Environmental News ICYMI 06-16-17

A weekly roundup for busy people

By Paul Rauber

June 16, 2017

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Illustration by Peter Arkle

Rattlesnakes are the latest victims of a mysterious fungal disease. Similar fungi are decimating populations of bats, salamanders, and frogs. 

Tropical diseases normally associated with warm waters—like infections of Vibrio vulnificus—are turning up not far from the Arctic Circle.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announces his intention to downsize Utah’s new Bears Ears National Monument. 

Pledging to “Make Our Planet Great Again,” French president Emmanuel Macron is trying to lure U.S. climate researchers to France with €1.5 million research grants. 

Following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, California governor Jerry Brown is appointed to be a special adviser at the United Nations climate conference in Bonn, Germany, this November. 

Trump calls the mayor of Tangier—a low-lying island in Chesapeake Bay that's expected to be uninhabitable in 20 years because of sea-level rise—telling him not to worry: “Your island has been there for hundreds of years, and I believe your island will be there for hundreds more.” 

A large climate change study in the Canadian Arctic is cancelled due to hazardous sea-ice conditions created by climate change.

In March, wind and solar accounted for 10 percent of U.S. electric generation for the first time.

On June 7, renewables supply more than 50 percent of the U.K.’s electrical needs. 

A snail parasite in Washington, D.C.’s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool kills 80 ducklings. 

Trump’s EPA postpones enforcement of tougher new air-ozone standards by another year. Doing so, according to EPA figures, will likely result in more than 700 premature deaths. 

Michigan's attorney general files involuntary manslaughter charges against five government officials in connection with the ongoing water crisis in Flint.

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