Marine researchers just wrapped up the first of three ocean expeditions off the coast of Southern California to map the biodiversity and support efforts to safeguard ocean animals from harmful fishing practices. The nonprofit Oceana recently teamed up with a company called Blancpain to map and photograph undersea life around the Channel Islands. Geoff Shester, California campaign director and senior scientist for Oceana, said the area is threatened by fishing gear from huge set gillnets. .
Scientists said Maine s climate is getting warmer and wetter, with significant implications for human health and infrastructure. Data show the 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1998, with 2023 ranking as the second warmest. Sean Birkel, assistant professor of earth and climate sciences at the University of Maine and Maine s state climatologist, said it has already led to an increase in extreme weather, with some recent storms in the state topping five inches of rain. .
By Stephen Robert Miller for the Food and Environment Reporting Network.Broadcast version by Eric Galatas for Colorado News Connection reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration If you’ve gone walking in the woods out West lately, you might have encountered a pile of sticks. Or perhaps hundreds of them, heaped as high as your head and strewn about the forest like Viking funeral pyres awaiting a flame. These slash piles are an increasingly common sight in the American West, as land managers work to thin out unnaturally dense sections of forests — the result of a commitment to fire suppression that has inadvertently increased the risk of devastating megafires. .