Yale e360 · Page 60

The Cameroon government has announced it is cancelling a plan to log nearly 170,000 acres of the Ebo Forest Reserve following sharp criticism from indigenous communities, conservation groups, and scientists. The reserve is one of the last intact forests in…

A federal judge in New York has struck down the Trump administration’s attempt to roll back protections for migratory birds, writing that its reinterpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) is “contrary to law,” several news outlets reported.…

Enough unused roof space exists on commercial buildings in the United States to install 145 gigawatts of new solar capacity — nearly double the country’s current total solar capacity, according to a new report by the energy research firm Wood Mackenzie.…

Native bees are at risk across the U.S. “Buzz Kill” — winner of the 2020 Yale Environment 360 Video Contest — depicts the beauty and key ecological role played by these bees and shows how industrialized agriculture and its use of honeybee colonies…

Canada’s last fully intact ice shelf in the Arctic has collapsed, shrinking by about 80 square kilometers, or 40 percent of its area, over just two days at the end of July, according to scientists at the Canadian Ice Service. The breakup of the ice was…

More than 500 dams are planned or already under construction within protected areas around the world, according to a new study published in the journal Conservation Letters. The study is the first of its kind to quantify the global extent of dams constructed…

In “This Is Our Land” — the second-place winner in the Yale Environment 360 Video Contest — a Filipino filmmaker chronicles how after years of worsening air and water pollution, Indigenous communities near the mammoth Didipio gold and copper mine…

Wealthy white Americans are still getting to breathe cleaner air than lower-income communities of color, despite significant nationwide reductions in pollution since the 1980s, according to a new study. Read more on E360 →

At least 212 environmental campaigners and land defenders, 40 percent of them from indigenous communities, were killed last year as they sought to protect their territories from incursions by mining interests, agribusiness, timber companies, and oil and gas…

More than 1 million Californians, many of them living in the state’s agricultural heartland, still do not have access to clean water. “The Great Divide” — a finalist in the Yale Environment 360 Video Contest — examines one community’s struggle to…

Beluga whales have complex social networks similar to human societies, with close relationships outside of their immediate kin, according to new research published in the journal Scientific Reports. The study alters scientists’ understanding of the whales’…

The Indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon have long fought against the oil companies that seek to exploit their lands. But now these and other Amazon communities are facing new dangers, as outsiders bring coronavirus to poor and vulnerable areas that lack…

Scientists at the University of Washington have developed a tiny, wireless camera small enough to be worn by insects. The device weighs 250 milligrams — one-tenth the weight of a playing card — and streams high-resolution video to a smartphone at up to 5…

As much as 22 percent of soy and 60 percent of beef exported from Brazil to the European Union is linked to illegal deforestation, according to a new study published in the journal Science. The research examined supply chains for Brazil’s major agricultural…

Marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson sees her work on ocean conservation as linked to issues of social justice and climate. In an e360 interview, she talks about the need to diversify climate science and activism and bring in the perspectives and energy of…

Global investment in offshore wind more than quadrupled in the first half of 2020, with financing approved for 28 new offshore wind projects totaling $35 billion, according to a new report by Bloomberg NEF. The investment — more than what was approved in all…

The demise or delay of several major oil and gas pipelines in recent weeks, including the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, demonstrate how the Trump administration’s zeal for fossil fuel projects and flaunting of environmental laws has backfired and handed key…

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest rose 10.7 percent last month compared to June 2019, the 14th consecutive month of worsening tree loss, according to new data from the country’s national space research agency, INPE. In the first half of 2020,…

South America has experienced an “unprecedented” increase in extreme weather events over the past century, according to a new analysis of 600 years of tree-ring records published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read more on…

An estimated 60 percent of fish species will struggle to reproduce in their current spawning habitats by 2100 under worst-case climate scenarios, according to a new study of nearly 700 salt and freshwater species published in the journal Science. The research…