France gives tobacco companies until September to do something about the 30 billion cigarette butts thrown away in the country each year.

Trump Tower Chicago uses 20 million gallons of water a day from the Chicago River but has never followed EPA rules for protecting the river’s fish.

Traces of cocaine in rivers can harm endangered eels.

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and his wife stand to profit from a real estate development in Whitefish, Montana, that is backed by the head of the Halliburton oil-services company and assisted by a foundation created by the Zinkes.  

In President Trump’s expanding trade war, China threatens to add tariffs to imports of U.S. oil, gas, and coal. 

Methane emissions from the oil-and-gas supply chain are 60 percent higher than estimated by the EPA.  

Hawaii’s recent volcanic activity has caused the popular “lava lake” at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to recede underground and disappear.  

Scientists working for the U.S. Geological Survey must now get agency approval before talking to the press, even in emergency situations like earthquakes.  

Someone steals a 10,000-year-old, 100-pound wooly mammoth tusk from the Bureau of Land Management’s Campbell Creek Science Center in east Anchorage. A $500 reward is offered for its return. 

Arizona State Parks rehires Sue Hartin, a former parks ranger and events coordinator whom it had fired without cause while she was battling eye cancer. 

The billionaire Koch brothers are now trying to kill public transit projects around the country.

The president’s Council on Environmental Quality undertakes a review of the National Environmental Policy Act. NEPA is the bedrock environmental law that mandates environmental reviews for major projects.  

Koko, the gorilla who learned sign language, dies at age 46. 

Washington State’s Olympic National Park begins the process of removing some 675 non-native mountain goats from the park. As many as possible will be airlifted out by helicopter; stragglers will eventually be shot. 

Three endangered monk seals in Oahu die from toxoplasmosis, a disease caused by a parasite found in cat feces.

President Trump reverses former-president Obama’s executive order on ocean policy, replacing the previous emphasis on conservation and climate with economic and security concerns. 

Despite the Trump administration’s attempts to weaken clean-car standards, nine states roll out a plan to boost electric-vehicle adoption.

Emma’s giant hogweed, a tier 1 noxious invasive plant with toxic sap that can cause burns and blindness, shows up Virginia. 

Scientists propose that the 1-to-5 Saffir-Simpson scale used to rate hurricane intensity be extended to 6 to describe hurricanes such as 2017’s Irma, which had sustained winds of 185 miles per hour and gusts of up to 200 mph.  

High densities of tourist vehicles on Kenya’s Maasai Mara dramatically reduce the number of cubs that female cheetahs successfully raise to independence.

The 13 bald eagles found dead on a Maryland farm in 2016 are found to have been poisoned with the banned pesticide carbofuran.

Mammals around the world are becoming more nocturnal in an effort to avoid people.