On Earth Day, President Joe Biden pledges that the United States will cut greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2030.

Two anglers fishing in the Potomac River catch—and release—a shortnose sturgeon, a 120-million-year-old ancient species thought to be near extinction. 

Senator Ed Markey and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reintroduce the Green New Deal in Congress. 

New interior secretary Deb Haaland revokes a raft of Trump-era executive orders as “inconsistent with the Department's commitment to protect public health; conserve land, water, and wildlife; and elevate science.”

Republican legislatures in 34 states introduce bills to criminalize and otherwise restrict protests, including immunizing motorists who hit demonstrators with their cars. 

GOP lawmakers in Ohio want to cancel the name of Mosquito Lake State Park and call it Donald J. Trump State Park.

A new law in Kansas makes it a crime to trespass near oil or gas pipelines.  

A Republican legislator in Texas introduces a bill to legalize the cloning of deer on game farms—a practice that has apparently been going on for years. 

At the behest of Montana ranchers, Governor Greg Gianforte kills a decade-old plan to restore bison to areas outside of Yellowstone National Park. 

A grizzly bear, evidently defending a nearby moose carcass, attacks and kills a backcountry guide fishing alone just outside Yellowstone.

After decades of eradication efforts, the seabird sanctuary of Lehua Island, Hawai'i, is free of rats.

An EPA analysis says that the widely used pesticide malathion poses a grave risk to 78 endangered plants and animals. 

The deadly fungal disease white-nose syndrome has killed more than 90 percent of three North American bat species. 

The CEO of the Audubon Society steps down amid disputes about race, equity, and inclusion. 

Sales of electric vehicles jump 81 percent in the first quarter of 2021.

More than 3 million Americans are now employed in the clean energy sector.

The spring wildflower bloom in the Sonoran Desert around Tucson is the worst in years due to a dry winter. 

Last year’s huge die-off of migratory songbirds in Colorado was likely the result of wildfires and the gases they produced.

After fires burn through boreal forests, deciduous trees like aspen and birch are replacing spruce, storing carbon, and possibly reducing the danger of future fires.

Fossils unearthed in Utah’s Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument suggest that Tyrannosaurus Rex may have been a “gregarious” creature. 

A new “ultra-white” paint that can reflect more than 98 percent of sunlight could eliminate the need for air conditioners. 

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro says that Brazil will halt illegal deforestation of the Amazon by 2030—if the international community pays $20 billion and more. 

The Biden administration protects more than 100,000 square nautical miles of Pacific Ocean as critical habitat for three populations of humpback whales.

Bowhead whales in the northern Bering Sea are not even bothering to migrate, because winter sea ice is less solid, allowing them to breathe easily.