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.

UK's first rice crop growing in a flooded mini paddy on rewetted peat near Ely, Cambridgeshire

Scientists grew the UK’s first rice crop in four flooded paddies near Ely during the record-breaking summer of 2025, and the trial could help farmers keep the Fens’ peat soils wet

By Adrian Villellas

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October 18, 2026 at 5:01 PM

Sentinel-6 sea surface height map of the eastern Pacific on October 3, 2026, with a dark red band of high water along the equator, as NOAA weighs odds of the strongest El Niño since 1950

In the eastern Pacific, NASA satellites show seas up to 1.3 feet higher as NOAA gives the strongest El Niño since 1950 an 83 percent chance for October to December, and equatorial waters turn bluer

By ECONEWS

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October 18, 2026 at 3:02 PM

Fat Bear Week 2026 contender Chunk, bear 32, standing in Brooks River below Brooks Falls with his broken lower jaw visible

Chunk, the 2025 champion with a permanently broken jaw, lost his first match by 118,731 votes to 46,053, and Fat Bear Week 2026 went to Backpack, a 20-year-old bear whose survival park staff once doubted

By ECONEWS

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October 18, 2026 at 10:16 AM

Sea turtle hatchling crawling into the surf on Blackbeard Island, one of the Georgia beaches where sea turtle nests are counted every summer

Georgia beaches logged a record 4,292 sea turtle nests in 2026, up from 358 in 2004, and hundreds of volunteers patrolled the coast from Cumberland Island to Tybee to protect them

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 18, 2026 at 8:05 AM

Elephant carcass bones and dried skin on a bare patch of savanna, photographed by study lead author Courtney Reed

In South Africa’s Kruger National Park, an elephant carcass can push soil ammonium to nearly 3,000 times nearby levels, and the biodiversity coldspot it creates is still there nearly 8 years later

By ECONEWS

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October 17, 2026 at 11:31 AM

Striped catfish, sold in the aquarium trade as the iridescent shark, swimming in a dark tank with its tall dorsal fin and forked tail visible

A man in Fergana, Uzbekistan, filled a basement pool with what he called Siamese sharks, and ecology inspectors found a Mekong catfish that is endangered in the wild and can reach 97 pounds

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 17, 2026 at 6:31 AM

Loggerhead turtle tangled in a fishing buoy and line on Aldabra, Seychelles plastic pollution

The Seychelles have been receiving tons of plastic on their beaches for years, and a new study suggests that up to 66 percent of the fishing waste could come from their own waters

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 16, 2026 at 5:01 PM

A Swan galaxias, a small native Tasmanian fish, held in a hand

Tasmania introduced the European trout into its rivers in 1865, and 161 years later, a small native fish survives only in the few streams that its descendants have not yet been able to reach

By ECONEWS

—

October 16, 2026 at 3:02 PM

The SS United States docked in Mobile, Alabama, after remediation, before Okaloosa County sinks the liner as an artificial reef

Florida plans to sink the legendary 302-meter SS United States in November 2026 to create the world’s largest artificial reef, and the operation will cost millions of dollars

By ECONEWS

—

October 16, 2026 at 11:38 AM

Aerial rendering of Blackadore Caye, Leonardo DiCaprio's restorative island project off Belize, with overwater villas on a pier

Leonardo DiCaprio bought a 104-acre island in Belize for $1.75 million and wanted to turn it into an ecological paradise, but nearly two decades later, a major question remains unresolved

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 16, 2026 at 8:44 AM

Night view over the Jurapark Aargau hills, where towns switched off lights against light pollution

Switzerland’s Jurapark Aargau switched off streetlights in 29 towns for one night to launch a campaign against light pollution, which hurts hedgehogs and glow-worms, and a police chief says dimmer towns see no rise in burglaries

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 15, 2026 at 6:31 PM

NASA map of greening in China and India, showing the increase in leaf area between 2000 and 2017

Scientists in Nanjing simulated greening in China and India, which together account for nearly one-third of Earth’s added leaf area, and the model shows it cooling western Eurasia while northern North America warms

By ECONEWS

—

October 15, 2026 at 8:46 AM

Wind turbine with two red stripes on one blade at the Umoya Energy Wind Farm near Hopefield, South Africa, with a bird flying close to the striped blade

A wind farm in Hopefield, South Africa, painted two red stripes on one blade of four turbines, and a preprint not yet peer reviewed estimates bird deaths at those turbines fell a median 83 percent

By ECONEWS

—

October 15, 2026 at 5:12 AM

Cleanup crew of the Moab uranium tailings project posing in front of a rail shipping container with a 17 million tons banner

Moab uranium tailings have moved by train since 2009, and crews have now hauled 17 million tons from the banks of the Colorado River to a disposal cell 30 miles north at Crescent Junction

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 15, 2026 at 4:06 AM

Shells of the new snail species Cochlostoma komarnica and C. dobrido from Montenegro

Volunteers and scientists found two new snail species in Montenegro with shells about a quarter inch long and a door on the tail, and one lives in a canyon a planned 561-foot dam would flood

By ECONEWS

—

October 14, 2026 at 2:58 PM

An ailing Iberian pear tree in the Doñana Biological Reserve, Spain

Spain’s Doñana National Park lost over 60 percent of adult Iberian pear trees at one site in two decades, and researchers point to deer, wild boar and falling groundwater

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 14, 2026 at 12:31 PM

Plasticoral fragment at the bottom of a beach bonfire on Sosu Beach, Okinawa

Okinawa researchers found plastic fused to coral rubble in five pieces from three beaches, and the melted polymers had seeped into the coral’s pores so completely that the team named a new pollutant, plasticoral

By ECONEWS

—

October 13, 2026 at 5:01 PM

Giant resin bee Megachile sculpturalis feeding on purple flowers in southern France

Researchers in Catalonia mapped 150 records of the giant resin bee, the first non-native bee reported in Europe, and found an ornamental street tree mattered at least as much as climate

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 13, 2026 at 10:16 AM

Map from SkyTruth's global analysis of oil slicks at sea

SkyTruth’s satellite analysis estimates oil slicks cover about 610,000 square miles of ocean each year, and 16 ships appeared to be discharging oil in over 10 percent of their satellite images at sea

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 12, 2026 at 10:16 AM

Field team carrying a large green anaconda along the Las Piedras River in Peru

A DNA study of anacondas from nine countries split the green anaconda in two, with the northern green anaconda 5.5 percent apart from its twin, and critics went after its name within a month

By Adrian Villellas

—

October 12, 2026 at 6:32 AM

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Environment

Scientists grew the UK’s first rice crop in four flooded paddies near Ely during the record-breaking summer of 2025, and the trial could help farmers keep the Fens’ peat soils wet

In the eastern Pacific, NASA satellites show seas up to 1.3 feet higher as NOAA gives the strongest El Niño since 1950 an 83 percent chance for October to December, and equatorial waters turn bluer

Chunk, the 2025 champion with a permanently broken jaw, lost his first match by 118,731 votes to 46,053, and Fat Bear Week 2026 went to Backpack, a 20-year-old bear whose survival park staff once doubted

Georgia beaches logged a record 4,292 sea turtle nests in 2026, up from 358 in 2004, and hundreds of volunteers patrolled the coast from Cumberland Island to Tybee to protect them

In South Africa’s Kruger National Park, an elephant carcass can push soil ammonium to nearly 3,000 times nearby levels, and the biodiversity coldspot it creates is still there nearly 8 years later

A man in Fergana, Uzbekistan, filled a basement pool with what he called Siamese sharks, and ecology inspectors found a Mekong catfish that is endangered in the wild and can reach 97 pounds

The Seychelles have been receiving tons of plastic on their beaches for years, and a new study suggests that up to 66 percent of the fishing waste could come from their own waters

Tasmania introduced the European trout into its rivers in 1865, and 161 years later, a small native fish survives only in the few streams that its descendants have not yet been able to reach

Florida plans to sink the legendary 302-meter SS United States in November 2026 to create the world’s largest artificial reef, and the operation will cost millions of dollars

Leonardo DiCaprio bought a 104-acre island in Belize for $1.75 million and wanted to turn it into an ecological paradise, but nearly two decades later, a major question remains unresolved

Switzerland’s Jurapark Aargau switched off streetlights in 29 towns for one night to launch a campaign against light pollution, which hurts hedgehogs and glow-worms, and a police chief says dimmer towns see no rise in burglaries

Scientists in Nanjing simulated greening in China and India, which together account for nearly one-third of Earth’s added leaf area, and the model shows it cooling western Eurasia while northern North America warms

A wind farm in Hopefield, South Africa, painted two red stripes on one blade of four turbines, and a preprint not yet peer reviewed estimates bird deaths at those turbines fell a median 83 percent

Moab uranium tailings have moved by train since 2009, and crews have now hauled 17 million tons from the banks of the Colorado River to a disposal cell 30 miles north at Crescent Junction

Volunteers and scientists found two new snail species in Montenegro with shells about a quarter inch long and a door on the tail, and one lives in a canyon a planned 561-foot dam would flood

Spain’s Doñana National Park lost over 60 percent of adult Iberian pear trees at one site in two decades, and researchers point to deer, wild boar and falling groundwater

Okinawa researchers found plastic fused to coral rubble in five pieces from three beaches, and the melted polymers had seeped into the coral’s pores so completely that the team named a new pollutant, plasticoral

Researchers in Catalonia mapped 150 records of the giant resin bee, the first non-native bee reported in Europe, and found an ornamental street tree mattered at least as much as climate

SkyTruth’s satellite analysis estimates oil slicks cover about 610,000 square miles of ocean each year, and 16 ships appeared to be discharging oil in over 10 percent of their satellite images at sea

A DNA study of anacondas from nine countries split the green anaconda in two, with the northern green anaconda 5.5 percent apart from its twin, and critics went after its name within a month

A comet nearly 3 miles wide feeds the Taurid meteor shower every fall, and a high school student’s telescope search has put a size limit on the comet that may have spawned it

Geologists drilled through 2,860 feet of Antarctic ice shelf hoping to bring up mud and their camera found sponges living on a boulder in total darkness, and the team could not say what they eat

Gravel workers in Austria reported a heap of rusty metal that could have ended up as scrap, and its 500 Iron Age iron bars probably went down in a Danube shipwreck

A man reported a carved stone on his land in Egypt, and archaeologists dug up the head of a Ramses II statue once about 28 feet tall and a second royal face awaiting a name

Antarctic sea ice spread across 6.79 million square miles this winter, its third-lowest peak since satellites began watching, and less than three weeks later it was setting record lows for the date

Chinese astronomers searched 33 star systems for alien signals using the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope, and one narrow signal survived the early filters before the clues started pointing back toward Earth

Seychelles now has more giant tortoises on a single remote atoll than people in the whole country, almost 183,000, and the new count finally accounts for the animals surveyors walk past without seeing

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