Raccoons in urban areas with access to human food are becoming so fat that they’re at risk for hyperglycemia. 

American pipeline manufacturers challenge the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s ability to impose tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum.  

The portion of the Arctic Ocean known as the northern Barents Sea is warming so fast that it now resembles the Atlantic.

The East Antarctic Plateau, the coldest place on Earth, turns out to be colder than previously thought. Temperatures during austral winter nights can reach -144°F.

Refrigerator manufacturers in China are the likely source of the recent mysterious spike in emissions of the banned ozone-destroying chemical CFC-11. 

Eleven states and the District of Columbia sue the Trump administration for rolling back Obama-era regulations against HFCs, the chemical that replaced CFCs. (HFCs are less damaging to the ozone layer, but, in the short term, their climate warming effect is thousands of times that of carbon dioxide.) 

A tour group in Russia’s Altai Mountains sights what appears to be a Saylyugem bear, a species believed to be extinct (video).   

A federal judge rules that the USDA’s Wildlife Services Program cannot expand its program of killing thousands of coyotes and other predators without a thorough environmental analysis of its effects.

Yellowstone elk turn out not to be especially afraid of wolves, although they do avoid wolf-prone areas during morning and evening hunting times.

A train derailment in Iowa spills 230,000 gallons of tar-sands oil into floodwaters near the Little Rock River. 

A federal judge dismisses lawsuits by San Francisco and Oakland against major oil companies seeking damages for their role in warming the planet. 

Three thousand kilos of carbon emissions from each game at the World Cup in Russia are the result of the estimated 25,000 sausages consumed by spectators. 

Labeling foods that contain genetically modified organisms decreases opposition to GMOs. 

EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s lobbyist landlord gave him a cut rate deal but lobbies him to give a friend a job.  

According to Pruitt’s response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Sierra Club, in his first 10 months on the job he sent only one email to anyone outside the EPA.   

Rescues at Utah national parks are up 68 percent over three years ago. Most frequently in need of rescue are young men in their 20s.