Australia’s Wallabies, Recovering From Fires, Fed by Carrots Falling From the Sky
A wallaby eating a carrotNew South Wales Environment Minister Environment Minister Matt Kean Thousands of pounds of carrots and sweet potatoes are falling from the sky in Australia, air-dropped to help feed the Brush-tailed Rock wallabies whose habitats have been devastated by massive brushfires. The wallabies, agile marsupials that use their furred tails for balance…
The Truth Behind That Viral “1 Billion Aussie Animals Are Dead” Stat Is Way More Complex—and Sad
A dehydrated and injured Koala receives treatment at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie, New South Wales.Saeed Khan/Getty Numbers help frame the sheer enormity and devastation of the Australian wildfires. The flames have overrun more than 32,000-square miles of landacross Australia, most acutely in the southeast states of New South Wales and Victoria.…
The Award for Best New Species of 2019: A Tiny Primate That Looks Like Baby Yoda
Friends, we’ve found it. The most adorable—and therefore the best—new species of the year. It’s got bulging eyes, slender toes, and a tail twice the length of its minuscule body. If a chinchilla and a Furby had a baby, this is what it’d look like. But perhaps most importantly, the species bears a striking resemblance…
The Delicate Art and Evolving Science of Wildfire Evacuations
Residents evacuate along Sierra Highway in Canyon Country in the Tick fire in Canyon Country, CA October 24, 2019.David Crane/Getty This story was originally published by Wired and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. On the evening of October 23, in the middle of the kind of dry, windy night that has become more frequent and…
After Getting Whaled on by Environmentalists, the Trump Administration Is Helping a Vulnerable Sea Mammal
ANDREYGUDKOV/Getty The Trump administration isn’t exactly heralded as a friend to nature’s creatures. It has, after all, rolled back Endangered Species Act protections, shrunk national monuments, and proposed opening the United States’ largest national forest up to logging and construction. But earlier this month, the administration announced it plans to designate more than 300,000 square…
Want to Know What Climate Change Feels Like? Ask an Alaskan.
A brush fire burns in South Anchorage, Alaska on Tuesday, July 2, 2019.Loren Holmes/AP This story was originally published by Grist and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Adrienne Titus was heading back to her parents’ village on a sweltering afternoon in early July when she saw the dead salmon. She had…