Climate change threatens to reverse decades of progress in cleaning America’s air, especially in the West.
Unhealthy air alerts triggered by particles of pollution are rising in dozens of cities and counties, chiefly in Western states, the American Lung Association reports. The main reason is rampant wildfires, fed by global warming, causing an annual cycle of smoky devastation.
Eight of the 10 cities with the most days ofhigh particle pollution, including soot from fires, sit in California, the lung-disease nonprofit found in its 2023 State of the Air report. Another isFairbanks, Alaska, a city without enough cars or people to generate much air pollution on its own.
Smoke from wildfires is befouling the air in remote cities that have never known L.A.-style…
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) — Six people, including three juveniles, were charged in a poaching ring that the Pennsylvania Game Commission said killed over 100 deer.
The six people from Franklin County allegedly left most of the deer to rot in what the Game Commission called “a complete disregard for our wildlife resources.”
Hunter Atherton, Abigale Hoover and Caillou Patterson, all 20 years old and from Greencastle, were charged as well as three juveniles.
It started in September of last year when the Game Commission said dispatchers began getting calls about people finding deer shot to death in their front yards and fields in the southern Franklin County area.
After hours of nighttime patrols, the Game Commission said a warden caught a break in January when he found a vehicle at a gas station in Washington Township that matched a…
China’s leader Xi Jinping has made national security a top priority during his decade in power.Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty ImagesHong KongCNN—
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called on his top national security officials to think about “worst case” scenarios and prepare for “stormy seas,” as the ruling Communist Party hardens efforts to counter any perceived internal and external threats.
“The complexity and difficulty of the national security issues we now face have increased significantly,” Xi said Tuesday at a meeting of the party’s National Security Commission, state news agency Xinhua reported.
“We must adhere to bottom-line thinking and worst-case-scenario thinking, and get ready to undergo the major tests of high winds and rough waves, and even perilous, stormy seas,” he added.
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The latest stern instructions from Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades, comes as Beijing faces…
The Yellowstone National Park visitor who “intentionally disturbed” a baby bison, causing its herd to reject the calf, has pleaded guilty, officials said.
The Hawaii resident pleaded guilty to one count of feeding, touching, teasing, frightening or intentionally disturbing wildlife Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice District of Wyoming said in a news release.
According to the violation notice on May 20, 2023, the man approached the newborn bison – after the struggling calf had been separated from its mother when the herd crossed the Lamar River – and pushed the baby up from the river and onto the roadway, the news release said.
Park rangers tried to reunite the calf with the herd, but they were unsuccessful. Staff euthanized the calf because “it was abandoned by the herd” and “causing a hazardous situation by approaching cars and people along the roadway,” the release said.
There was nothing in the report that indicated the man acted maliciously, the release said.
The Hawaii resident was charged a $500 fine, a $500 community service payment to Yellowstone Forever Wildlife Protection Fund, a $30 special assessment and a $10 processing fee, the news release said.
Stay away from animals, park said
Park officials said visitors are required to stay at least 25 yards away from all wildlife and at least 100 yards away from bears and wolves. Approaching wild animals can affect their well-being and their survival, the park service said.
Why doesn’t Yellowstone staff rescue wildlife?
The park said its focus is to sustain “viable populations of native wildlife species, rather than protecting individual animals.”
The park adds the death of animals is a “necessary part of sustaining our populations of predators, scavengers, decomposers and, eventually, herbivores.”
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“Actions like feeding, husbandry and rehabilitation contradict the National Park Service mission by shielding animals from the forces of natural selection and creating a zoo-like atmosphere where animals require assistance or protection from people,” the park service said.
About 99% of Yellowstone is managed as wilderness, the park service said.
When does Yellowstone staff intervene with wildlife?
The park service said it only intervenes in “natural biological or physical processes” under these circumstances:
American authorities have examined around 800 mysterious reports of unidentified flying objects collected over decades – but only a small fraction are truly unexplained, a panel of researchers says.
Nasa set up the panel last year to explain its work on what it calls unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).
UAP are defined as sightings “that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena from a scientific perspective”.
The panel held its first public meeting on Wednesday.
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Here are some of the revelatory moments.
Many sightings can be explained – others remain a mystery
“We have 50 to 100-ish new reports each month,” said Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), part of the US Defence Department.
But he said the number of those sightings which are “possibly really anomalous” are 2% to 5% of the total database.
While it was certainly a shock to the senses to learn of a bird with a name that many knew was butchered for a meal, it should not be any more emotionally jarring than the deaths of the 8 billion chickens in the United States that are slaughtered for the taste of their flesh on a yearly basis. Psychologists would describe this mental state as cognitive dissonance; a mental conflict when one’s beliefs are not in alignment with their actions.
After a historically harsh winter in southeast and south central Wyoming, the death toll to some wildlife is only now being fully revealed. Consequently, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) is further cutting pronghorn hunting tags by 75 percent in these areas.
The Sublette pronghorn herdis one of the largest in the country, and officials estimate that at least half have died over this winter – that is about 20,000 animals.
“They’re kind of easy to pick out once the snow melts because of the white there on the pronghorn,” said Mark Gocke, WGFD public information specialist for the Jackson and Pinedale areas. “And you would see light spots just kind of dotted out across the sagebrush.”
It’s almost time to hunt gators in South Carolina. But only 1,000 lucky people will get a chance to legally take them from public areas in the Palmetto State.
A lottery opens June 1 for interested hunters to apply for a chance to receive a permit for the fall season. Space is limited, though. And the demand is high.
Last year, more than 9,000 interested hunters from over 40 states…
The supposed buildup follows months of tension in between the two nations, withUkrainerevealing simply days before thatMoscowhad assaulted its capital, and it responded with explosions on the Kremlin a few weeks ago. Drones had currently been seen flying towards both capital cities ofKyivandMoscow.
Speaking with the media, Sushko said: “Alleged FSB source in Moscow:…
ST. PAUL, Minn.— Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz today signed into law a ban on commercial collection of wild turtles in the state. Each year, for-profit trappers have collected thousands of turtles from the state’s waterways, mostly to sell for food, traditional Asian medicines or pets.
“Tens of thousands of Minnesota’s turtles are now safe from trappers out to make a quick buck,” said Collette Adkins, a biologist and senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The science shows that even a small number of turtle traffickers can quickly devastate turtle populations. This ban is a big victory for all of us who care about the health of our state’s wildlife and waterways.”
About two decades ago, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources placed a moratorium on issuing new licenses for commercial turtle trappers. Since then, the remaining licensees have continued to collect and sell tens of thousands of turtles using baited turtle traps. For example, in 2021,19 licensees removed approximately 10,000 painted turtles from the wild in Minnesota.
A Minnesota study found lower turtle population levels in lakes where commercial turtle trapping had previously occurred. Many studies have shown that wild turtles cannot withstand commercial exploitation without facing severe declines because, unlike deer and other traditional “game” animals, turtles take many years to mature and reproduce.
“It’s time to shellebrate,” said Christopher Smith, conservation committee chair for the Minnesota Herpetological Society. “Minnesota’s ban on the commercial harvest of wild-caught turtles has been a long time coming and has been a group effort spanning over two decades.”
As part of a campaign to protect freshwater turtles in the United States, advocacy by the Center and its partners has led to bans or important restrictions on commercial turtle trapping in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Missouri, New York, Nevada, South Carolina and Texas. Prior to enactment of this new legislation, Minnesota was one of just six states that still allowed unrestricted commercial collection of wild turtles.
The legislation enacted today goes into effect on January 1, 2024.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Exposing the Big Game 
