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Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Monarch butterflies a big step closer to protection under Endangered Species Act

It’s a big day for insects.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday that it is proposing the monarch butterfly for threatened species status under the Endangered Species Act, a big step forward in a process set in motion in 2014 with a petition from conservationists.

After a 90-day public comment period, the agency will make a ...Read more

Anker/Anker/TNS

Tech review: Three big batteries to keep your gear powered up

We all just want our stuff to work, right?

Since most of us have abandoned landlines, our cell phones are our lifelines and the main way we communicate with each other and stay informed.

One of my bigger fears is my phone or laptop running out of power just when I need it most, so I’m an “overcharger.”

My phone transitions from one ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Huawei's new Mate 70 phone shows its chip advances are stalling

Huawei Technologies Co.’s latest flagship smartphone is powered by a chip little different from the one that set off alarm bells in Washington a year ago, signaling a slowdown in the Chinese company’s tech advances.

The newly introduced Mate 70 Pro Plus phone runs on a processor built with the same 7-nanometer technology used in its Mate 60...Read more

High rises made out of wood? What matters in whether ‘mass timber’ buildings are sustainable

A material that’s been around since people built shelters – wood – is increasingly being proposed for low- and mid-rise buildings.

Companies behind these “mass timber” projects say that wood is a lower-carbon alternative to steel or concrete and brings other benefits, such as faster construction time and lower cost than ...Read more

TNS

Gadgets: Make food last longer in your fridge

It's nice to write about a gadget that will save you money, but how much depends on the user. I'm referring to the Shelfy, a compact device (6.6 by 4.5 by 2.6 inches) you place in your refrigerator. It extends the life of fruits and veggies by eliminating bacteria and breaking down pollutants that accelerate ripening.

A company representative...Read more

Jim Rossman/Jim Rossman/TNS

Jim Rossman: You can pay for white noise, but you don’t need to

I work in a place that has on-site daycare for its employees, and I occasionally have to go fix a computer or iPad in a room with sleeping babies and toddlers. The teachers in those classrooms are usually playing white noise to keep the kids asleep.

What those teachers taught me is that you don’t need a dedicated white noise machine. You ...Read more

Bethesda/TNS

Review: ‘Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’ finally gives fans what they want

Indiana Jones has been such an iconic character that he has inspired generations of new heroes, and nowhere is that more evident than in video games. Dozens of projects feature swashbuckling adventurers or daring archaeologists, all of whom owe a debt to George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s protagonist.

Unfortunately, his popularity on ...Read more

Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images North America/TNS

'Zero progress': Western states at impasse in talks on Colorado River water shortages

Seven Western states that depend on the Colorado River are ending the year at an impasse in negotiations over the writing of new rules for dealing with chronic water shortages.

Representatives of California and other states who attended an annual Colorado River conference in Las Vegas last week said they remain deadlocked in their talks on long...Read more

David Middlecamp/San Luis Obsipo Tribune/TNS

Federal agency proposes monarch butterfly protection under Endangered Species Act

The federal government has proposed listing the monarch butterfly as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, a step aimed at reversing the species’ steep population decline, particularly in California.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also proposed designating 4,395 acres of critical habitat for the western migratory population in ...Read more

Arctic has changed dramatically in just a couple of decades -- 2024 report card shows worrying trends in snow, ice, wildfire and more

The Arctic can feel like a far-off place, disconnected from daily life if you aren’t one of the 4 million people who live there. Yet, the changes underway in the Arctic as temperatures rise can profoundly affect lives around the world.

Coastal flooding is worsening in many communities as Arctic glaciers and the Greenland Ice Sheet ...Read more

New set of human rights principles aims to end displacement and abuse of Indigenous people through ‘fortress conservation’

For more than a century, conservationists have worked to preserve natural ecosystems by creating national parks and protected areas. Today the Earth faces a global biodiversity crisis, with more than 1 million species at risk of extinction. This makes it even more important to conserve places where at-risk species can thrive.

In 2022,...Read more

US life expectancy gap widens to 20 years among groups, Seattle researchers found

SEATTLE — If you live in the United States, your life span largely depends on your race and ethnicity, where you live and how much money you make, researchers have reported for years. But in the last two decades, the gap between those with longest and shortest lives has grown, according to a new report from the Institute of Health Metrics and ...Read more

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/TNS

A colony of bees is living at this Southern California mall. The landlord couldn't be happier

LOS ANGELES — On an afternoon in late summer, the bees that live at a Long Beach mall were flying high, winging their way back to their hives atop a parking garage.

Upon their return, they emptied the “pollen pants” they were sporting on their hind legs to make food for the colony’s offspring. The colorful clusters of pollen are a sign ...Read more

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Getty Images North America/TNS

Biden administration sets Jan. 9 lease sale for potential drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Biden administration said Monday it will hold the second lease sale for potential oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Jan 9.

The sale is required by the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act, passed by Republicans during President Donald Trump's first term.

The Bureau of Land Management said it ...Read more

How utilities are working to meet AI data centers’ voracious appetite for electricity

Across the U.S. and worldwide, energy demand is soaring as data centers work to support the wide and growing use of artificial intelligence. These large facilities are filled with powerful computers, called servers, that run complex algorithms to help AI systems learn from vast amounts of data.

This process requires tremendous ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Unexpected visits are turning California into a humpback whale hangout

LOS ANGELES — Shortly after noon Sunday, the waters eight miles off the coast of Newport Beach were broken by an unusual, if not majestic, sight.

A several-ton humpback whale broke through the surface and leaped into the sky, like a Pacific Life insurance commercial, scattering adjacent seabirds while opening its massive mouth to consume ...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/Genaro Molina

How the FDA allows companies to add secret ingredients to our food

It's a U.S. Food and Drug Administration rule that most Americans know little about, yet gives corporations the license to add potentially harmful ingredients to foods without regulatory oversight or public notice.

For decades, the FDA's "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS, designation has allowed food makers to decide for themselves ...Read more

Trout once filled SLO creek. Now researchers are working to understand dwindling population

Zachary Crum looked like a member of the Ghostbusters as he sloshed through San Luis Obispo Creek wearing an electrofisher backpack — an instrument that safely stuns fish so he can study them.

The backpack contained a battery, a control board and a 6-foot fiberglass pole topped with a metal ring. When the biologist dipped the pole in the ...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

Ship strikes now leading cause of whale deaths, study finds

SEATTLE — With the near complete end of commercial whaling, ship collisions are now a leading cause of death worldwide for large whale species, according to new research published in Science.

Yet little is done to manage this risk, found authors of the study, led by the University of Washington.

In a first of its kind global analysis, ...Read more

Real or artificial? A forestry scientist explains how to choose the most sustainable Christmas tree, no matter what it’s made of

Every year, Americans buy somewhere between 35 million and 50 million Christmas trees, and many more pull an artificial tree out of storage for the season. In all, about three-quarters of U.S. households typically have some kind of Christmas tree, surveys show.

People often ask which is more sustainable – a real tree or an ...Read more