A gas pipeline in Alberta, Canada, catches fire and starts a forest fire.

Frequent earthquakes caused by intensive fracking shake the Argentine province of Patagonia.

A new study finds that pollution from coal trains leads to higher rates of asthma and heart disease, predominantly in low-income communities of color. 

In a major decision over 245 million acres of public lands, the Bureau of Land Management elevates conservation as a top “use” of federal lands. Henceforth, land managers are tasked with preserving intact ecosystems and wildlife migration corridors.

The BLM also increases royalty rates for oil and gas drilling on public lands for the first time in more than 100 years. The agency also makes it dramatically easier to get a permit to explore for geothermal energy. 

The Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration approves construction of a huge deepwater oil-export terminal off the coast of Texas.

Life expectancy in Mississippi is shorter than that in Bangladesh.

Scientists are trying to replace the extinct Xerces blue butterfly with the similar silvery blue butterfly at the sand dunes of San Francisco’s Presidio park. 

Researchers observe a dramatic blue whale courtship ritual off the coast of South Africa with three whales racing together at speeds of 15 to 20 knots.

An endangered right whale, one of only 360 remaining, is entangled in fishing gear off the coast of New England. 

Tesla lays off more than 10 percent of its workforce and loses two top executives. 

Two men at Lake Mead National Recreation Area are filmed destroying ancient rock formations. 

Per capita CO2 emissions in the United States are at the same level they were in 1913. 

New ocean temperature records have been set every day for more than a year. The heat has resulted in coral bleaching in every major ocean.

Arctic permafrost, long a carbon sink, is now a net contributor of CO2 to the atmosphere as it thaws. 

Brazil develops a promising one-shot vaccine against dengue fever but can’t manufacture it fast enough to cope with an outbreak of millions of cases throughout Latin America.

Reproductive outcomes for hatchery-origin Chinook salmon improve markedly after one generation in the wild. 

In Dubai, a year’s worth of rain falls in the space of 12 hours. 

A California firefighting training facility in the Sierra foothills is unable to get fire insurance.