Environment

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FILE - A red-backed vole is held during a survey of plant and animal life in Juneau, Alaska, on Thursday, May 1, 2014. Alaskapox was discovered in 2015 in a woman who lived near Fairbanks, Alaska. It mainly has been found in small mammals, including red-backed voles and shrews. But pets, such as dogs and cats, may also carry the virus, health officials say. (Michael Penn/The Juneau Empire via AP, File)

What is Alaskapox? Recent death brings attention to virus seen in small animals

By Mike Stobbe - Associated Press

A bridge is damaged after Hurricane Fiona hit Villa Esperanza in Salinas, Puerto Rico, Sept. 21, 2022. Puerto Rico continues reconstruction work after two devastating hurricanes and a string of strong earthquakes, spending less than 10% of the more than $23 billion available in federal funds, according to a U.S. government report released on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo, File)

Federal audit finds ‘a lot of work remains’ in Puerto Rico’s hurricane and earthquake recovery

Associated Press

FILE - A male polar bear eats a piece of whale meat as it walks along the shore of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, Aug. 23, 2010. With Arctic sea ice shrinking from climate change, many polar bears have to shift their diets to land during parts of the summer, a new study suggests. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

For threatened polar bears, the climate change diet is a losing proposition

By Seth Borenstein - Associated Press

Workers from state own Heritage Petroleum Oil and Gas Company clean up an oil spill that reached Rockly Bay beach, in Scarborough, south western Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Akash Boodan)

Oil spill from mystery vessel off Tobago becomes ‘national emergency’ for island nation

By Brad Matthews - The Washington Times

This photo provided by Intuitive Machines shows the company's IM-1 Nova-C lunar lander in Houston in October 2023. The company aims to launch the lander in mid-February 2024, on a SpaceX rocket. (Intuitive Machines via AP)

Houston company aims to land on the moon

By Staff - The Washington Times

This image provided by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society shows the wreck of the bulk carrier Arlington, a merchant ship loaded with wheat that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on May 1, 1940. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society announced Monday with shipwreck researcher Dan Fountain that the Arlington’s wreck has been discovered in about 650 feet of water some 35 miles north of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. The ship’s crew survived the 1940 sinking but the Arlington’s captain went down with his ship. (Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society via AP)

Wreck of ship that sank in 1940 found in Lake Superior

Associated Press

The new Electrify America indoor electric vehicle charging station is seen during a preview in San Francisco, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024. Electrify America, Tesla, Mercedes and other charging networks are starting to build nicer spots for people to fill up their electric vehicles, knowing they'll be there for a lot longer than people spend at gas stations. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Experts warn electric vehicle weight threatens road safety and infrastructure

By Susan Ferrechio - The Washington Times

A performer from the Salgueiro samba school parades during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monday, Feb. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Rio’s Carnival parade makes urgent plea to stop illegal mining in Indigenous lands

By Diane Jeantet and Fabiano Maisonnave - Associated Press

Trash lines the gutter on Bourbon Street, in the early hours of the morning after Mardi Gras, in New Orleans, Feb. 18, 2015. It’s a beloved century-old Carnival season tradition in New Orleans — masked riders on lavish floats fling strings of colorful beads or other trinkets to parade watchers clamoring with outstretched arms. It's all in good fun but it's also a bit of a “plastics disaster,” says Judith Enck, a former Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator and president of the advocacy group Beyond Plastics. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, file)

Greening Mardi Gras: Environmentalists push alternatives to plastic Carnival beads in New Orleans

By Kevin McGill - Associated Press

A worker carries a crate of avocados at a plant in Uruapan, Michoacan state, Mexico, Friday, Feb. 9, 2024. A lack of rain and warmer temperatures has resulted in fewer avocados being shipped from Mexico to the United States. (AP Photo/Armando Solis)

As Super Bowl approaches, game-time guacamole affected by fewer avocado shipments from Mexico

By Mark Stevenson - Associated Press

Rescuers carry a bodyfrom the landslide-hit village of Masara in Maco, Davao de Oro province, southern Philippines on Thursday Feb. 8, 2024. A landslide in the southern Philippines left a number of villagers dead and several others missing, including miners waiting in buses for a ride home, officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo)

54 people are confirmed dead in a landslide that buried a gold-mining village in south Philippines

Associated Press

In this undated photo provided by John-Paul Hodnett are a row of teeth on the lower jaw of a 300-million-year-old shark species named this week following a nearly complete skeleton of the species in 2013 in New Mexico. (John-Paul Hodnett via AP)

New species of fossil shark millions of years old unearthed in Alabama

By Brad Matthews - The Washington Times

An early morning surfer on foil board takes advantage of calm seas along the California coast in Malibu Beach, Calif. on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023. Powerful surf rolled onto beaches on the West Coast and Hawaii as a big swell generated by the stormy Pacific Ocean pushed toward shorelines, causing localized flooding. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

4.6-magnitude earthquake shakes Southern California

Associated Press

FILE - People swim in the Atlantic Ocean in Biarritz, southwestern France, Oct. 27, 2021. An abrupt shutdown of Atlantic Ocean currents that could put large parts of Europe in a deep freeze is looking a bit more likely and closer than before, according to a new story. (AP Photo/Bob Edme, File)

Ocean system that moves heat gets closer to collapse, which could cause weather chaos, study says

By Seth Borenstein - Associated Press

The summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii, on Saturday, July 15, 2023. Mauna Kea was born after a series of volcanic eruptions from the ocean floor created new land. Over a million years, it grew into the tallest mountain on earth when measured from its base in the Pacific Ocean to its summit soaring 13,796 feet (4,205 meters) above sea level. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

Magnitude 5.7 earthquake strikes just south of Hawaii’s Big Island, U.S. Geological Survey says

By Audrey McAvoy - Associated Press

Patrick Crull tours the damage surrounding his home and farm on North Tolles Road with his family Friday morning, Feb. 9, 2024, after a confirmed tornado went through the area just northwest of Evansville, Wis., the evening before. The tornado was the first-ever reported in February in the state of Wisconsin, according to the National Weather Service. (Anthony Wahl//The Janesville Gazette via AP)

Summer-like conditions with record temperatures lead to first Wisconsin tornado in February

By Todd Richmond and Scott Bauer - Associated Press

Passengers boarding a Metrobus in downtown Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. The Washington, D.C., government voted to waive fares for Metrobus rides within city limits starting July, 1, 2023, becoming the nation's most populous city to offer free public transit. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) ** FILE **

Urban transit agencies fear ‘death spiral’ as fewer people ride public transportation after COVID

By Sean Salai - The Washington Times

People look at the volcano erupting, north of Grindavík, Iceland, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024. Iceland’s Meteorological Office says a volcano is erupting in the southwestern part of the country, north of a nearby settlement. The eruption of the Sylingarfell volcano began at 6 a.m. local time on Thursday, soon after an intense burst of seismic activity. (AP Photo/Marco Di Marco)

Volcano erupts in the same part of Iceland where earlier activity had required evacuations

Associated Press

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, damaged by a massive March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, is seen from the nearby Ukedo fishing port in Namie town, northeastern Japan, on Aug. 24, 2023. The operator of the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said there are no safety worries or changes to the plant’s decommissioning plans even though the deadly Jan. 1, 2024 earthquake in Japan’s north-central region caused some damages to a local idled nuclear plant, which rekindled safety concerns and prompted a regulatory body to order a close examination. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

The ruined Fukushima nuclear plant leaked radioactive water, but none escaped the facility

By Mari Yamaguchi - Associated Press

In this image provided by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, train cars lie on their sides after a train derailed, Wednesday evening, Feb. 7, 2024, in Valley Falls, N.Y. Authorities say 10 cars of a 94-car cargo train carrying plastic pellets and cooking oil, derailed in upstate New York, with two ending up in a river. (Basil Seggos/ New York State Department of Environmental Conservation via AP)

10 cars of cargo train carrying cooking oil and plastic pellets derail. two land in New York river

Associated Press