California’s July 2018 Ranch Fire, which burned more than 400,000 acres and was the largest in the state’s history, was started by a spark from a hammer. 

Pacific Gas & Electric agrees to pay the town of Paradise and several Northern California counties a total of $1 billion for a series of wildfires caused by the utility’s equipment. 

California governor Gavin Newsom officially apologizes to California Native Americans for the genocide perpetrated against them by early settlers. 

New York’s legislature passes the most ambitious package of climate goals in the country.

The Trump administration proposes a replacement to the Clean Power Plan, eliminating its hard targets for reducing CO2 emissions that would have required the closure of many coal-fired power plants.

In the first quarter of 2019, 2.7 gigawatts of photovoltaic solar are installed, a new US record.

Between 2015 and 2018, General Electric lost $193 billion because it greatly overestimated demand for natural gas and underestimated the speed of the transition to clean energy.  

A day after his Liberal Party helps pass a declaration of a national climate emergency in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approves the Trans Mountain Pipeline to carry oil from the tar sands fields of Alberta to ports in British Columbia.

The four reservoirs that supply the Indian city of Chennai (population 9.1 million) have gone dry.  

By 2100, climate change is expected to reduce the biomass of the planet’s oceans by up to 17 percent. 

Temperatures in the Arctic hit 40ºF over normal, resulting in record ice loss in Greenland and the Arctic Sea.  

President Trump orders government agencies to cut their advisory boards—including scientific advisory panels—by “at least” one-third.  

A man is arrested at JFK airport for trying to smuggle 34 live Guyanese finches in hair curlers. The birds are prized for their singing abilities in contests held in Brooklyn and Queens. 

The climate activist group Extinction Rebellion backs off its threat to close London’s Heathrow Airport with drones.  

In Myanmar, drones are firing “seed missiles” to plant trees in remote areas. 

In the Mojave Desert, scientists are using drones to kill invasive ravens that have learned how to peck endangered desert tortoises to death. 

Three hunters who illegally shot a mountain lion in Yellowstone National Park are apprehended after they post celebratory photos on Facebook. 

An Australian study finds that people around the world ingest an average of five grams of microplastic each week, the equivalent of eating a credit card. 

A record number of US honeybee colonies died over the winter of 2018–19.  

Since the beginning of February 2019, 279 dolphins have stranded on the Gulf Coast, triple the usual number.  

A Washington couple agrees to let a gray whale that washed up dead on their beachfront property decompose in place. Thirty whales have stranded in Washington this year, and the state has run out of room to dispose of them. 

For the first time, a North Pacific right whale is heard singing. Only 30 such whales remain; the singing male is likely looking for a mate.