"The Trump administration adopted a rule Tuesday that could shrink the historic habitats of plants and animals threatened with extinction, an action that opponents say will make it more difficult for them to recover."
"The monarch butterfly was turned down by the Trump administration on Tuesday when the government declined to use the powers of the Endangered Species Act to help save it from extinction."
"President-elect Joseph R. Biden will nominate Jennifer M. Granholm, a former governor of Michigan and a longtime champion of renewable energy development, to be the next secretary of energy, according to four people close to the president-elect’s transition team."
"President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is expected to pick Gina McCarthy, the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama and the architect of some of his most far-reaching regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions, to serve as senior White House adviser on climate change, according to three people close to the Biden transition team."
"Trump administration officials are expected to say this week whether the monarch butterfly, a colorful and familiar backyard visitor now caught in a global extinction crisis, should receive federal designation as a threatened species."
"The northern spotted owl has lost 70 percent of its habitat to development and timber harvesting and could go extinct without added federal protection, the Trump administration announced Monday. But the owls won’t get it."
"World Trade Organization negotiators have failed to reach a deal by a year-end deadline to cut the subsidies that have helped decimate the world’s fish stocks, but will try again next year, the chairman of the talks said on Monday."
"The Yukon Water Board is asking the public to weigh in as the territory considers legislation to protect remaining undisturbed wetlands from small-scale gold mining in streams and riverbeds".
"The Indian River watershed, which used to provide “sweeping” wetland habitat south of Dawson City, Yukon, has been all but destroyed by placer mining, Darren Taylor, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation’s director of natural resources, told the territory’s water board during a recent virtual hearing.
"The Federal Emergency Management Agency is proposing to slash disaster aid to states by making it substantially harder for them to qualify for assistance after extreme weather events like floods, wildfires or storms."
As the incoming Biden administration prepares to re-engage on the global stage, environment-related treaties are high on the agenda. The latest Backgrounder, part of our 2021 Guide, takes a closer look at 10-plus top treaties, including those focused on climate change, biodiversity, plastics pollution, airplane emissions, the future of the Arctic and more.
