Last week, NPR took a deeper look at the natural gas boom in the U.S. The special series, “The Fracking Boom: Missing Answers,” questions what the gas boom is doing to the air and water in communities where fracking has become a household name…
Breaking Exclusive
Endangered Species Act
In case it somehow slipped off your calendar, today is Endangered Species Day. Last year we celebrated by launching a blog series called “Can’t Live Without ‘Em” to highlight critters small and large that contribute to keeping our planet healthy…
Airgun noise is loud enough to mask whale calls over thousands of miles, destroying their capacity to communicate and breed; it can drive whales to abandon their habitat and cease foraging, and closer in it can cause hearing loss and death…
The misnamed Wildlife Services is a carpet bomber of the West because of the scale of indiscriminate killing of native wildlife. If Congress is serious about saving money, this is where they should start…
Greenpeace today released shocking photos that show graphic evidence of the destruction done to endangered sea life in the Gulf by the 2010 BP oil disaster. The photos, just received via a Freedom of Information request filed in…
There’s nothing wrong with encouraging trade. But let’s do it right. A fair global trading system should improve the quality of life for all parties; it must include meaningful and enforceable environmental and labor standards…
Letting wolves be hunted and killed again was a political decision made by shallow political interests. We need to confront shallow politics with the real, gut-wrenching photos of what this policy means—that an iconic American species important to…
A whole array of chicks and eggs (and their parents) will also move closer to protection—the Mono Basin sage-grouse, Gunnison sage-grouse, greater sage-grouse, lesser prairie-chicken and Sprague’s pipit. As candidates for listing…
New TV Show ‘Wicked Tuna’ Trivializes Plight of Bluefin Tuna
Center for Biological Diversity
03-30-2012
Bluefin tuna has been called ‘cocaine of the seas’ because of the astronomical prices it fetches as luxury sushi. Its economic value should encourage us to save the species to sustain tuna fisheries into the future. Instead, we’re seeing places like the…
Grizzly bears are one of the most difficult animals for conservationists to save because they have very low reproductive rates and require a vast area to sustain a viable population. Additionally, grizzly bears can become adept predators on livestock…
“This policy is like ignoring an injured patient in the emergency room and jumping into action only when he’s at death’s door,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity…
Golf Course Caught Killing Endangered Frogs and Tampering With Evidence—Again
Center for Biological Diversity
03-05-2012
The recent killings were extensively documented by San Francisco State University biology students over several weeks of observation during this year’s short, exceptionally dry winter frog-breeding season…
Many of the world’s fisheries are in trouble. Eighty-five percent of global fish stocks are fished to the threshold of or past sustainability. By one estimate, 80 to 90 percent of the world’s big fish have been fished out. At least 40 percent of marine life caught is either unused or unmanaged…
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected a preliminary permit application by Wyco Power and Water, Inc. to construct a 500-mile water pipeline that would pump more than 250,000 acre-feet of water annually from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to Colorado’s Front Range…
710 Miles of Critical Habitat Protected for Two Endangered Fish
Center for Biological Diversity
02-22-2012
“Saving endangered species means protecting the places they live,” said Greenwald. “Critical habitat will let these two small fish survive, yes, but it’ll also benefit the people of the Southwest, who will still have the chance to see living rivers…
Japanese Whaler’s Injunction Against Sea Shepherd Denied in U.S. District Court
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
02-20-2012
The court also expressed displeasure with the Japanese whalers for filing an injunction against Sea Shepherd while appearing to be themselves in violation of an injunction issued by the Australian Federal Court. This injunction prohibits the whalers from hunting whales in the Australian Whale Sanctuary…
Counties could require landowners to poison prairie dogs. Counties would also have the authority to enter private land without permission to search for and poison prairie dogs, and then charge the landowner for the costs of extermination…
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has listed two freshwater mussels—the rayed bean and the snuffbox—as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The two mussels are found in river systems…
Delaware River Atlantic Sturgeon Get Protection under Endangered Species Act
Delaware Riverkeeper
02-01-2012
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced Jan. 31 that it will list the Atlantic sturgeon in the Delaware River as an endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act, because the species…
The Obama administration announced Jan. 31 that it would not increase the $1.35 monthly fee charged for each cow and calf the livestock industry grazes on western public land. The fee remains at its lowest…
The Obama government is now accepting comments on a draft policy that would sharply limit the number of species given protection under the Endangered Species Act. The policy in question is a Bush-era…
The dunes sagebrush lizard, a small, rare lizard that lives only in Texas and New Mexico, was named one of 10 U.S. species most urgently threatened by fossil fuel development in a report released Jan. 19 by…
biodiversity
Help Close a Deadly Loophole to Protect Chimpanzees
Center for Biological Diversity
01-16-2012
Speak up today to protect chimpanzees who can’t defend themselves. The worldwide population of wild chimpanzees has fallen by nearly 70 percent in the past 30 years. Wild chimpanzees…
The British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico killed wildlife, destroyed coastlines and damaged local economies. Despite pleasant weather and calm waters, cleanup still took months and…
biodiversity
Endangered Species Act Celebrates 38th Birthday—Survival of Two Snakes Depends on It
Center for Biological Diversity
12-29-2011
Arizona’s narrow-headed garter snake is rapidly disappearing and needs Endangered Species Act protection in order to avoid extinction, according to a status report submitted Dec. 28 by the Center for…
biodiversity
Video Highlights Consequences of Illegal Wildlife Trade for Military Personnel
Wildlife Conservation Society
12-23-2011
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced on Dec. 22 the release of Caught in the Crosshairs: Combating the Illegal Wildlife Trade in Iraq and Afghanistan—a new video aimed at…
More than 5,000 public comments were sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this week opposing the proposed Flaming Gorge Pipeline, which would pump more than 250,000 acre-feet of water…
biodiversity
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Strips Great Lakes Wolves of Protection
Center for Biological Diversity
12-22-2011
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a rule Dec. 21 prematurely removing Endangered Species Act protections from gray wolves in the Great Lakes region. But the agency’s rule retains protections for…
The Flaming Gorge pipeline would be far too expensive and would harm the Green River’s world-class recreation and tourism economies, businesses and river advocates said Dec. 19…
A coalition of 10 conservation groups from Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Arizona—the Colorado River Protection Coalition—moved to intervene in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission…
With Republicans Bashing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 2012 Could Be a Turning Point for Environmental Regulation. House Republicans and Republican presidential candidates have…
