in the body and could harm the immune and nervous systems should not be in candies and treats marketed to children,” says Melanie Benesh, vice president of governmental affairs at Environmental Working Group (EWG), which filed a petition to the FDA in 2023 asking it to ban titanium dioxide.

In the U.S., it’s still found in many confections, including Sour Patch Kids watermelon candies, Hostess chocolate cupcakes and Hostess powdered Donettes, Friendly’s cake singles birthday cake ice cream, Zweet sour belts, and Skittles.

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Potassium bromate is another ingredient banned in the U.K. and many other countries around the world—including Canada, Brazil, and Argentina—but allowed in the U.S. in certain quantities. It has been linked to cancer in humans as well as gut problems, and was listed to be “potentially carcinogenic to humans” in 1999 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. It is used to improve the texture of dough and bread, and in the U.S., it’s still found in some breads (such as soft heroes from A&M Bronx Baking), frozen pizzas (like Imo’s Pepperoni), and baked goods.

Added to products to extend their shelf life, propylparaben is linked in animals to hormone disruption. Since 2006, it’s been illegal to use it as a food additive in Europe. But in the U.S., it’s a listed ingredient in bread and bakery products , including Chi-Chi’s white corn tortillas and red decorating icing from Great Value, Walmart’s generic brand.

How the U.S. uniquely regulates additives

The U.S. has a very different approach to regulating additives than many other countries, says Thomas Galligan, principal scientist for food additives at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group.

“The E.U. says that if they can’t dismiss the possibility of harm, they can’t find an additive safe,” Galligan says. In the U.S., the bar is much lower; companies can add new ingredients to their foods without even informing the FDA. “In the U.S., it feels like the FDA is waiting to act until harm is definitely proven,” says Galligan.

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Companies that include these additives in their products defend their safety. Mars Wrigley, which manufactures Skittles, said in a statement to TIME that all of its ingredients are safe and manufactured in strict compliance with safety requirements established by regulators including the FDA. J.M. Smucker, which owns Hostess, said that titanium dioxide is a common ingredient approved by the FDA and that its products follow the FDA regulations that the quantity of titanium not exceed 1% of the weight of the food. And Walmart, which produces Great Value products like the red icing containing propylparaben, said that food and safety is always its top priority. Several companies did not return requests for comment, including Mondelez, which owns the company that makes Sour Patch Kids; Brix Holdings, which owns Friendly’s; Zweet Shop, which makes Zweet’s; and Hormel, which owns Chi-Chi’s. A&M Bronx Baking and Imo’s also did not return requests for comment.

The FDA said it could not provide comment because the Department of Health and Human Services has issued “a pause on mass communications and public appearances that are not directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health.”

How additives sneak their way into the food supply

The presence of so many additives illuminates what many experts see as a concerning lack of oversight of chemicals in food. When the FDA is considering regulation on a food additive, it will invite public comment, seeking input from scientists, academics, and companies. But for many food additives, companies don’t have to seek that public comment or even specific FDA approval to add new chemicals to their foods.

It can instead convene its own panel to declare the additive as “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS. The company can either notify the FDA that it is adding the chemical, or skip that process and just begin adding it because the panel that it hired deemed it safe. The Government Accountability Office criticized this process in 2010, saying that the FDA “does not help ensure the safety of all new GRAS determinations.” And one study reviewing 403 GRAS notices found that companies often used the same small group of people to make these determinations.

GRAS arose out of a Congressional bill from 1958, but the term was intended for everyday substances like flour or vegetable oil that were frequently used as additives. Galligan worries that there are GRAS substances currently in use that could be contributing to diseases in a way scientists don’t yet know about. “There are chemicals entering the food supply with zero oversight from the FDA,” he says. (This is in contrast to Europe, where a third-party government agency decides what food ingredients are considered safe.)

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Nearly 99% of new chemicals introduced in the U.S. food supply between 2000 and 2021 came through GRAS notices, rather than FDA review, according to EWG. “That’s an enormous number,” says Benesh of EWG.

The GRAS process has gone awry before. In 2022, a company called Daily Harvest started adding a substance called tara flour to its lentil and leek crumbles product, labeling the additive GRAS. That year, nearly 400 people became sick from the product. Some people got so sick that their livers malfunctioned and they had to have their gallbladders removed. The culprit was likely tara flour—yet the FDA did not ban it until 2024. (Daily Harvest did not provide comment for this story.)

Why most additives aren’t formally approved

One reason companies may choose to label substances GRAS is that the FDA process to approve additives is relatively slow. So is its process to ban them. Red dye 3 has been banned from use in topical drugs and cosmetics since 1990, when the FDA found that the additive causes cancer in animals. 

A charitable explanation for the FDA’s slow pace is that it lacks resources, says Benesh. But there are other problems about the way the FDA reviews foods that aren’t only linked to a lack of resources, she says. 

“The E.U. made a concerted effort starting in 2010 or so to systematically go back and look through the food chemicals allowed in Europe at the time and determine if they’re still safe,” she says. “We haven’t done anything like that.” 

Signs of potential change

If Kennedy is confirmed as HHS Secretary—which oversees the FDA—he plans to alter this system. He publicly criticized GRAS during his confirmation hearing, and has said he would dramatically change the FDA. 

“The FDA allows hundreds of additives into our chemical food supply that are banned in other countries,” he said in a video posted in October promoting his Make America Healthy Again agenda. 

California is another change agent. Its ban of potassium bromate, propylparaben, red dye 3, and the additive brominated vegetable oil  has forced many companies to start to reformulate their foods because it’s difficult to manufacture different foods for California than the rest of the country. And members of Congress are starting to pay attention. In Sept. 2024, Rep. Rose DeLauro from Connecticut introduced a bill, the Toxic Free Food Act, that would alter the GRAS process and require companies to submit more evidence that a food is safe before being used in products.

“There is growing awareness that the system is broken and that the food companies should not be the ones determining whether or not their products are safe,” Benesh says. 

When that awareness will reach grocery aisles is an open question.

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by Benji Jones | Updated Jun 10, 2025, 11:35 AM PDT

Hummingbirds run on sugar.

Sweet nectar powers their tiny, furious bodies and super-fast wings, which beat as many as 80 to 90 times per second. And luckily for them, they don’t seem to get diabetes, even though they have extremely high blood glucose levels.

In the wild, hummingbirds, the smallest birds in the world, get their sugar from wildflowers, such as honeysuckle, lilies, and bee balm. But following the sweeping destruction of native prairies, forests, and wetlands over the last century, these fluttering jewels have had a more difficult time finding their glucose fix. Warming linked to climate change is also making flowers bloom earlier and changing the range of some hummingbird species, making it even harder for the birds to feed.

While humans are, of course, responsible for these impacts, some wildlife lovers are also trying to help — by installing feeders. Often red and plastic and filled with sugar water, hummingbird feeders provide a supplementary source of nectar for hummingbirds, especially during fall and spring migration when the birds are traveling long distances. Research shows that feeders may increase the number of hummingbirds locally, and birds tend to visit them more when there are fewer flowers in bloom.

So on the whole, feeders are good. They also provide an easy way for people to connect with wildlife.

But there’s one big, big, caveat here: If your feeder is dirty, it could be harming, or even killing, the hummers that visit it, turning the feeder from a lifeline into a trap. Unless you’re prepared to regularly clean your feeder, you may be better off not having one.

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Ticks are spreading globally and bringing familiar conditions such as Lyme disease with them, as well as totally new ones. Now research is revealing how to prevent and treat the diseases they carry

By Carrie Arnold | 18 June 2025

Tucked away in a ground-floor lab in Richmond, Virginia, is a bank of industrial freezers containing thousands of transparent, thumb-sized plastic tubes. Each is filled with a clear, yellowish fluid – blood serum taken from opossums, raccoons, black bears, coyotes, vultures and many other animals.

These vials, the world’s largest collection of blood serum from wildlife, are the life’s work of Virginia Commonwealth University molecular biologist Richard Marconi. Almost every sample here is infected with some kind of tick-borne pathogen – mostly the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, one of the most widespread tick-borne diseases, but others as well.

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Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has threatened legal action over falling debris and contamination from billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket launches across the border in the United States.

Mexico’s government was studying which international laws were being violated in order to file “the necessary lawsuits” because “there is indeed contamination”, Sheinbaum told her morning news conference on Wednesday.

Last week, a SpaceX Starship rocket exploded during a routine ground test at the Starbase headquarters of Musk’s space project on the south Texas coast near the Mexican border.

The explosion, which sent a towering fireball into the air, was the latest setback to Musk’s dream of sending humans to Mars.

Mexican officials are carrying out a “comprehensive review” of the environmental impacts of the rocket launches for the neighboring state of Tamaulipas, Sheinbaum said.

The US Federal Aviation Administration approved an increase in annual Starship rocket launches from five to 25 in early May, stating that the increased frequency would not adversely affect the environment.

The decision overruled objections from conservation groups that had warned the expansion could endanger sea turtles and shorebirds.

A lawsuit would be the latest legal tussle between Mexico and a US corporate giant.

In May, Sheinbaum’s government said it had sued Google for renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” for Google Maps users in the United States following an executive order by Donald Trump.

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By Alex Fox

With maroon stockings, white sleeves, a heathered gray vest and an orange mask fringed by a wispy white beard, red-shanked doucs look dressed for a swanky party. These spectacular primates live in the treetops of forests in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, where there have been a small number of sightings.

The douc’s leafy diet means that its digestive system must process a prodigious amount of fiber. To turn foliage into energy, the primate has a four-chambered stomach, like a cow, and relies on gut bacteria to break down the roughage through fermentation. This digestive machinery takes up a lot of room, giving the animals a potbelly. Andie Ang, a primate researcher for Singapore-based conservation nonprofit Mandai Nature, said that when she first saw a red-shanked douc in the wild she wondered if it was pregnant. “I was told, ‘Oh, no, that’s a male.’” 

Unfortunately, these colorful primates are in trouble, as development and logging, mining and agriculture have destroyed or fragmented their forest habitats. The critically endangered monkeys are also hunted for meat and for use in traditional medicine, and are sometimes captured for the international pet trade. Researchers now estimate the species’ population declined by more than 80 percent in a 36-year period from 1979 to 2015. 

A model for saving the species can be found in Vietnam’s Son Tra Peninsula, just a few miles from the city of Da Nang, with a population of 1.3 million people. Son Tra, also called “Monkey Mountain,” is a forested nature reserve of more than 6,000 acres that is home to a large population of red-shanked doucs once thought vanished. When Ha Thang Long co-founded the Vietnamese conservation organization GreenViet in 2012, few people in Da Nang knew about their stunning primate neighbors. Since 2013, GreenViet has put up nearly 200 posters with photographs and information about red-shanked doucs and started leading wildlife tours inside Son Tra. The campaign has grown to include school presentations and wildlife photography exhibitions. 

This heightened awareness became important in 2017, when the Vietnamese government announced plans to build luxury hotels in Son Tra, threatening the douc’s habitat. GreenViet collected some 13,000 signatures opposing the plan, which, along with efforts from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Vietnam’s Southern Institute of Ecology, helped persuade the government to suspend it. As pride in this monkey has increased, Son Tra’s red-shanked douc numbers have grown from roughly 350 individuals in 2012 to an estimated 2,000 today. “Seeing the beauty of the red-shanked doucs connects people to nature,” Ha says. “I hope more people see that animals deserve to live on this planet just like humans do.”

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