United Nations Climate Report Rings the Alarm

The climate is changing rapidly in every part of the planet, with more deadly warming locked in for coming decades — but it’s not too late for us to make a difference.

These are some of the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released Monday, a dire assessment that U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres described as “a code red for humanity.” Unless we slash our carbon emissions to net zero, the report states, we’ll see more extreme temperatures, coastal flooding, wildfires and storms.

For more than 15 years, the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute has worked to fight climate change, the single greatest threat we’ve ever faced. The IPCC report adds to our picture of what the climate future may look like, but it only underlines what we already knew: Fossil fuels are incompatible with a livable future — for people and wildlife across the planet, from polar bears in the Arctic to ocean corals.

That’s why we fight new pipelines, offshore drilling, federal oil and gas leasing, fracking, urban oil, methane pollution and more. Thank you for being by our side in these fights for radical, lifesaving change. Let’s keep fighting together.

Win: EPA Must Tackle Dispersants in Oil Spills

A federal district court judge ruled Monday in favor of the Center and allies in our suit to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to update its antiquated rules allowing toxic chemical dispersants to be used on offshore oil spills.

Instead of reducing the environmental harms of a spill, chemical dispersants have proven — when mixed with oil — to be more toxic to humans and ocean wildlife than oil alone. After the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, vulnerable coastal communities along the Gulf of Mexico suffered from serious dispersant-induced health effects.

“This is a great win in the fight to protect people and marine life from toxic oil dispersants,” said Kristen Monsell, legal director of the Center’s Oceans program. “Offshore drilling is inherently dirty and dangerous, and it should be phased out. But while it continues, we need smart spill responses that use the best available science.”

New Bill Could Ban ‘Cyanide Bombs’ on Federal Lands

Wildlife-killing M-44 devices, commonly called ‘‘cyanide bombs,’’ are deadly, spring-loaded capsules armed with cyanide spray that hurt people and painfully kill thousands of animals every year, from foxes to domestic dogs. Now a new bill in the House, introduced by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), seeks to ban them on federal lands.

“Cyanide bombs are indiscriminate killers,” said Collette Adkins, the Center’s carnivore conservation director. “Congress should pass this bill to protect people, pets and imperiled wildlife from this poison.”

Help us ban the use of M-44s with a gift to our Stop Wildlife Services Fund.

Lawsuit Defends Rare Mouse From Harmful Grazing

The Center and the Maricopa Audubon Society just sued the U.S. Forest Service over its failure to stop cattle from damaging critical habitat for endangered New Mexico meadow jumping mice. These tiny mice hibernate for up to nine months a year, which leaves them only a small window of summer for eating and reproducing in the tall, dense grasses along New Mexico’s perennial streams. Unfortunately summer is when cattle come to trample, devour and defecate all over the mice’s Sacramento Mountains habitat — which the Forest Service claims isn’t harmed by this.

“Cattle grazing is the reason these once-beautiful streamside meadows are trashed and the mice are disappearing,” said Center cofounder Robin Silver. “It’s absurd that the Forest Service spends millions in taxpayer money failing to protect the area and stop this slow-motion extinction instead of just removing the cows.”

Oil Companies Can Disturb Polar Bears in Beaufort Sea

Grim news for Arctic mammals: The Biden administration has just issued a final rule letting oil and gas companies harass polar bears and Pacific walruses during oil operations in the Beaufort Sea and Western Arctic — for the next five years. With only about 900 individuals left, the polar bears of the Southern Beaufort Sea are the world’s most imperiled population.

“President Biden promised bold climate action, but this is business as usual,” said Kristen Monsell, the Center’s Oceans program legal director. “The Arctic should be protected, not turned into a noisy, dirty oilfield. Polar bears and walruses deserve better.”

Petition Seeks Scrutiny to Help Last 10 Vaquitas

On Wednesday the Center and allies petitioned for an international inquiry into Mexico’s failure to carry out laws protecting vaquitas, the world’s rarest porpoises. These small, shy marine mammals suffer and die entangled in illegal fishing gear. But even with the species likely only 10 individuals away from extinction, the Mexican government has utterly, repeatedly neglected to enforce its fishing ban in their habitat. Our petition seeks an investigation of Mexico’s botched enforcement under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and asks the United States to start making Mexico do its part to save vaquitas from disappearing forever.

“The Mexican government has a legal and moral obligation to save these amazing little porpoises,” said Sarah Uhlemann, director of the Center’s International program. “Time for real action is running out.”

The Revelator: How Wildfires Disturb Our Minds

We already know that the numerous, raging wildfires we’re seeing in a warming world cause physical distress and catastrophic displacement — but now there’s evidence of other forms of harm, from the stress and fear you’d expect while the fires are happening to long-term grief after they’re over. This week The Revelator talked to epidemiologist Micah Hahn about her new study on the mental-health effects of wildfires.

If you haven’t already, sign up for The Revelator’s weekly e-newsletter.

Suit Filed to Cut Asthma-Causing Pollution

Along with partners, the Center brought a suit against the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday to force it to make sure that parts of Maryland and Michigan — home to about 1.5 million people — have sound plans for cleaning up their sulfur dioxide air pollution.

“Foot-dragging on requiring coal-burning power plants to clean up their act isn’t going to get us the rapid transition to the renewable energy economy that President Biden’s pledging,” said Robert Ukeiley, an attorney in the Center’s Environmental Health program.

Vanishing: A Backyard Connection to a Global Plight

After a winter storm tore through Texas earlier this year, writer Juli Berwald saw many of her plants and trees drained of color. Her once-vibrant backyard had become beige and bedraggled, and many species struggled to simply stay alive.

Berwald found a quick connection with the subject of the book she’s working on. This must be what it feels like when coral reefs bleach, she thought.

Berwald’s essay “The Bleaching in My Backyard” is the latest in our Vanishing series, which looks at the human toll of the wild world disappearing around us.

That’s Wild: Geese Who Fly Upside-Down

Whiffling: a new Olympic sport? Not quite. But its purpose may be to impress.

Several species of geese do incredible aerial acrobatics — maybe just to prove they can, some scientists say. One of their most impressive (and funny-looking) antics, called “whiffling,” includes rolling the body upside-down in the air while twisting the neck 180 degrees so the head stays right-side up.

Since it lasts only seconds, few photographs have captured a whiffle — and none has been as crisp (or hilarious) as a recent shot by Dutch bird photographer Vincent Cornelissen. His stunning photo took the internet by storm despite false Photoshop accusations.

Check out the spectacular image of a whiffling goose at ABC St. Louis.  

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Photo credits: Smokestacks by Billy Wilson/Flickr; Deepwater Horizon explosion courtesy U.S. Coast Guard; baby fox by Urban Mongoose/Flickr; New Mexico meadow jumping mouse courtesy USFWS; polar bears by skeeze/Pixabay; vaquita by Paula Olson/NOAA; Swan Lake fire by Haydn Blackey; coal-fired power plant by Don Sniegowski/Flickr; coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef courtesy Oregon State University; bean goose by turbodante/Flickr.

Center for Biological Diversity
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