Environment

Wildlife, oceans, forests, climate and conservation

In Environment, ECOnews covers wildlife and biodiversity, oceans, forests, climate change, pollution, recycling and conservation. Surprising stories from around the planet that explain how nature works and how people are changing it.

Giant tortoise on Floreana Island in the Galápagos during a conservation effort to restore the native ecosystem.

Extinct for more than 150 years, 158 giant tortoises are returning to Floreana, and their return could revitalize an ecosystem that has been quietly deteriorating for generations

By ECONEWS

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April 15, 2026 at 3:00 PM

Aerial view of Greenland’s icy mountains and ice sheet near Camp Century, the Cold War base detected by NASA radar

“We were looking for rocks, but instead we found an abandoned nuclear bunker,” admits Alex Gardner: that day, 240 km off the coast of Greenland, when a research aircraft discovered tunnels laid out in a checkerboard pattern and secrets from 1959 that are now coming to light

By ECONEWS

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April 14, 2026 at 3:13 AM

Aerial view of a dark blackwater river or lake winding through dense forest in the Congo Basin

One of Earth’s major carbon sinks may be beginning to release carbon that has been stored for thousands of years, and signs of this are already appearing in two dark lakes in the Congo

By ECONEWS

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April 13, 2026 at 5:00 PM

Researchers excavate two 10-million-year-old whale fossils exposed by winter storms on a beach in Portugal

A storm uncovers two 10-million-year-old whales, and the discovery surprises Europe

By ECONEWS

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April 12, 2026 at 6:15 PM

Roaring brown bear in close-up as scientists report climate change may push bears toward more plant-based diets

Many bear populations are eating more plants as the climate warms, a Nature Communications study finds

By Adrian Villellas

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April 12, 2026 at 2:34 PM

Beijing skyline showing clear air versus heavy smog as PM2.5 pollution hit a record low in 2025

Beijing records its cleanest air ever in 2025, with an average PM2.5 of 27 µg/m³

By ECONEWS

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April 12, 2026 at 12:17 PM

Large pipeline corridor in Riyadh carrying treated wastewater that feeds the flowing Wadi Hanifah desert river

Saudi Arabia is turning wastewater into an ever-expanding green corridor in the middle of the desert

By ECONEWS

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April 12, 2026 at 10:38 AM

307-million-year-old fossil skull of Tyrannoroter heberti, an early plant-eating land animal about the size of a soccer ball

A 307-million-year-old fossil the size of a soccer ball could change what we know about the origin of herbivorous animals

By ECONEWS

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April 12, 2026 at 8:35 AM

Africa is surprising the whole world with a phenomenon no one expected: trees are reappearing without anyone having planted them

By Adrian Villellas

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April 12, 2026 at 5:01 AM

Sargasso Sea floating sargassum mats in deep blue Atlantic waters, a shoreless sea that shapes marine life and climate

There is a body of water on Earth that is not bordered by any coastline and is warming rapidly

By ECONEWS

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April 11, 2026 at 1:14 PM

Wild boar standing in a green urban-edge habitat as DNA study links Berlin and Barcelona city boars to distinct urban populations

Seeing a wild boar near a playground or crossing a bike path might seem like a one-off visit from the forest, but genetics tells us a much stranger story: in Berlin and Barcelona, there are already urban populations that clearly differ from their rural counterparts, and that completely changes the way cities should act

By ECONEWS

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April 11, 2026 at 12:18 PM

Vista aérea de un lago de aguas negras rodeado por selva en la cuenca del Congo, donde científicos detectaron carbono antiguo de turba

A study published on February 23, 2026, uncovers a silent leak in two dark lakes in the Congo and reveals that up to 39% and 40% of the carbon they release comes from peat that accumulated thousands of years ago, offering a troubling clue to the great climate puzzle

By ECONEWS

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April 11, 2026 at 10:15 AM

Baby loggerhead sea turtles cross a sandy nesting beach in Cabo Verde during hatching season

A 17-year study in Cape Verde finds loggerhead turtles nest earlier but lay fewer eggs and breed less often

By ECONEWS

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April 11, 2026 at 6:06 AM

Satellite view of the Atlantic Ocean showing a विशाल belt of brown sargassum seaweed stretching from West Africa toward the Caribbean.

The “brown ribbon” that can now be seen from space continues to grow in the Atlantic, and scientists warn that this is not just another simple stain

By ECONEWS

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April 10, 2026 at 8:45 AM

Construction concept rendering of Panama City’s proposed Canal Underline pedestrian and bicycle tunnel beneath the Panama Canal

“The Canal Underline”: a pedestrian and bicycle tunnel under the Panama Canal that is still on the table

By ECONEWS

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April 9, 2026 at 10:28 AM

Bird singing on a tree near a home during daytime linked to environmental health and mental well-being

If you hear birds singing in your home during the day, it’s not just background noise: science believes something very good might be happening around you… and inside you

By Adrian Villellas

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April 8, 2026 at 6:30 PM

Chicago Archaeopteryx fossil specimen showing preserved bones, feathers, and wing structure in limestone slab

An Archaeopteryx fossil dating back some 150 million years, hidden away for decades and reanalyzed using CT scans and ultraviolet light, has finally revealed a detail that could settle a scientific debate that has raged for more than 160 years over how bird flight began

By Adrian Villellas

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April 8, 2026 at 5:09 AM

Preserved squid specimen identified as Mobydickia poseidonii, a new squid family discovered from a sperm whale stomach sample

It all began with a strange, squid-like mass found in the stomach of a sperm whale in 1955 and 1956, and decades later, scientists discovered that it was something far stranger than anyone could have imagined

By ECONEWS

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April 6, 2026 at 3:19 AM

$For years, no one knew what those strange clay “chimneys” protruding from the ground in the Amazon were for, until a study published on February 23, 2026, came up with an answer that was as simple as it was brilliant$

For years, no one knew what those strange clay “chimneys” protruding from the ground in the Amazon were for, until a study published on February 23, 2026, came up with an answer that was as simple as it was brilliant

By ECONEWS

—

April 5, 2026 at 1:54 PM

Green vegetation belt along the edge of the Taklamakan Desert showing reforestation efforts in arid northwest China

China is transforming the Takla Makan Desert, which at 337,000 km² is almost the size of Poland, into a “lung in the sand”: the 66 billion trees planted since 1978 have increased vegetation, multiplied rainfall during the wet season by 2.5 times, and even reduced local CO2 levels from 416 to 413 ppm

By Adrian Villellas

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April 3, 2026 at 6:30 AM

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Environment

Extinct for more than 150 years, 158 giant tortoises are returning to Floreana, and their return could revitalize an ecosystem that has been quietly deteriorating for generations

“We were looking for rocks, but instead we found an abandoned nuclear bunker,” admits Alex Gardner: that day, 240 km off the coast of Greenland, when a research aircraft discovered tunnels laid out in a checkerboard pattern and secrets from 1959 that are now coming to light

One of Earth’s major carbon sinks may be beginning to release carbon that has been stored for thousands of years, and signs of this are already appearing in two dark lakes in the Congo

A storm uncovers two 10-million-year-old whales, and the discovery surprises Europe

Many bear populations are eating more plants as the climate warms, a Nature Communications study finds

Beijing records its cleanest air ever in 2025, with an average PM2.5 of 27 µg/m³

Saudi Arabia is turning wastewater into an ever-expanding green corridor in the middle of the desert

A 307-million-year-old fossil the size of a soccer ball could change what we know about the origin of herbivorous animals

Africa is surprising the whole world with a phenomenon no one expected: trees are reappearing without anyone having planted them

There is a body of water on Earth that is not bordered by any coastline and is warming rapidly

A study published on February 23, 2026, uncovers a silent leak in two dark lakes in the Congo and reveals that up to 39% and 40% of the carbon they release comes from peat that accumulated thousands of years ago, offering a troubling clue to the great climate puzzle

A 17-year study in Cape Verde finds loggerhead turtles nest earlier but lay fewer eggs and breed less often

The “brown ribbon” that can now be seen from space continues to grow in the Atlantic, and scientists warn that this is not just another simple stain

“The Canal Underline”: a pedestrian and bicycle tunnel under the Panama Canal that is still on the table

If you hear birds singing in your home during the day, it’s not just background noise: science believes something very good might be happening around you… and inside you

An Archaeopteryx fossil dating back some 150 million years, hidden away for decades and reanalyzed using CT scans and ultraviolet light, has finally revealed a detail that could settle a scientific debate that has raged for more than 160 years over how bird flight began

It all began with a strange, squid-like mass found in the stomach of a sperm whale in 1955 and 1956, and decades later, scientists discovered that it was something far stranger than anyone could have imagined

For years, no one knew what those strange clay “chimneys” protruding from the ground in the Amazon were for, until a study published on February 23, 2026, came up with an answer that was as simple as it was brilliant

Chemists are turning ammonia into pure hydrogen at 482°F, far cooler than standard cracking, and the trick is using electricity to pull the gas through a palladium membrane

Roman soldiers guarded a German forest fort for 150 years, and archaeologists digging just inches below the forest floor have found a temple of Mars and a pin hinting at who came after

A volunteer diver picking up trash at the bottom of a Wisconsin lake found a 1,000-year-old dugout canoe, and the Wisconsin Historical Society has decided the safest place for it is exactly where it lies

Czech cave explorers and a robot have measured the Hranice Abyss to 1,476 feet underwater, and a decade after it became the world’s deepest flooded cave, nobody knows where the bottom is

A Hawaiian tree snail vanished from the wild after Hawaii brought in a predator to fight a garden pest, and 33 years later it is back behind walls that keep its hunters out

A Swiss glacier has pulled back far enough to reveal a larch that stopped growing about 10,300 years ago, and its still-attached roots show the tree grew on ground the ice later buried

Chinstrap penguin droppings across Antarctica release an estimated 540,000 tons of methane a year, and the bare ground between the guano patches gives off almost nothing

Twenty family dogs listened to nonstop invented words while wearing electrodes, and scientists found that dog brains lock onto the same hidden detail of speech that human brains rely on from infancy

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