"A new report finds that of 154 specific claims about how AI will benefit the climate, just a quarter cited academic research. A third included no evidence at all."
"The EPA lost more than 4,000 employees in the first year of Trump’s second term, bringing its staffing down to a total of 12,849—a level not seen since the Reagan administration. That represents a reduction of 24 percent, more than double the rate of losses across the entire federal workforce."
"Climate change’s rising seas may threaten tens of millions more people than scientists and government planners originally thought because of mistaken research assumptions on how high coastal waters already are, a new study said."
"The amazing monarch butterfly is as beautiful as it is mysterious. Every year, monarchs take part in an epic relay, with each generation playing a different but vital role."
"Birds in the United States are not only declining, but they are declining faster, especially in areas with intensive agriculture, according to new research. Overall drops in bird population, measured from 1987 to 2021, were sharpest in warm and warming areas, suggesting that climate change may play a role."
"Monarch butterflies that hatch in the spring and early summer live fast and die young at only two to six weeks. But those that emerge in late summer can survive six to nine months. That’s long enough to migrate thousands of miles south for the winter and start the return north the following spring to breed."
"The Department of the Interior issued a final rule that curbs and streamlines its environmental reviews. Critics say the move is illegal."
The enforcement of environmental laws suffered a dramatic collapse during the Trump administration’s first year, several studies have found. Even the most serious violations, typically referred to the Department of Justice, are left unpursued because of DOJ staffing declines. The latest Backgrounder has the details, a look at the administration’s rationale for the decline and the implications for the environment and public health.
"A coalition of scientific, preservation and historical groups on Tuesday sued the Trump administration, arguing that the removal of information about civil rights, climate change and other topics at multiple national parks amounts to illegal censorship."
"Billions of American chestnut trees once covered the eastern United States. ... But by the 1950s, this venerable tree went functionally extinct, culled by a deadly airborne fungal blight and lethal root rot. A new study out Thursday in the journal Science provides hope for its revitalization, finding that the genetic testing of individual trees can reveal which are most likely to resist disease and grow tall, thus shortening how long it takes to plant the next, more robust, generation."
