A vast congregation of a thousand fin whales, a species once nearly hunted to extinction, is spotted between the South Orkney Islands and Antarctica. 

Researchers discover a large, pristine coral reef in deep ocean off the coast of Tahiti with corals shaped like roses.

Extreme heat in the Middle East is affecting the habitability of major oil-producing nations like Iraq and Kuwait.  

A heat wave drives temperatures in the Southern Cone of South America as high as 113°F.

The eruption of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano produces a very large explosion but less destruction than initially feared. The island nation of Tonga is in need of drinking water and other supplies, but there are only three confirmed deaths. Unlike past large volcanic eruptions, little to no “global cooling” is expected to result.

A mysterious abandoned oil well in Texas roars back to life, blowing 25,000 barrels of briny water a day 100 feet in the air. 

Democrats in the US Senate fail to break a Republican filibuster of voting rights legislation and fail to amend filibuster rules to allow the passage of the bill when Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) vote with Republicans.  

The League of Conservation Voters, Black Voters Matter Fund, Latino Victory Fund, and others say they will no longer endorse lawmakers who block voting rights legislation. 

Maryland’s Democratic senators call on the National Park Service to remove a plaque honoring Francis Newlands, the developer of the Chevy Chase district and an ardent white supremacist. 

ExxonMobil says it will reduce its carbon emissions so as to achieve “net zero” by 2050.

ExxonMobil is using a Texas law to intimidate critics of its long record of climate denial, alleging that they are conspiring to deny the company’s first amendment rights.  

In Sweden, unauthorized drones appear over the royal palace and parliament, several airports, and three nuclear power plants. 

Bedouin Arabs in Israel protest a tree-planting program on disputed land in the Negev desert, which they consider a ploy to expel the nomadic herders.

Wild elephants in Sri Lanka are dying after eating plastic waste at an open landfill. 

On January 18, kilometer-wide Asteroid 7482 passes within 1.2 million miles of Earth, the closest an asteroid will come to the planet in two centuries.