Conservation News ~ 22 January 2021

• New Zealand eagle rays astonish aquarium with mystery births
• ‘Gas is over’, EU bank chief says
• Jimmy Wayne Hammonds, of Parrish, Florida, was charged with conspiracy, trafficking and submitting false records
• Honda had planned to electrify all its European models in 2025. But now they're going for 2022 instead.
• Scientists are discovering new species in the ancient canopies of Canada’s tallest trees
• Elon Musk pledges $100 million for carbon capture technology  
• Six Entrapped Manatees at Pine Island Conservation Area Rescued By Florida Fish and Wildlife    
• Scientists Just Discovered 3 New Kinds of Carnivorous Sponge in The Deep Ocean
• UL Lafayette scientists discover new species of hermit crab in Gulf of Mexico
• BLM approves highway across Washington County's Red Cliffs conservation area
• "Biden Unveils $1.9T Plan To Stem Covid-19 And Steady Economy"
• "Nine Michigan Leaders Face Charges in Water Crisis That Roiled Flint"
• "Toyota to Pay a Record Fine for a Decade of Clean Air Act Violations"
• "Climate: Federal Regulator Nixes Bank Fossil Fuel Pledges"
• "Countries Adapting Too Slowly To Climate Breakdown, UN Warns"
• After Winning Most ANWR Bids, Alaska Agency Prepares To Assume Oil Leases
• "Biden Swells The Ranks Of His White House Climate Team"
• "Groups Sue Federal EPA To Rescind Florida Wetlands Authority"
• Emails Show DOI Ethics Staff Raised Concerns On Oct. Video Promoting Trump
• "Groups Ask Court To Restore Protections For US Gray Wolves"
• New orchid species from Guiana Highlands named by Indigenous group
• Brazil elections boost environmental violators to high office in Amazon
• Humanity’s ‘ecological Ponzi scheme’ sets up bleak future, scientists warn
• Rare beaked whale sighting could be a world first for the species
• Arrests in Minnesota After Water Protectors Chain Themselves Inside Pipe Section to Halt Line 3 Construction
• Dave Bautista Places $20,000 Bounty on Individuals Who Defaced Manatee
• 4 Major Asian Nations Cancel 80% of Planned Coal Power Projects After Fossil Fuel Market Crashes in 2020
• Costa Rica pledges to eliminate all single-use plastics and fossil fuels by 2021
• Axis Capital Rules Out Insuring Arctic Oil and Gas Projects
• Indigenous agroforestry revives profitable palm trees and the Atlantic Forest
• "Democrats Eye Action On Range Of Climate Bills"
• Senate Majority Offers Biden New Paths On Trump Environmental Rollbacks
• "A Thin Green Line with Global Impact"
• Los Angeles Lifts Air-Quality Limits For Cremations As Covid Deaths Double
• "Groups Sue EPA Over 'Backwards' Lead Rule"
• 12 States, Green Groups Sue EPA Over Airline Standards They Deem Weak
• "Montana’s National Bison Range Transferred To Tribes"
• "Analysis: Mississippi Pump Fight Unresolved As Trump Departs"
• "Trump Admin Proposes 11th-Hour Plan To Strip Calif. Desert Protections
• "Thai Caves Attract Millions of Bats — and Now Scientists Too"
• "Court Voids a ‘Tortured’ Trump Climate Rollback"
• "Gina McCarthy Outlines Biden's First Climate Actions"
• Biden to Cancel Keystone XL Pipeline in Inauguration Day Executive Order
• High Court Hears Arguments on Climate Change: State or Fed Jurisdiction?
• "Biden To Order Agencies To Revisit Vehicle Tailpipe Emissions Standards"
• Manchin Talks Inauguration, Impeachment, New Leverage In Congress
• Biden ‘Inheriting A Disaster’ As Virus Continues To Grip Nation
• "EPA’s ‘Secret Science’ Rule Taken to Court by States, Cities"
• China's 2020 Coal Output Highest Since 2015, Undermining Climate Pledges
• Calls To Protect Alabama's Unique 60,000-Year-Old Underwater Forest
• "Biden, in a Burst of Climate Orders, Rejoins the Paris Agreement"
• "Keystone Rejection Tests Trudeau’s Balancing Act on Climate and Energy"
• US, Canada Underestimating Climate Risk From Abandoned Oil And Gas Wells
• Bernhardt Rescinds Wilderness Protection Order Before Leaving Office
• "Senate Power-Sharing Talks Hits Filibuster Snag"
• "Grim Prospects for Drilling on Arctic Leases Despite Trump Push"
• 15 States Sue EPA Over Decision Not To Tighten Pollution Standard For Smog
• "Path to Biden’s Green Buying Pledge Runs Through Obama Policies"
• "Northwest’s Salmon Population May Be Running Out of Time"
• "Electric Car Batteries With Five-Minute Charging Times Produced"
• ‘Spectacular’ orange-furred bat described from West African mountain
• Fears for rosewood as Guinea-Bissau prepares to lift six-year logging ban
• Papua tribe moves to block clearing of its ancestral forest for palm oil
• Nigeria emerges as Africa’s primary export hub for ivory, pangolin scales
• Well, hello there: Glass frogs ‘wave’ to communicate near noisy waterfalls
• Biden to review changes to national monuments
• Astronomers estimate Titan’s largest sea is 1,000-feet deep
• Prince of Wales trappers report 68 wolves taken in 2020
• Spitting cobras may have evolved unique venom to defend from ancient humans
• Biden blocks drilling in ANWR
• New Mexico zoo sends endangered wolf pack to Mexico
• Indigenous agroforesty revives profitable palm trees and the Atlantic Forest
• New species of ancient caiman unearthed in Texas
• California leads charge against parting gut of endangered species act
• Dead whale, one of Mediterranean’s largest, found off Italy
• IUCN releases best practices guidelines for cultural and spiritual significance of nature
• Pandemic drastically cut emissions from cars but was completely cut out but sales of SUVs
• Germany approves draft law to end mass culling of male chicks
• Trillions of brood 10 cicadas to emerge in US after 17 years underground
• Jaguars prowl Argentina’s Ibera Wetlands after 70 years
• Pet trade relies on disposable wild chameleons from Madagascar
• Biden blocks Keystone XL pipeline
• China’s 2020 coal output rises to highest since 2015, undermining climate pledges
• Indonesia hit by possibly worst floods in 50 years
• Covid is threatening Africa’s gorilla trekking industry – but responsible tourism could be the cure
• Bill to outlaw traps, snares, and wildlife poisons introduced in New Mexico Senate
• Scientists dropped dead alligators onto the seafloor, and discovered a new bone-eating creature
• Tiger skin seized, 3 poachers held in Indore
• Electric car batteries with five-minute charging times produced
• Earth’s oceans are storing record-breaking amounts of heat
• Remembrance Forests in Brazil: 200,000 trees for 200,000 COVID victims
• On last full day in office, Trump grants Arctic drilling leases
• Elephants look tiny from space, but scientists figured outhow to count them
• Supreme court considers Baltimore suit against oil companies
• Researchers may have heard the’ humming sound’ of the universe for the first time ever
• Two new northern white rhino embryos created at Christmas – now there are five
• New orchid species identified in Madagascar
• Two shark species sighted for the first time in the Galapagos
• Hawaii’s military bases dumped 630,000 pounds of toxic nitrate into the ocean
• Newly-discovered Hawaiian flower is so rare, there is only one plant of its species
• Marine debris a threat to corals in the Gulf of Mannar
• Conservation biologist murdered in Colombia saved two species
• Nashville Zoo mourns loss of newborn giraffe
• Astronomers discover rare, 10 billion year old ‘super-earth’ outside of our solar system
• Nature Conservancy of Canada asks visitors to respect nature reserves
• Monitoring tropical deforestation is now free and easy
• Trump administration proposed 11th hour plan to strip California desert protections
• Protestors hold back military takeover of Balkans largest mountain pasture
• Additional mink test positive for COVID
• NGOs demand action not promises as EU accused of ‘failing to protect seas’
• Rare whales spotted off coast of Virginia
• World’s oceans continue to warm, despite reduced carbon emissions
• How companies wrongly placed climate change on the public
• Beetle keeps rivals off scent of food buried for offspring
• Birds’ genetic secrets revealed in global DNA study
• Patches of Amazon untouched by humans still feel impact of climate change
• Satellites are being used to help save the world’s coral reefs
• Wind power overtakes coal in Texas electricity generation
• Indonesia palm oil traders are failing land and environmental defenders
• New orchid species from Guiana Highlands named by indigenous group
• New antimicrobial streptomyces species discovered in ancient Irish soil
• Lawsuit launched to finalize Endangered Species Act protection for Sierra Nevada Red Fox
• The European bison is no longer a vulnerable species
• 1 in 100 camels die after foraging on plastics mistaken for food
• Boris Johnson blames onset of coronavirus pandemic on ‘demented’ Chinese medicine
• China removes pangolin scales from traditional medicine list
• Indigenous Cacataibo of Peru threatened by land grabbing and drug trade
• New mangrove mapping tool puts conservation in reach of coastal communities
• Glass frogs living near roaring waterfalls wave hello to attract mates
• Salish Sea Killer Whales have surprising new way of hunting
• Large mammals make soil more fertile in tropical forests
• US military sonar linked to whale beachings in Pacific
• Boris Johnson vows to take a stand against Japanese whale killing
• 2020 was hottest year on record on narrow margin
• Manatees had a terrible 2020; rainfall and floodgates are partly to blame
• California-sized area of forest lost in just 14 years
• Yellowstone’s rarest animal caught on trail camera for first time
• The Center of Biological Diversity is now a proud member of IUCN
• Researchers trace geologic origins of Gulf of Mexico’s ‘super basin’ success
• Eastern snapping turtle use culverts to hunt migratory herring
• Electric eels work together to zap prey
• Abrupt but smaller than expected changes in surface air quality attributes to COVID lockdowns
• Massive new dinosaur might be the largest creature to ever roam Earth