The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declares the Eureka Valley evening primrose—a flower endemic to dune ecosystems in Death Valley, California—to be successfully recovered and removes it from the federal list of endangered and threatened plants. 

The North Pole is 50°F warmer than usual. 

Norway is spending $13 million to protect its Svalbard Global Seed Vault from the melting Arctic permafrost.

A late-February heat wave on the East Coast smashes temperature records, including the earliest 80°F day in Washington, D.C., history. East Coast February temperatures in 2016 and 2017 were also extreme. In many parts of the country, spring is running 20 days early.

EPA administrator Scott Pruitt says that he’ll fly coach if people stop being mean to him. 

Russia’s English-language media are pushing stories questioning the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Malibu bans restaurants from offering plastic straws and utensils. A Dutch supermarket features a plastics-free aisle. 

More U.S. coal capacity has closed so far in 2018 than in the first three years of the Obama administration. 

Gonzalo Curiel, the U.S. District Court judge once derided by President Donald Trump for his Mexican heritage, rules that Trump can waive environmental laws for construction of his border wall between the United States and Mexico.   

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke proposes cutting the royalty rate that oil companies pay the government for offshore oil from 18.75 percent to 12.5 percent. 

An article in the International Journal of Epidemiology recommends against swimming in the ocean if you want to avoid ear infections, gastrointestinal illness, and other infections from polluted water.