People & Population

"Richard Leakey, the world-renowned paleoanthropologist-turned-conservationist, has died at 77."

"Edward O. Wilson, a biologist and author who conducted pioneering work on biodiversity, insects and human nature — and won two Pulitzer Prizes along the way — died on Sunday in Burlington, Mass. He was 92."

"Thomas E. Lovejoy III, an ecologist who dedicated his career to preserving the Amazon rainforest and educating Washington policymakers and the public about the dangers of climate change, died Dec. 25 at his home in McLean, Va. He was 80."

"Illegal gold mining in the north Amazonian territory of Brazil's indigenous Munduruku people has led to more than half of several hundred people tested showing unsafe mercury levels in their bodies, including children, health researchers say."

"The already perilous desert crossing from Mexico to the US will become more dangerous as the climate warms, new research says."

"It’s time to agitate the oysters at St. Stanislaus High School on Mississippi’s Gulf coast."

"A push by Senate Democrats to pass a roughly $2 trillion tax-and-spending measure before Christmas appeared in dire political peril Wednesday, as talks soured between President Biden and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) over the size and scope of the economic package."

"When Cyclone Yaas slammed into her home in southwest Bangladesh in May, destroying it and sweeping away in the floodwaters the small amount of cash she had saved, Amina Begum had few options. Efforts to recover from four previous cyclones since 2009 had depleted her resources, and her husband's death five years ago left the burden of caring for their two children solely to her."

"On a ridge rising over the Bering Strait coast lies the resting place for one community’s sewage."