Conservation News ~ 4 December 2020

• Us Fish and Wildlife Service decides against listing hitch under Endangered Species Act
• Endangered Species Protection sought for rare Oregon wildflower
• Global soils underpin life future looks bleak, warns UN report
• Another indigenous elder lost to COVID in the Amazon
• Mystery of Siberian freshwater seal food choice solved
• Canadian Liberals introduce bill to implement UN indigenous rights declaration
• New agreement brings large-scale dam removal a step closer
• US storage deployments shatter record in Q3, with 7.5 GW projected by 2025
• 27,000 acres gifted to UF for conservation, outdoor classroom, and laboratory
• Study finds only 300 swift parrots could remain as Tasmanian court challenge heard
• Denmark bans future offshore oil and gas licensing and ends all offshore production by 2050
• Astronomers unveil most detailed 3d map yet of Milky Way
• Planned road to bisect pristine, biodiverse Brazilian Amazon national park
• Coronavirus risk grows as animals move through wildlife trade
• Study finds fire-prevention incentives in Indonesia don’t work
• French Guiana soy biofuel power plants risk massive Amazon deforestation
• Exxon know of climate change in 1981 but it funded deniers for 27 more years
• New Zealand declares climate emergency and has pledged to go carbon-neutral by 2025Pilihbit Tiger Reserve in India wins the inaugural TX2 award after doubling its tiger population
• China vows to boost ‘weather modification’ capabailities
• The crypto-creature from the deep: Researchers get rare video of bigfin squid
• San Jose set to become largest U.S. city to ban natural gas in almost all new construction
• India’s railways bring back tea in clay cups in bid to banish plastics
• UK seeks site for world’s first fusion power station
• UN Chief says humans are waging a suicidal war on nature
• New tuberous species of begonia found in southern Yunnan
• Mary Nichols is a contender for head of the EPA in a Biden administration
• UK to become first country in Europe to ban live animal exports
• Duff Reef declared a sanctuary
• Officials rescue a 16-ft giraffe stranded on a flooding island in Kenya
• COVID perfect storm threatens conservation in Africa
• Indian government forms national panel to drive Paris Agreement goals
• Namibia to auction 170 elephants over drought, increased population
• Climate change is damaging more World Heritage sites
• wildlflower meadows to line Engalnd’s new roads in boost for biodiversity
• Auditors slam EU for marine protected areas that fail to protect ocean
• Latest griffon vulture census demonstrated rewilding success in Rhodope Mountains
• California Assembly expands rights for Native American tribes
• World’s biggest iceberg is fraying at the edges
• Scientists warn of the social and environmental risks tied to the energy transition
• Hungary bans mink, fox, and ferret fur farming
• Reforestation projects should include tree diversity targets
• Hawaii’s fresh water leaks to the ocean through underground rivers
• Stickleback study reveals ‘parallel’ evolution
• Fear of predators shapes entire ecosystems
• As the climate warms, leaves on some trees are dying earlier
• Dolphins growing pressure as development eats into Borneo’s interior
• Countries fall short on UN pledge to protect 10% of the ocean by 2020
• The glaciers of the Greenland Ice Sheet are running away
• Layers of regulations to protect European seas ‘not working’ audit finds
• Unprecedented sightings of maned wolves in Amazon herald a changing landscape
• Pulp producers pull of $168 million Indonesia tax twist
• Alleged government linked land grabs threaten Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains
• Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world
• Global sustainable fishing initiative agreed by 14 countries
• Fences have big effects on land and wildlife around the world that are rarely measured
• The UN cancelled its 2020 climate summit and youth held one anyway
• Elephants can lose two bathtubs full of water in a single day when it gets hot
• New report offers clearest picture yet of pandemic impact on student learning
• Lobster export policy that landed Indonesian minister in jail could resume
• Europe plans space claw to capture orbiting junk
• Piedmont halts north Greenville gas pipeline plans after outcry
• Georgina Mace, who shaped list of endangered species, dies at 67
• Automakers pledge to work with Biden to reduce emissions
• Air monitors routinely miss pollution
• More forests dies as warming cranks up fires, slows regrowth
• Contaminants in New Jersey soil and water are toxic
• Canada give BP okay to explore in Marine Conservation area
• Border wall construction threatens survival of jaguars
• Mountain pine trees that feed grizzlies is threatened
• Senate approves two energy regulators, completing panel
• New fish data reveal evolutionary bursts create species
• In Japan aquaculture is deployed in the defense of endangered species
• Glyphosate likely harms nearly all endangered species
• Newly discovered 8-mile rock art in the Amazonian show the rainforest’s earliest inhabitants
• 27,000 acres gifted to UF for conservation, outdoor classroom and laboratory
• Arecibo telescope, ending 57-year run
• Bank of America says it won’t finance oil and gas exploration in the Arctic
• Researchers note new Cretaceous species, by a nose
• New snail subspecies with upside down shell found in Manila
• Poaching cases drop in Namibia
• Beavers build first dam in Exmoor in more than 400 years
• Chinese submarine reaches the deepest place on Earth
• Video shows the world’s rarest boa found in Sete Barras, Brazil
• Amazon deforestation tops 11,000sq km in Brazil, reaching 12-year high
• Scottish homes to be first in world to use 100% green hydrogen
• International lawyers draft plan to criminalize ecosystem destruction
• Decaying jellyfish blooms can cause temporary changes to water column food
• Waorani peoples’ struggle to protect the Amazon honored with this year’s 2020 Goldman Prize
• Amid tensions in Myanmar, an indigenous Park of Peace is born
• Australia’s emissions fell 3% in year to June amid COVID shutdown
• Celebrities to champion threatened wildlife for Day of Remembrance of Lost Species
• Madagascan fossil turns bird evolutionary anatomy on its head
• See the new primate species – Popa Langur – discovered in Myanmar
• Environment to benefit from biggest farming shake-up in 50 years
• Effort to rescue endangered turtles becomes a Thanksgiving odyssey
• Bird napper on the lose after stealing endangered species from Fresno zoo
• Beneficial and harmful fungi are a the root of forest diversity
• World’s loneliest elephant heads to Cambodia after Cher campaign
• European states ordered to respond to youth activists climate lawsuit
• Rare whale skeleton discovered in Thailand
• Climate apocalypse fears stopping people having children
• Fireball over Germany most probably asteroid fragment
• Research shows whipping horses doesn’t make them run faster, straighter or safer – let’s cut it out
• Tribes halt major copper mine on ancestral lands in Amazon
• Tasmania power becomes 100% renewables
• New species of gecko found in the eastern ghats
• Endangered sea turtles knocked off course find refuge at Tennessee Aquarium over holiday
• Endangered Vancouver Island Marmots are making a comeback
• New rule puts Indonesia’s protected forests up for grabs for agribusiness
• Canada give BP okay to explore in marine conservation area
• Rein in advertising to help tackle climate crisis
• Algae can be made to photosynthesize hydrogen in step towards clean fuel
• EPA’s final deregulatory rush runs into open staff resistance
• New species of burrowing frog named after Bengaluru
• COVID pandemic forces endangered species smugglers into using cargo shipments
• Moth wings covered in sound-absorbing stealth material can avoid bats’ echolocation
• Venezuela judge convicts 6 American oil executives, orders prison
• Climate change drives plants to extinction in the Black Forest in Germany
• Denmark could dig up and cremate mink killed in COVID cull
• SWISS to vote on tougher responsibility proposal for companies
• Chameleon last seen a century ago rediscovered in Madagascar
• Groundbreaking study finds 13.3 quadrillion plastic fibers in California’s environment
• Turns out, lots of Australia’s mammals glow under UV light
• Climate change may make autumn leaves fall early and store less carbon
• Medicinal plant may have evolved camouflage to evade humans
• European Space Agency signs $102 million deal to bring space trash home
• Bird flu fears grow after spate of mysterious UK swan deaths
• Indonesian activists slam Jurassic Park plan for Komodo dragon habitat
• Alex Trebek donated 62 acres of open space near Runyon Canyon
• 102 Species at risk of extinction in the Fraser River estuary in British Colombia
• Large trees in the sub-Himalayan sal forests are important for foraging woodpeckers
• EU to ban use of lead shot by wetlands bird hunters