Environment and nature

Workers gather in the morning at a boat terminal, waiting to cross the Mongla river, in Mongla, Bangladesh, March 3, 2022. This Bangladeshi town, located near the world’s largest mangrove forest Sundarbans, stands alone to offer new life to thousands of climate migrants. The town was once vulnerable to floods and river erosion. Now it has become more resilient with improved infrastructure and special economic zones to support climate migrants. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)

For climate migrants in Bangladesh, town offers new life

A Bangladeshi town stands alone to offer new life to thousands of climate migrants. Mongla, in the southwestern region, is located near the world’s largest mangrove forest Sundarbans.

FILE - A great white shark swims past a boat on a shark watching boat off the Massachusetts' coast of Cape Cod on Aug. 17, 2021. The New England Aquarium and an environmental group are launching a project to use data collected about white shark sightings via an app to make beaches more safe. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

App to provide verified sightings of sharks off New England

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announces a joint statement with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and European Council President Charles Michel at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo Thursday, May 12, 2022. (Yoshikazu Tsuno/Pool Photo via AP)

EU rushes out $300 billion roadmap to ditch Russian energy

This photo shows Anna Masiello and Diogo Linhares in Sintra, Portugal, on Feb. 14, 2021. Masiello has been sharing updates on social media about steps the two have taken to make their May wedding as sustainable as possible. (Anna Masiello via AP)

Green options transforming a wedding industry prone to waste

Fire rages along a ridgeline east of highway 518 near the Taos County line as firefighters from all over the country converge on Northern New Mexico to battle the Hermit's Peak and Calf Canyon fires on May 13, 2022. (Jim Weber/Santa Fe New Mexican via AP)

New Mexico fires prompt forest closures; governor seeks aid

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Petition: Name lake for outdoorsman, not segregationist

BRANDON, Miss. (AP) — A petition calls for rebranding a manmade lake in central Mississippi by removing the name of a racist former governor and replacing it with the name of a longtime journalist who wrote about hunting and fishing.

168-year-old Peterboro Basket Co. closing, cites forest pest

A 168-year-old company in New Hampshire known for its handwoven, hardwood baskets is closing its factory and stopping production, partly because of an insect pest that has been destroying ash trees.

FILE - A manatee floats in the warm water of a Florida Power & Light discharge canal, Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Rob Hale, a co-owner of the Boston Celtics, is donating $2 million toward protecting the Florida manatees and their habitat following two seasons of record-breaking manatee mortalities in the state. Fox Rock Foundation, a family charity overseen by Hale and his wife, Karen, will give $1 million each to the nonprofits Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida and Save the Manatee Club, the groups announced Tuesday, May 17. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

Celtics co-owner donates $2M to protect Florida manatees

A co-owner of the Boston Celtics is donating $2 million toward protecting the Florida manatees and their habitat following two seasons of record-breaking manatee mortalities in the state.

Joseph Reid, of McGuireWoods, representing Dominion, right, speaks as commissioners, Jehmal Hudson, top left, and Judith Williams Jagdmann, top center, listen during a meeting of the State Corporations Commission Tuesday May 17, 2022, in Richmond, Va. The commission was reviewing an application for Dominion's offshore wind project. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Ratepayer advocates seek protections in offshore wind case

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — State regulators considering whether to approve Dominion Energy Virginia’s plans for a nearly $10 billion offshore wind farm should implement protections to shield customers from possible cost overruns and other project risks, ratepayer advocates testified Tuesday.

FILE - This Nov. 3, 2008 file photo shows one of Pacific Gas and Electric's Diablo Canyon Power Plant's nuclear reactors in Avila Beach, Calif. Facing possible electricity shortages, California Gov. Gavin Newsom raised the possibility that the state's sole remaining nuclear power plant might continue operating beyond a planned closing by 2025, an idea that could revive a decades-old fight over earthquake safety at the site. Dozens of environmental and anti-nuclear groups are opposing an extension of the plant's life. (AP Photo/Michael A. Mariant, File)

Environmentalists oppose more life for California nuke plant

Dozens of environmental and anti-nuclear organizations are opposing any attempt to extend the operating life of California’s last running nuclear power plant.

DNR: Northern Michigan wildfire is now 98 percent contained

ONAWAY, Mich. (AP) — A wildfire in a heavily forested area of northern Michigan is now 98% contained and all road closures in the area have been lifted, state officials said Tuesday.

This 2018 file photo shows Coral Pink Sand Dunes state park near Kanab, Utah. A teenager visiting southern Utah's State Park died on Sunday, May 15, 2022, after he was entrapped beneath a sand dune that had collapsed on him a day prior. Ian Spendlove, a 13 year old from the St. George suburbs, was pronounced dead on Sunday after not regaining brain activity lost in the incident, the Utah State Parks Department said Monday. (The Salt Lake Tribune via AP)

Boy dies after being buried under sand dune at state park

A 13-year-old Utah boy has died a day after a sand dune he was digging in collapsed and buried him at a state park.

Peru requests extradition of Italian captain over oil spill

Peruvian prosecutors say they have requested the extradition of the Italian captain of a vessel as part of their investigation into the spill of thousands of barrels of oil off the coast of Peru.

In this Sunday, May 15, 2022, photo provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau, divers swim near the bow of the retired Naval Landing Ship Dock Spiegel Grove, sunk 20 years earlier, six miles off Key Largo, Fla., to become an artificial reef. The vessel's storied past is to be celebrated May 17, 2022, the 20th anniversary of the sinking, with an event at a local cultural center that features key individuals reminiscing about the project. (Frazier Nivens/Florida Keys News Bureau via AP)

20 years since Navy ship sunk for artificial reef in Keys

KEY LARGO, Fla. (AP) — The 20th anniversary of the storied intentional sinking of a former Naval ship to become an artificial reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is being celebrated Tuesday in Key Largo.

Tennessee State gets $1.9M agriculture grant from USDA

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee State University won a $1.9 million grant for its College of Agriculture to lead a group of historically Black schools in research around sustainable agriculture and environmental conservation, the college announced on Monday.

This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows the active fire lines of the Hermits Peak wildfire, in Las Vegas, New Mexico, on Wednesday, May 11, 2022. Wildfire in the West is on a furious pace early this year. Wind-driven flames tearing through vegetation that is extraordinarily dry from years-long drought exacerbated by climate change has made even small blazes a threat to life and property. (Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies via AP)

Rain brings relief to massive, record-wildfire in New Mexico

Lightning sparked a few new small fires in the drought-stricken Southwest Monday but the thunderstorms brought welcome rain to the monster blaze that’s been churning for a month in New Mexico and is now the state’s largest in recorded history.

Oregon leaders warn of difficult wildfire season; urge prep

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon remains poised to see a potentially “challenging” wildfire season this summer, despite a wet and cool spring in much of western Oregon, one of the state’s top fire watchers said Monday.

Concertgoers dance during Coldplay's Music of the Spheres world tour on Thursday, May 12, 2022, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. The band has included energy-storing stationary bikes to their latest world tour, encouraging fans to help power the show as part of a push to make the tour more environmentally friendly. (Photo by Rick Scuteri/Invision/AP)

Get on your bike: Coldplay hopes to lead with a green tour

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s often said that fans at live concerts give the band a jolt of electricity. Coldplay wants to literally harness that.

FILE - Oil rigs stand in the Loco Hills field along U.S. Highway 82 in Eddy County, near Artesia, N.M., one of the most active regions of the Permian Basin. Government budgets are booming in New Mexico. The reason behind the spending spree — oil. New Mexico is the No. 2 crude oil producer among U.S. states and the top recipient of U.S. disbursements for fossil fuel production on federal land. But a budget flush with petroleum cash has a side effect: It also puts the spotlight on how difficult it is for New Mexico and other states to turn their rhetoric on tackling climate change into reality. (AP Photo/Jeri Clausing, File)

In US, states struggle to replace fossil fuel tax revenue

Major energy producing states from Alaska to Pennsylvania are reaping a windfall from soaring oil and natural gas prices, stoked by the war in Ukraine and the U.S.

A haze of wildfire smoke hangs over the Upper Rio Grande valley and the mesa-top city of Los Alamos, N.M., on Thursday, May 12, 2022. Public schools and many businesses were closed as a wildfire crept closer to the city and companion national security laboratory. Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory are using supercomputers and ingenuity to improve wildfire forecasting and forest management amid drought and climate change in the American West. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee)

New Mexico governor seeks more US aid for wildfire response

New Mexico’s governor is asking for additional federal assistance to respond to wildfires burning across the state’s north, including one that is the second-largest in the state’s history and that officials estimate has destroyed hundreds of homes.

FILE - Workers prepare an oil containment boom at Refugio State Beach, north of Goleta, Calif., on May 21, 2015, two days after an oil pipeline ruptured, polluting beaches and killing hundreds of birds and marine mammals. The owner of an oil pipeline that spewed thousands of barrels of crude oil onto Southern California beaches in 2015 has agreed to pay $230 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by fishermen and property owners, court documents showed Friday, May 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

$230M settlement reached over 2015 California oil spill

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The owner of an oil pipeline that spewed thousands of barrels of crude oil onto Southern California beaches in 2015 has agreed to pay $230 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by fishermen and property owners, court documents show.

A new Oregon mining boom could be a bust for sage grouse

McDermitt, Ore. (AP) — Katie Fite crouched behind some waist-high sagebrush, and her dog Bell nestled in the plant’s cozy cavity to shield from howling winds.

FILE - A laborer seals sacks filled with wheat in Gurdaspur, in the northern Indian state of Punjab, April 30, 2014. (AP Photo/Channi Anand, File)

India bans exports of wheat, citing threat to food security

India has banned exports of wheat effective immediately. A notice in the government gazette by the Directorate of Foreign Trade said a spike in global prices for wheat had put the food security of India and neighboring and vulnerable countries at risk.

A haze of wildfire smoke hangs over the Upper Rio Grande valley and the mesa-top city of Los Alamos, N.M., on Thursday, May 12, 2022. Public schools and many businesses were closed as a wildfire crept closer to the city and companion national security laboratory. Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory are using supercomputers and ingenuity to improve wildfire forecasting and forest management amid drought and climate change in the American West. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee)

Menaced by flames, nuclear lab peers into future of wildfire

Lighter winds allowed for the most intense aerial attack this week on multiple wildfires in New Mexico, including the biggest U.S. wildfire burning northeast of Santa Fe.

Chicago Park District: Beloved piping plover Monty dies

CHICAGO (AP) — A beloved, endangered shorebird named Monty the Piping Plover died Friday, a Chicago Park District spokeswoman said.

Police investigate killing of bear that left 2 cubs orphaned

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — The shooting of Connecticut bear that left two cubs without a mother is being investigated by environmental conservation police.

Proposed revision of Mexican wolf management plan draws fire

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. wildlife managers want to see at least 320 Mexican gray wolves roaming the Southwest within the next several years as they try to recover an endangered species that for decades has been the focus of political strife and litigation.

This Feb. 10, 2022, image released by the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance shows Msituni, a giraffe calf born with an unusual disorder that caused her legs to bend the wrong way, at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, north of San Diego. (San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance via AP)

Bracing for her future: Baby giraffe fitted with orthotic

A baby giraffe was born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park with an unusual disorder that caused her front limb to bend the wrong way.

Community members opposed to a proposal to build a $1.4 billion desalination plant in Huntington Beach sit with signs at a California Coastal Commission hearing in Costa Mesa, Calif., Thursday May 12, 2022. For more than two decades, California's Orange County has debated whether to build a seaside plant to convert the Pacific Ocean's salt water into drinking water in hopes of buffering against droughts like the one now gripping the nation's most populous state. (AP Photo/Amy Taxin)

California nixes plant, but says open to desalination

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — California officials have nixed a proposal for a $1.4 billion desalination plant but say they’re open to growing the state’s capacity to turn Pacific Ocean seawater into drinking water to buffer against persistent drought.

2nd arrest after viral video shows popped balloons in bay

MIAMI (AP) — A second person has been arrested after a viral video showed people popping party balloons on a yacht at a South Florida marina and dumping the rubbery scraps into the bay, officials said.

Company: Arizona mine project remains underway after ruling

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Hudbay Minerals Inc. says it may appeal a court ruling against its planned use of forest land to store waste rock from a proposed new copper mine but that it also will continue planning for a nearby related project that would include using private land.

This photo provided by Clean Up The Lake shows Surface Support on the 72 Mile Clean Up during the winter of 2022, in Lake Tahoe, Nev. They found no trace of a mythical sea monster, no sign of mobsters in concrete shoes or long-lost treasure chests. But scuba divers who spent the past year cleaning up Lake Tahoe's entire 72-mile (115-kilometer) shoreline have come away with what they hope will prove much more valuable: tons and tons of trash. (Clean Up The Lake via AP)

No sea serpents, mobsters but Tahoe trash divers strike gold

Scuba divers at Lake Tahoe are sorting through their haul after an unprecedented, yearlong effort to remove litter from the alpine lake’s entire 72 miles of shoreline atop the Sierra Nevada.

This May 2, 2022, photo shows the AES Huntington Beach Energy Center in Huntington Beach, Calif. The AES facility, the proposed site of the Poseidon Huntington Beach Seawater Desalination Plant will face a critical vote by the California Coastal Commission (CCC) on Thursday, May 12. The highly contested project has been debated for more than two decades. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Agency unanimously rejects California desalination project

The California Coastal Commission has rejected a long-standing proposal to build a $1.4 billion seawater desalination plant to turn ocean water into drinking water.

FILE - Floodwaters wash through a property near Durban, South Africa, Tuesday, April 23, 2019. The fatal floods that wreaked havoc in South Africa in mid-April this year have been attributed to climate change, an analysis published Friday, May 13, 2022 by a team of leading climate scientists said.The World Weather Attribution group analyzed both historical and emerging sets of data from the catastrophic rainfall that led to floods which triggered massive landslides in the Eastern Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal provinces of South Africa. (AP Photo, File)

Study: Climate change a major factor in South Africa floods

The fatal floods that wreaked havoc in South Africa in mid-April this year have been attributed to human-caused climate change, a rapid analysis published Friday by a team of leading international scientists said.

A firefighter works to put out a structure burning during a wildfire Wednesday, May 11, 2022, in Laguna Niguel, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio J. Sanchez)

‘Like an inferno:' US West burning at furious pace so far

Wildfires in the West are on a furious pace early this year. Wind-driven flames tearing through vegetation that is extraordinarily dry from years-long drought exacerbated by climate change has made even small blazes a threat to life and property.