Honolulu’s Waikiki Beach is vanishing.

In an effort to evade a new California law that allows owners of single-family homes to split their lots and construct up to four housing units, the wealthy Bay Area town of Woodside declares the entire community to be mountain lion habitat. 

People living near the Winston Weaver Company Fertilizer plant in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, are urged to evacuate after a large fire at the plant threatens “one of the worst explosions in US history.”  

The National Butterfly Center closes its doors because of threats from adherents of the QAnon conspiracy, who allege the wildlife sanctuary on the US-Mexico border in Texas is involved in child sex trafficking. 

Montana wildlife officials limit wolf hunting following public outrage over the killing of 23 wolves that wandered outside of protected Yellowstone National Park. More than 500 wolves have been killed in recent months in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.

Famed Mexican gray wolf M1888, a.k.a. Mr. Goodbar, survives a gunshot wound but at the cost of a partial amputation of his right leg. He will be returned to the wild when he recovers. 

A young humpback whale off Hawai'i is freed of the plastic mooring gear that was entangled with his tail and cutting into his flesh. 

Gangs of 50 to 75 orcas are documented attacking and devouring blue whales. 

Tonga is in lockdown after aid workers delivering supplies after the recent volcanic eruption and tsunami bring COVID-19 to the previously virus-free island.  

Miami-Dade County commissioners vote to weaken their 2001 peafowl ordinance to allow cities in the area to deal with excessive numbers of peacocks.

The Biden administration urges the US Postal Service to reconsider its plan to replace 90 percent of its fleet of mail trucks with new gas-powered models rather than electric.  

Georgia Power, the state’s largest utility, plans to shutter its last dozen coal-fired power plants, replacing them with a mix of renewables, gas, and nuclear.

US plans for new offshore wind projects are hampered by a lack of vessels large enough to transport and install the giant turbines. 

China built more offshore wind capacity in 2021 than the rest of the world has in the past five years.  

Vandals spray-paint the ancient La Cieneguilla petroglyphs near Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Giant mining company Rio Tinto destroys a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal sacred site in Australia, then fires its CEO to try to quell the public outrage. 

A South Korean man is sentenced to two years in prison for trying to export rare Dudleya succulents poached from Northern California public parks and beaches to Asia. 

The World Meteorological Organization confirms that a 477-mile-long lightning flash over three Southern states in April 2020 is the longest on record. 

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California are able to start and briefly sustain a fusion reaction.  

A mysterious object 4,000 light-years away is emitting giant bursts of energy every 18 minutes and 18 seconds.