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.

Gravel road through rural Pennsylvania on a winter afternoon

Pennsylvania once used salty oil-and-gas wastewater to control dust on rural roads, but researchers found brine averaging about 2,000 picocuries of radium per liter could perform no better than rainwater under dry conditions while sending radioactive contaminants into runoff

By Adrian Villellas

—

September 21, 2026 at 6:33 AM

Rusting ships stranded on the dry bed of the Aral Sea near Moynaq, Uzbekistan

The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth-largest lake, but after Soviet irrigation diverted its rivers, fishing boats were left stranded in a 23,000-square-mile desert while Kazakhstan revived part of the water and Uzbekistan planted 4.2 million acres of the exposed lakebed

By Adrian Villellas

—

September 20, 2026 at 7:30 PM

Offshore wind turbine with a damaged blade standing in calm ocean water off Nantucket

A wind turbine blade broke off Nantucket in 2024 and scattered fiberglass on the beaches, Vineyard Wind now alleges 66 of its 72 blades had bonding flaws, and two years later the federal investigation still has no end date

By Adrian Villellas

—

September 19, 2026 at 8:51 AM

Prairie rattlesnake coiled among grass, yellow flowers and white rocks

Researchers tracking prairie rattlesnakes in Wyoming kept finding “piles” of snakes shedding their skin together, a behavior never documented before in this species

By ECONEWS

—

September 19, 2026 at 6:23 AM

Large Atlantic bluefin tuna swimming in blue open ocean water

An Atlantic bluefin tuna starts life no bigger than an eyelash, but the species holds a 1,496-pound world record, and scientists can read its age from tiny rings inside its head

By Adrian Villellas

—

September 18, 2026 at 6:33 PM

Two steelhead swimming close to the gravel bed of a clear river

After two years in the Pacific, hundreds of steelhead swam back to Oregon’s Deschutes River on a 600-mile round trip, helping push the number of adults moved above Round Butte Dam past 950 in a record season

By Adrian Villellas

—

September 18, 2026 at 4:56 PM

Pile of old mobile phones and smartphones, including classic keypad models

A metric ton of old mobile phones can hold 100 times more gold than a metric ton of gold ore, yet only 22.3% of the world’s electronic waste is formally collected and recycled

By Adrian Villellas

—

September 18, 2026 at 3:09 PM

Three archive photos showing eroded bare hills in Pohang, South Korea, gradually covered by vegetation after reforestation

South Korea planted more than 10 billion trees after the Korean War, and by 2020 its forests held 29 times more wood per hectare than in 1953, but the real secret was checking which seedlings survived

By ECONEWS

—

September 18, 2026 at 12:28 PM

Kemp’s ridley sea turtle Pancake crawling on the sand at Coney Island before its release

An 11-pound endangered sea turtle named Pancake was found cold-stunned on a Cape Cod beach, spent seven months eating shrimp and clams in rehab, and returned to the Atlantic at Coney Island carrying a satellite tag

By ECONEWS

—

September 17, 2026 at 5:07 PM

Hand lifting a piece of artificial turf during heavy rain, with water running off the plastic lawn

Natural grass acts like a “sponge,” while artificial turf can repel up to 58% of the water

By ECONEWS

—

September 16, 2026 at 4:08 PM

Solitary wasp among nesting tubes in a bee hotel.

Bee hotels were supposed to help pollinators, but a Toronto experiment found wasps were checking in first

By ECONEWS

—

September 14, 2026 at 3:35 PM

Aerial view of a forest-filled doline at Hang Son Doong cave in Vietnam

Deep inside a mountain in Vietnam lies a cave passage at least 4 miles long and up to 655 feet high, where collapsed ceilings let sunlight pour underground and feed a 165-foot-tall forest while mist and clouds form above an underground river

By ECONEWS

—

September 13, 2026 at 5:17 PM

Wind-sculpted snow across the East Antarctic Plateau under a clear blue sky

Satellites scanned Antarctica between 2004 and 2016 and found about 100 shallow hollows where the snow plunged to roughly −144°F (−98°C), revealing how darkness, extraordinarily dry air and almost no wind can create the coldest surfaces measured on Earth

By ECONEWS

—

September 13, 2026 at 3:42 PM

Workers handle recycled glass sand during a coastal restoration project in Louisiana.

New Orleans is turning discarded bottles into coastal sand, and each crushed glass load can help rebuild a shrinking wetland

By ECONEWS

—

September 12, 2026 at 6:54 PM

Two Argentine ant workers passing food mouth to mouth on a cactus

Argentine ants formed a supercolony across Portugal, Spain, France and Italy, linking nests across roughly 3,700 miles

By ECONEWS

—

September 12, 2026 at 3:19 PM

Beekeeper in a safety vest lifting two frames covered in honeybees beside a hive, with solar panels behind

Black Bear Solar added 180,000 honeybees in Virginia, but the fence protects the hives, not the other way around

By Adrian Villellas

—

September 12, 2026 at 11:47 AM

Sea lion eating a salmon in the water below Bonneville Dam.

Sea lions learned to wait below Bonneville Dam, and the fish ladder meant to help salmon became a dinner bell

By Adrian Villellas

—

September 12, 2026 at 9:39 AM

Scientist in a safety vest surveying pollinators among yellow wildflowers planted beneath solar panels

Two Minnesota solar farms turned the ground beneath their panels into habitat, and native bee abundance rose more than 20-fold

By Adrian Villellas

—

September 12, 2026 at 6:26 AM

Yellow tree-like coral colonies growing on a rocky outcrop beside pink corals in the deep sea

A golden coral forest off Costa Rica forced scientists to add an entirely new branch to the tree of life

By Adrian Villellas

—

September 12, 2026 at 5:19 AM

The Solomon Siren sculpture taking a wave on the reef where Kale Island used to be

Where Kale Island vanished in the Solomon Islands, a silent sculpture now rises and disappears with the tide

By ECONEWS

—

September 11, 2026 at 6:26 PM

Previous Next

Environment

Pennsylvania once used salty oil-and-gas wastewater to control dust on rural roads, but researchers found brine averaging about 2,000 picocuries of radium per liter could perform no better than rainwater under dry conditions while sending radioactive contaminants into runoff

The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth-largest lake, but after Soviet irrigation diverted its rivers, fishing boats were left stranded in a 23,000-square-mile desert while Kazakhstan revived part of the water and Uzbekistan planted 4.2 million acres of the exposed lakebed

A wind turbine blade broke off Nantucket in 2024 and scattered fiberglass on the beaches, Vineyard Wind now alleges 66 of its 72 blades had bonding flaws, and two years later the federal investigation still has no end date

Researchers tracking prairie rattlesnakes in Wyoming kept finding “piles” of snakes shedding their skin together, a behavior never documented before in this species

An Atlantic bluefin tuna starts life no bigger than an eyelash, but the species holds a 1,496-pound world record, and scientists can read its age from tiny rings inside its head

After two years in the Pacific, hundreds of steelhead swam back to Oregon’s Deschutes River on a 600-mile round trip, helping push the number of adults moved above Round Butte Dam past 950 in a record season

A metric ton of old mobile phones can hold 100 times more gold than a metric ton of gold ore, yet only 22.3% of the world’s electronic waste is formally collected and recycled

South Korea planted more than 10 billion trees after the Korean War, and by 2020 its forests held 29 times more wood per hectare than in 1953, but the real secret was checking which seedlings survived

An 11-pound endangered sea turtle named Pancake was found cold-stunned on a Cape Cod beach, spent seven months eating shrimp and clams in rehab, and returned to the Atlantic at Coney Island carrying a satellite tag

Natural grass acts like a “sponge,” while artificial turf can repel up to 58% of the water

Bee hotels were supposed to help pollinators, but a Toronto experiment found wasps were checking in first

Deep inside a mountain in Vietnam lies a cave passage at least 4 miles long and up to 655 feet high, where collapsed ceilings let sunlight pour underground and feed a 165-foot-tall forest while mist and clouds form above an underground river

Satellites scanned Antarctica between 2004 and 2016 and found about 100 shallow hollows where the snow plunged to roughly −144°F (−98°C), revealing how darkness, extraordinarily dry air and almost no wind can create the coldest surfaces measured on Earth

New Orleans is turning discarded bottles into coastal sand, and each crushed glass load can help rebuild a shrinking wetland

Argentine ants formed a supercolony across Portugal, Spain, France and Italy, linking nests across roughly 3,700 miles

Black Bear Solar added 180,000 honeybees in Virginia, but the fence protects the hives, not the other way around

Sea lions learned to wait below Bonneville Dam, and the fish ladder meant to help salmon became a dinner bell

Two Minnesota solar farms turned the ground beneath their panels into habitat, and native bee abundance rose more than 20-fold

A golden coral forest off Costa Rica forced scientists to add an entirely new branch to the tree of life

Where Kale Island vanished in the Solomon Islands, a silent sculpture now rises and disappears with the tide

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

Norway’s largest Viking coin hoard has grown to 5,550 coins since two metal detectorists found it in a field, and an archaeologist cataloging them spotted one struck for a king who became a saint

Turkey has unearthed a clay fragment of the oldest known peace treaty, sealed about 3,300 years ago, and its broken lines show what two kings promised people who fled their lands

A 194-year-old giant tortoise named Jonathan has some gene switches as orderly as those of tortoises a fraction of his age, and scientists think part of his secret lies in how his cells make energy

Environment

Latest Post

Get the most relevant environment stories as soon as we publish them

Sections

Our editions

Contact