Natural Resources

"The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s “State of the World’s Plants and Fungi” report assesses our current knowledge of plants and fungal diversity, the threats they face and how to protect them. The report warns that many plant and fungal species, 45% of documented flowering plants and half of all analyzed fungi risk extinction (though less than 0.4% of identified fungi have been assessed for extinction to date)."

"A team of scientists loaded into a gray minivan in this capital city earlier this year and drove for hundreds of miles west through the Kazakh steppe — a vast region marked by endless open plains of grass, abandoned farms and flower-filled meadows."

"In 2020, rebellious Mexican farmers occupied a dam in parched Chihuahua state to prevent the federal government from sending its reservoir water to Texas under a 1944 treaty. With the clock ticking toward another treaty deadline, the two sides are struggling for a solution."

"Scientists in Britain have found they can partially protect chickens from bird flu infections by editing their genes, signaling a new potential strategy to reduce the spread of the deadly virus."

"In prisons across Western states, incarcerated people are raising tens of thousands of plants to restore sagebrush habitat, a vanishing ecosystem home to the iconic endangered greater sage-grouse and hundreds of other species."

"Reforestation projects to restore degraded lands in Chad and Cameroon, like the “Great Green Wall” and the “Reforestation 1400” projects, are facing increasing pressure from logging activity."

"Communities dependent on the Amazon rainforest’s waterways are stranded without supply of fuel, food or filtered water. Dozens of river dolphins perished and washed up on shore. And thousands of lifeless fish float on the water’s surface."

"Skeena River sockeye have declined 75% since 1913. Woodland caribou have declined by more than half in the past century. But with the right resources, First Nations are bringing ancestral foods back from the brink".

"Chicken farms housing millions of animals threaten a fragile ecology"

"On a drizzly day in May, Maria Payan walked along a country road in Somerset County, Maryland, near her home. On one side of the road was a white house with a peaked roof and an American flag flying from the porch; a ride-on toy tractor was parked by the front steps. On the other, a row of six long, windowless metal buildings housed tens of thousands of chickens. “Oh, the smell is so bad,” Payan said. “Can you imagine living with this every day?”

"President Joe Biden is suspending 26 environmental laws to build a border wall in south Texas, a move announced by the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday. The laws include the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Environmental Policy Act—all waived in favor of constructing a border wall to stop migrants fleeing into the U.S. through Mexico."