EcoWatch

5 August 2025. Methane 101: Understanding the Second Most Important Greenhouse Gas –

By Olivia Rosane and Cristen Hemingway Jaynes Quick Key Facts What Is Methane? What has no color or smell and is found in wetlands, cow burps and your basement furnace? The answer is methane — a powerful greenhouse gas that is the second most important contributor to the climate crisis after carbon dioxide (CO2). It […]

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4 August 2025. New York Finalizes Rule for New Buildings to Be Electric –

New York is now the first state in the U.S. to require new buildings to be built entirely electric, without hookups to fossil fuels including gas, the New York State Assembly reported. The rule was initially passed in 2023 as the All-Electric Buildings Act and was finalized with the State Fire Prevention and Building Code […]

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1 August 2025. Mass Die-Off of Western Monarch Butterflies Linked to Pesticides, Study Finds –

A new peer-reviewed study has linked pesticides as a likely cause to a mass die-off of Western monarch butterflies that occurred in 2024. In January 2024, researchers found hundreds of dead or dying monarch butterflies near the Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary in California, where Western monarch butterflies typically overwinter. As The Guardian reported, researchers found […]

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1 August 2025. Deepest-Known Animal Communities Found Almost Six Miles Below Sea Level –

Thousands of mollusks and worms have been discovered by a Chinese submersible in the Mariana Trench, almost six miles below sea level. The new study revealed it is the deepest colony of animals ever observed. “Hadal trenches, some of the Earth’s least explored and understood environments, have long been proposed to harbour chemosynthesis-based communities. Despite […]

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31 July 2025. Pristine Forest and Endangered Gorilla Habitat at Risk as Half of DRC Opened to Bids for Oil and Gas Drilling: Report –

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is home to many species of rare and endangered wildlife, such as mountain gorillas, eastern lowland gorillas and bonobos. But the country has plans to open more than half its land — including 306 million acres of intact tropical forest and vital gorilla habitat — to oil and […]

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30 July 2025. Global Hunger Fell Overall in 2024, but Rose in Africa and Western Asia as Climate and Conflict Threaten Progress: UN Report –

World hunger fell overall last year, but continued to rise in most of Africa and western Asia, according to a new report — The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) — published by five specialized UN agencies and released Monday by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). […]

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29 July 2025. Probiotic Found to Slow Disease Spread Among Florida Coral –

A beneficial bacterial probiotic is restoring hope for mitigating disease spread in corals off the coast of Florida. In a new study, scientists have investigated the effectiveness of a compound produced by the probiotic strain MCH1-7 for combating the deadly stony coral tissue loss disease. MCH1-7 was first uncovered by scientists from the Smithsonian Marine […]

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28 July 2025. Earth Overshoot Day Reaches Record for Earliest Date –

Earth Overshoot Day is the point in the year when human demand for materials obtained from nature exceeds what the Earth can naturally regenerate in one year. For 2025, Earth Overshoot Day fell on July 24, the earliest it has been since the event was first calculated in 2006. The Earth Overshoot Day was first […]

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25 July 2025. Earth’s Underground Fungi Networks Need Urgent Protection: Study –

The underground fungi networks that help sustain Earth’s ecosystems are in need of urgent conservation action, according to researchers from the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN). The scientists found that 90 percent of mycorrhizal fungi biodiversity hotspots were located in unprotected ecosystems, the loss of which could lead to lower carbon emissions […]

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24 July 2025. UN’s Top Court Rules That ‘Clean, Healthy’ Environment Is a Human Right –

In a landmark finding, the United Nations’ top court on Wednesday issued an advisory opinion stating that a “clean, healthy and sustainable environment” is a human right. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling supports the obligation of UN member states to tackle the climate crisis and outlines the consequences they could face if they […]

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