Conservation News ~ January 4 2019

• In India, indigenous youth are filming their own forests and communities: https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/in-india-indigenous-youths-are-filming-their-own-forests-and-communities/
• Environment and rights founder in the wake of Chinese funding in Bolivia: https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/environment-and-rights-founder-in-the-wake-of-chinese-funding-in-bolivia/
• EPA proposes rule change that would limit pollution control for years to come: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/climate/mercury-coal-pollution-regulations.html
• Investigation reveals illegal cattle ranching in Paraguay’s vanishing Chaco: https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/investigation-reveals-illegal-cattle-ranching-in-paraguays-vanishing-chaco/
• Amazon tribes harvest rain water for clean water due to oil spills: https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/with-no-oil-cleanup-in-sight-amazon-tribes-harvest-rain-for-clean-water/
• Chile renews contract with lithium company criticized for damaging wetland: https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/chile-renews-contract-with-lithium-company-criticized-for-damaging-wetland/
• The cement industry pledges to cut greenhouse gases: https://e360.yale.edu/digest/the-cement-industry-one-of-the-worlds-largest-co2-emitters-pledges-to-cut-greenhouse-gases
• Hawaii and New Jersey end 2018 with a ban on wild animal circuses: https://vegnews.com/2018/12/hawaii-and-new-jersey-end-2018-with-a-ban-on-wild-animal-circuses
• Deadly tsunami leaves Javan rhinos untouched: https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/deadly-tsunami-leaves-javan-rhinos-untouched-but-peril-persists/
• EPA says mercury limits on coal plants too costly, not necessary: https://www.npr.org/2018/12/28/679129613/trump-epa-says-mercury-limits-on-coal-plants-too-costly-not-necessary
• Incredible dinosaur footprints found: https://gizmodo.com/look-at-these-incredible-dinosaur-footprints-found-in-e-1831172611
• South Africa farm worker dies after being kicked by a giraffe: https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/limpopo/limpopo-farm-worker-dies-after-being-kicked-by-giraffe-18640352
• China seizes totoaba swim bladders worth $26 million, arrests 16: https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/china-seizes-totoaba-swim-bladders-worth-26-million-arrests-16/
• Middle East fossils push back origin of key plant groups millions of years: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/12/middle-east-fossils-push-back-origin-key-plant-groups-millions-years
• Rare Right Whale calf spotted off Florida coast: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/29/rare-right-whale-calf-spotted-off-florida-coast
• Cane Toads snake a ride on python to escape storm in northern Australia: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/31/cane-toads-python-escape-storm-northern-australia-kununurra
• Some sharks have declined by 92% in the past half-century off Queensland’s coast: http://theconversation.com/some-sharks-have-declined-by-92-in-the-past-half-century-off-queenslands-coast-108742
• USFWS declares the Ozark Pyrg, a freshwater snail, extinct: https://www.fws.gov/southeast/news/2018/12/ozark-snail-species-presumed-extinct-following-science-based-surveys/
• Endangered Florida Panthers threatened by development project: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/02/florida-panther-extinction-collier-county-development-project
• Faroe Islanders kill pilot whales on New Year’s Day for the first time since WW2: http://local.fo/faroe-islanders-kill-pilot-whales-on-new-years-day-for-the-first-time-since-wwii/
• EPA runs out of funds as shutdown continues: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/423048-epa-braces-to-run-out-of-funds-at-midnight-as-shutdown-continues
• Vietnam’s illegal ivory market continues to thrive: https://www.eco-business.com/news/vietnams-illegal-ivory-market-continues-to-thrive/
• Bolsonaro launches assault on Amazon rainforest protections: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/02/brazil-jair-bolsonaro-amazon-rainforest-protections
• Interior proposing to ignore certain burdensome FOIA requests: https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/interior-proposing-to-ignore-certain-burdensome-foia-requests
• The new acting Interior Secretary is an agency insider and ex-oil lobbyist: https://www.npr.org/2019/01/02/677390503/the-new-acting-interior-secretary-is-an-agency-insider-and-ex-oil-lobbyist
• Six Barges carrying coal have sunk into the Ohio River: http://www.wave3.com/2018/12/30/update-six-barges-carrying-coal-have-now-sunk-into-ohio-river/
• Two more Puget Sound orcas predicted to die in critically endangered population: https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/nation/more-puget-sound-orcas-predicted-to-die-in-critically-endangered/article_c7c734df-c494-5ed9-b28b-57641cc0e47b.html
• Bolsonaro hands over indigenous land demarcation to agriculture ministry: https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/bolsonaro-hands-over-indigenous-land-demarcation-to-agriculture-ministry/
• PG&E could face murder charges for California’s wildfires: https://grist.org/article/pge-could-face-murder-charges-for-californias-wildfires/
• Researchers tie declining snowpack in Colorado’s mountains to climate change: https://www.summitdaily.com/news/snowpack-has-declined-by-an-average-of-41-percent-in-the-rocky-mountains-over-past-3-decades/
• Climate change causing feminization of green turtles: https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/world/climate-change-causing-feminisation-of-green-turtles-research-suggests-895005.html
• States are out of money to keep National Parks safe during shutdown: https://grist.org/article/states-are-out-of-money-to-keep-national-parks-safe-during-shutdown/
• Chinese company says it will soon cross $100 battery threshold, slaying the gasoline car: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2018/12/04/chinese-company-says-it-will-soon-cross-100-battery-threshold-slay-the-internal-combustion-engine/
• The EU is banning almost all coal mining: https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/12/31/2023226/the-eu-is-banning-almost-all-coal-mining-on-jan-1
• Extraordinary treefrog discovered in the Andes of Ecuador: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190103110608.htm
• Bluefin tuna have returned to British and Irish waters, prompting calls for a fishing ban: https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/bluefin-tuna-returns-british-irish-waters-fishing-ban-lifted/
• One-third of new car sales in Norway are all-electric vehicles: https://e360.yale.edu/digest/one-third-of-new-car-sales-in-norway-are-all-electric-vehicles
• Scientists engineer shortcut for photosynthetic glitch, boost crop growth by 40 percent: https://www.igb.illinois.edu/article/scientists-engineer-shortcut-photosynthetic-glitch-boost-crop-growth-40
• Smithsonian study links declines in suburban backyard birds to presence of nonnative plants: https://nationalzoo.si.edu/news/new-smithsonian-study-links-declines-suburban-backyard-birds-presence-nonnative-plants
• Seagrasses hold the key to saving the world’s best beaches from destruction: https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/environment/seagrasses-hold-the-key-to-saving-the-worlds-best-beaches-from-destruction/02/01/
• Antarctic sea ice is astonishingly low this melt season: https://grist.org/article/antarctic-sea-ice-is-astonishingly-low-this-melt-season/​