ON THE INDIAN RIVER LAGOON, Fla. (AP) — The most biologically diverse waterway in America is seriously ill. The Indian River Lagoon is repeatedly being choked with oxygen-robbing algae, its surface increasingly dotted with thousands of dead fish, manatees, birds and other creatures. The culprits: farm runoff and a huge …
TEPATEPEC, Mexico (AP) — For more than 100 years, most of what gets flushed down Mexico City’s toilets has resurfaced two hours to the north in the rivers and reservoirs of the rural Mezquital Valley. A massive new water treatment plant is about to change this. But rather than welcoming …
LOS ANGELES (AP) — More than half of Southern California’s beaches could completely erode back to coastal infrastructure or sea cliffs by the year 2100 as the sea level rises, according to a study released Monday. Using a new computer model to predict shoreline effects caused by the rise of …
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A park ranger in Cambodia says an endangered wild elephant has died after an electrical pole fell and electrocuted the animal. Nup Thet, a ranger at Wildlife Alliance, said the 3-ton elephant was electrocuted late Tuesday in the jungle near Cardamom National Park. Cambodia is …
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s government is moving ahead with plans to allow a domestic trade and limited export of rhino horns, alarming many international conservationists who believe rhinos will be more vulnerable to poachers after a record slaughter in the past decade. Draft regulations would allow a foreigner with …
BANDAR AL-ROWDAH, Oman (AP) — The Gulf of Oman turns green twice a year, when an algae bloom the size of Mexico spreads across the Arabian Sea all the way to India. Scientists who study the algae say the microscopic organisms are thriving in new conditions brought about by climate …
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Faced with the threat that Asian carp could enter the Great Lakes, Michigan is turning to the public for new ideas and plans to offer a prize to whoever comes up with a way to stop the voracious fish. Michigan’s global search challenge comes after the …
BANGKOK (AP) — Thai authorities have seized 422 pieces of elephant tusks and arrested a Gambian man suspected of smuggling the ivory. Customs Department Director-General Kulit Sombatsiri said Tuesday the tusks were hidden in a shipment listed as unprocessed gemstones. He said the parcel was examined because items from Malawi …
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa says poachers killed 1,054 rhinos in the country last year, a 10.3 percent drop from 2015. The environmental affairs department on Monday attributed the decrease to increased security and other measures designed to thwart the poaching of rhinos in South Africa, home to most of …
WELLS, Maine (AP) — The Ridgway’s rail is a rare bird that relies on the salt marshes south of Los Angeles to survive. And that’s why its future is in doubt — the salt marsh is disappearing under rising seas. Scientists working with the federal government said the rail’s plight …
HONG KONG (AP) — Wong Lai-ngan hunches over a battered workbench, his electric rotary tool whining as he carves two phoenixes facing each other into a smooth white tusk. Decades ago, Wong’s canvas would have been elephant ivory. But since a 1990 ban on international trading, Hong Kong’s dwindling tribe …
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan authorities seized a ton of illegal ivory and arrested three West Africans they believe were plotting to ship it abroad, an official said Saturday. The seizure happened late Friday at an “opulent, expansive house” in a suburb of the capital, Kampala, where law enforcement officials …