Scientists capture the first image of a black hole—“like looking at the gates of hell.”

A new species of ancient human is identified: Homo luzonensis, a diminutive tree-climbing people, the 50,000+-year-old remains of whom were found in a cave on Luzon Island in the northern Philippines.

Earth’s glaciers are shrinking five times faster than they were in the 1960s. The contribution of melting mountain glaciers to global sea level rise is similar to that of the Greenland Ice Sheet and far more than that of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

A (since deleted) op-ed in the Nashville Tennessean blames climate change on gravity.

A Nevada judge rules against celebrity rancher Cliven Bundy’s attempt to have 58 million acres of federal public land turned over to the state, calling it “delusional.” 

President Trump’s suggested nominees to the Federal Reserve Board—pizza magnate Herman Cain and economic pundit Stephen Moore—are both climate deniers.

The United States used more energy in 2018 than ever before. Wind power was up by 7.6 percent over 2017 and solar was up by 22 percent, while coal fell by 5 percent. More than two-thirds of all energy produced was lost, usually in the form of waste heat.  

North Carolina Republicans seek to ban wind turbines from the most promising parts of the state’s Atlantic coast, ostensibly to prevent interference with training flights at the region’s military bases. The Pentagon has not objected to the wind projects. 

The Guardian now includes the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide in its daily weather report.

The Department of Energy admits that the “Versatile Test Reactor,” the cornerstone of the Trump administration’s attempt to revitalize the US nuclear industry, could cost 40 percent more than the amount projected in February. 

Wolves return to the Netherlands for the first time in 140 years. 

Biologists identify a new wolf pack in Skagit County, Washington—the first wolves west of the Cascades in a century. 

Bald eagles near Seattle are scavenging garbage from a landfill and dumping the remains in people's backyards.  

The famous wild ponies of Chincoteague are put in corrals; visitors to the national wildlife Refuge continued to ignore warnings not to approach them. 

A 17-foot Burmese python captured in Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve was about to lay 73 eggs. 

A strong majority in the Norwegian parliament opposes developing the oil and gas reserves around the Lofoten Islands in Norway’s Arctic waters, which are estimated to contain 1 billion to 3 billion barrels of oil. Norway’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, has divested from oil and gas exploration firms and will now pour billions of dollars into renewable energy projects.  

In South Africa, a suspected rhino poacher is trampled to death by an elephant and then eaten by lions.