San Francisco bans all commercial uses of wild animals for public entertainment.

Thousands of snow geese fall dead out of the sky in Idaho. The probable cause is avian cholera.

An oil train derails and explodes in North Dakota, the fifth such accident since February. Despite new safety rules, the government will allow this same type of railcar to operate for another five to eight years.

Two wolves are killed by a hunter who lured them outside the boundaries of Denali National Park in Alaska. One is the only breeding female of the well-known Grant Creek pack.

Freshwater from melting Arctic ice sheets is slowing the Gulf Stream. Further weakening of the current could cause a three-foot sea level rise on the East Coast, in addition to the rise already expected from climate change.

The maximum extent of Arctic sea ice is the smallest in recorded history, smaller than the previous record low, in 2011, by an area the size of California and Texas combined.

On March 24, Hope Bay, Antarctica, registers a temperature of 63.5°F, the highest ever recorded on that continent.

Thailand seizes 739 elephant tusks from Congo en route to Laos. If the ivory trade is not stopped, researchers warn, elephants could be extinct within decades.

In a surprise electoral victory, Rachel Notley of the left-wing New Democratic Party becomes premier of the Canadian province of Alberta. She says that she will not lobby the United States to build the Keystone XL pipeline.

President Barack Obama calls on Congress to designate 12 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—including its possibly oil-rich coastal plain—as wilderness (see "Climate Change Comes to the Arctic").

The Federal Emergency Management Agency says that it will deny disaster-preparedness funds to states that don't plan for the effects of climate change (see "Red States Ban the Words 'Climate Change'").

The Department of Energy will seek to train 75,000 new solar workers by 2020.

Costa Rica gets all of its energy from renewable sources for 75 straight days.

Japan rejects imports of whale meat from Norway when the meat is found to be contaminated with pesticides.

Sardine populations off the West Coast are crashing, as are those of seagulls and fish-eating orcas.

Governor Jerry Brown orders California cities and towns to cut water use by 25 percent.