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.

Hand holding a thermal paper receipt, a type of paper commonly coated with bisphenol developers.

That paper receipt handed over after an everyday purchase may carry a chemical coating most people never think about, and researchers are asking what repeated contact with bisphenols means when millions of receipts change hands every day

By Adrian Villellas

—

August 30, 2026 at 6:30 PM

Overturned fish tanker beside Lookingglass Creek in Oregon after crashing while transporting young Chinook salmon.

A truck carrying young salmon crashed beside an Oregon creek and suddenly released thousands of fish somewhere they were never supposed to be, turning a highway accident into one of the strangest wildlife stories of the year

By ECONEWS

—

August 30, 2026 at 12:35 PM

White-tailed eagles flying near wind turbines with a blade painted black at the Smøla wind farm in Norway.

Scientists painted one blade black on wind turbines on a Norwegian island and watched what happened to white-tailed eagles, turning an almost ridiculously simple visual change into an experiment with potentially enormous consequences for birds

By Adrian Villellas

—

August 30, 2026 at 10:15 AM

Living green roof covering Ford's Rouge factory complex in Dearborn, Michigan.

Ford covered the roof of its enormous Rouge factory with living plants instead of conventional roofing, and years later the industrial site has become an unlikely habitat for birds above one of America’s most famous car plants

By ECONEWS

—

August 29, 2026 at 6:25 PM

Scientists crossing the snow-covered summit glacier of Mount Ararat during the 2026 research expedition.

Scientists climbed onto a shrinking mountain glacier to measure what remained beneath their feet, and the survey is revealing just how quickly a frozen landscape that survived for generations can disappear

By Adrian Villellas

—

August 29, 2026 at 3:00 PM

Fin whale swimming near the ocean surface and releasing a powerful blow.

The fin whale can grow longer than a city bus and race through the ocean at remarkable speeds despite weighing tens of tons, yet this enormous animal remains one of the least noticed giants swimming through our seas

By ECONEWS

—

August 29, 2026 at 7:00 AM

American crocodile hatchlings emerging from their eggs at Turkey Point in Florida.

Florida’s Turkey Point nuclear plant became a refuge for American crocodiles, but its 168 miles of cooling canals left a salty problem underground

By ECONEWS

—

August 28, 2026 at 6:10 PM

Young lions confront a massive hippo at the edge of a waterhole in Botswana.

About seven young lions surrounded a massive hippo at a Botswana waterhole and even chased it into the water, but one intimidating turn from the several-ton animal was enough to make the entire pride reconsider its plan

By ECONEWS

—

August 28, 2026 at 12:58 PM

Concordia Research Station on the Antarctic Plateau, where temperatures fell to -119.4°F in July 2026.

A thermometer in Antarctica hit -119.4 °F twice in nine minutes, and the coldest air reading in 14 years hides a climate paradox

By ECONEWS

—

August 27, 2026 at 3:25 PM

Beaver carries a branch while standing on a dam in a waterway.

Beavers kept rebuilding dams in Oregon’s aging canal, turning a century-old embankment into a safety hazard engineers finally had to address

By Adrian Villellas

—

August 26, 2026 at 12:04 PM

Two burrowing owls stand beside an artificial burrow at an Arizona solar farm.

Workers built an Arizona solar farm to generate electricity beneath the desert sun, but tiny burrowing owls moved into the landscape and turned part of the energy project into an unexpected nursery for their chicks

By Adrian Villellas

—

August 26, 2026 at 8:45 AM

Adult bald eagle swimming through the water with its wings spread

America’s bald eagle looks like one of nature’s most familiar birds, but its enormous nests, surprising swimming ability and strange everyday behaviors reveal an animal far more unusual than the national symbol suggests

By ECONEWS

—

August 25, 2026 at 8:30 AM

Row of yellow school buses parked at a transportation depot in Texas.

Texas school buses can turn dangerously hot before children even reach class, and researchers are finding that the metal boxes carrying students every day may be trapping far more heat than parents realize

By ECONEWS

—

August 23, 2026 at 3:00 PM

Piles of cured oyster shells ready for coastal reef restoration along a Florida shore.

Florida communities collect oyster shells from restaurants, cure them in the sun, and return them to shore to build reefs, but viral claims of 500,000 tons and 25-year highs lack proof

By ECONEWS

—

August 23, 2026 at 6:30 AM

Moken child swimming underwater without goggles in the Andaman Sea.

Moken children in the Andaman Sea free-dive without goggles and see clearly underwater, a skill years of practice, not dolphin-like biology, trained into their eyes

By ECONEWS

—

August 22, 2026 at 6:30 PM

Pink dye tracer spreads across the ocean during an alkalinity enhancement experiment near Cape Cod.

Researchers released 16,500 gallons of sodium hydroxide into the ocean near Cape Cod, the first EPA-permitted trial of its kind, and a dye tracer followed the patch for five days

By ECONEWS

—

August 22, 2026 at 3:00 PM

Brazilian geneticist Warwick Kerr handling honey bees during his research.

Brazilian geneticist Warwick Kerr bred honey bees for tropical heat in 1956, and 26 swarming colonies spread across the Western Hemisphere by 1990, transforming pollination patterns

By ECONEWS

—

August 22, 2026 at 12:30 PM

Globe skimmer dragonfly flying with its wings extended.

A globe skimmer dragonfly barely 1.5 inches long may fly 3,700 miles across generations, and DNA now links its populations across Asia and the Americas in one migration circuit

By Adrian Villellas

—

August 22, 2026 at 10:15 AM

Invasive iceplant being removed from California coastal dunes

California’s iceplant from South Africa spreads three feet a year across bluffs and dunes, crowding native plants, and pulling it out turns out to be only the first step

By ECONEWS

—

August 22, 2026 at 6:30 AM

Magnolia aromatica blooming inside a sinkhole in Leye County, China

China’s karst sinkholes shelter the endangered Magnolia aromatica from heat and drought, yet genetic research found populations inside carry more harmful mutations and less diversity than trees outside, weakening their adaptability

By Adrian Villellas

—

August 21, 2026 at 4:45 PM

Previous Next

Environment

That paper receipt handed over after an everyday purchase may carry a chemical coating most people never think about, and researchers are asking what repeated contact with bisphenols means when millions of receipts change hands every day

A truck carrying young salmon crashed beside an Oregon creek and suddenly released thousands of fish somewhere they were never supposed to be, turning a highway accident into one of the strangest wildlife stories of the year

Scientists painted one blade black on wind turbines on a Norwegian island and watched what happened to white-tailed eagles, turning an almost ridiculously simple visual change into an experiment with potentially enormous consequences for birds

Ford covered the roof of its enormous Rouge factory with living plants instead of conventional roofing, and years later the industrial site has become an unlikely habitat for birds above one of America’s most famous car plants

Scientists climbed onto a shrinking mountain glacier to measure what remained beneath their feet, and the survey is revealing just how quickly a frozen landscape that survived for generations can disappear

The fin whale can grow longer than a city bus and race through the ocean at remarkable speeds despite weighing tens of tons, yet this enormous animal remains one of the least noticed giants swimming through our seas

Florida’s Turkey Point nuclear plant became a refuge for American crocodiles, but its 168 miles of cooling canals left a salty problem underground

About seven young lions surrounded a massive hippo at a Botswana waterhole and even chased it into the water, but one intimidating turn from the several-ton animal was enough to make the entire pride reconsider its plan

A thermometer in Antarctica hit -119.4 °F twice in nine minutes, and the coldest air reading in 14 years hides a climate paradox

Beavers kept rebuilding dams in Oregon’s aging canal, turning a century-old embankment into a safety hazard engineers finally had to address

Workers built an Arizona solar farm to generate electricity beneath the desert sun, but tiny burrowing owls moved into the landscape and turned part of the energy project into an unexpected nursery for their chicks

America’s bald eagle looks like one of nature’s most familiar birds, but its enormous nests, surprising swimming ability and strange everyday behaviors reveal an animal far more unusual than the national symbol suggests

Texas school buses can turn dangerously hot before children even reach class, and researchers are finding that the metal boxes carrying students every day may be trapping far more heat than parents realize

Florida communities collect oyster shells from restaurants, cure them in the sun, and return them to shore to build reefs, but viral claims of 500,000 tons and 25-year highs lack proof

Moken children in the Andaman Sea free-dive without goggles and see clearly underwater, a skill years of practice, not dolphin-like biology, trained into their eyes

Researchers released 16,500 gallons of sodium hydroxide into the ocean near Cape Cod, the first EPA-permitted trial of its kind, and a dye tracer followed the patch for five days

Brazilian geneticist Warwick Kerr bred honey bees for tropical heat in 1956, and 26 swarming colonies spread across the Western Hemisphere by 1990, transforming pollination patterns

A globe skimmer dragonfly barely 1.5 inches long may fly 3,700 miles across generations, and DNA now links its populations across Asia and the Americas in one migration circuit

California’s iceplant from South Africa spreads three feet a year across bluffs and dunes, crowding native plants, and pulling it out turns out to be only the first step

China’s karst sinkholes shelter the endangered Magnolia aromatica from heat and drought, yet genetic research found populations inside carry more harmful mutations and less diversity than trees outside, weakening their adaptability

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

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

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