White spruce are encroaching on the Arctic’s formerly treeless tundra, an ecosystem shift set in motion by the loss of sea ice offshore.

Sea ice coverage around Antarctica plummets for the third year in a row.

A gray whale is spotted off the coast of Nantucket. The species has been extinct in the Atlantic Ocean for over 200 years. 

A right whale calf, the first of the year, is killed off the coast of Georgia after being struck by a ship. NOAA could prevent whale strikes by further reducing speed limits in the area but has not done so.

Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl who lived wild in Manhattan after being released from the Central Park Zoo, dies after flying into a building.

Utah’s legislature passes a bill to keep two polluting coal-fired power plants from closing, even if they will cost Utahans more than cleaner alternatives. 

A late-February heat wave brings record temperatures of up to 40 degrees above normal to six midwestern states. Temperatures this winter in nearly a quarter of the contiguous US are at least 5°F warmer than normal.

The largest wildfires in Texas history burn an area larger than Rhode Island. Hundreds of homes and businesses are destroyed, and at least two people perish.

For six hours on February 25, Texas is powered by more than 70 percent zero-cost renewable energy. 

Solar accounted for more than half of all the new electric generating capacity added in 2023, due largely to incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act.

A Southern California man is the first ever to be charged for attempting to smuggle greenhouse gases into the US from Mexico. 

Drought in British Columbia costs hydropower giant BC Hydro a billion dollars in lost revenue. 

Drought in Mexico City results in a rainwater catchment basin catching fire. 

Louisiana’s governor issues a disaster declaration after drought, extreme heat, saltwater intrusion, and a hard freeze combine to leave the state critically short of crawfish.

Fifty years after mercury-emission regulations were first enacted, mercury levels in tuna have yet to diminish. 

Hundreds of thousands of fall-run Chinook salmon fry die while passing through a tunnel in the Iron Gate Dam, the lowest of the four dams on the Klamath River slated for removal to promote salmon survival.

An anonymous $40 million donation to Yellowstone National Park will fund 70 desperately needed modular housing units for park employees. 

Apple abandons efforts to build an electric car.

Florida’s house of representatives votes to ban lab-grown meat. 

Beef raised in Brazil is the world’s leading cause of tropical forest deforestation, and the US is importing more of it than ever before.

A study of the impact on biodiversity of 151 popular meals finds that french fries have the least affect.  

Donald Trump claims that wind turbines cause inflation.