Recently, while sailing with friends on San Francisco Bay, I enjoyed the sight of harbor porpoises, cormorants, pelicans, seals and sea lions — and then the spouting plume and glistening back of a gray whale that gave me pause. Too many have been seen inside the bay recently.

California’s gray whales have been considered an environmental ...Read more

For years, the water table has been dropping beneath thousands of acres of desert farmland in western Arizona, where a Saudi-owned dairy company has been allowed to pump unlimited amounts of groundwater to grow hay for its cows.

But the company and other landowners in the area will now face limits under a decision by state officials to impose ...Read more

Even in this era of Real Housewives and celebrity boxing on Netflix, you haven’t seen a real fight until you’ve watched weather nerds battling over a botched forecast.

Take the Christmas Eve Windstorm That Never Happened.

Most of us in Western Washington were glad the gale-force winds predicted for Dec. 24 didn’t show up.

Not so the ...Read more

The electricity it makes is expensive, its technology has been superseded, and it’s incinerating thousands of birds mid-flight each year. The Trump administration wants to see this unusual power plant closed, and in a rare instance of alignment, the Biden administration did, too.

But the state of California is insisting the Ivanpah power ...Read more

SpaceX launched its third mission of the year from Florida's Space Coast on Monday afternoon while preparing for the early return later this week of Crew-11 from the International Space Station.

A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 4:08 p.m. Eastern time on the Starlink 6-97 mission with ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Avian flu has been blamed for the deaths of 32 birds at Lake Eola Park since Dec. 17, including 26 of the city’s signature swans.

All of the dead swans are Royal Mute swans, and 23 of the 26 belonged to the city. Three others were wild swans who apparently joined the flock at the park.

“It’s heartbreaking, the swan is a...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — Floridians were enraged last summer when a viral video showed men offshore Panama City capturing a giant manta ray, a federally threatened species, and hoisting the animal onto their boat.

That anger only skyrocketed when it became clear that Florida’s wildlife agency had approved the capture: The Florida Fish and Wildlife ...Read more

SEADRIFT, Texas — Aboard an aluminum skiff or one of her five kayaks, fourth-generation shrimper and fisherwoman Diane Wilson often plies the coastal bays and streams near her tiny hometown of Seadrift, Texas.

But instead of fishing for shrimp, black drum or blue crabs, these days the 77-year-old is an environmental activist looking for “...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — NASA could be sending a crew on the Orion spacecraft out past the moon in less than a month if everything falls into place. But first the agency has to get its rocket to the launch pad.

That could as early as next Saturday when the mobile launcher topped with the Space Launch System rocket and Orion could make the 4-mile slow ...Read more

SpaceX knocked out Friday the first of a series of afternoon launches in the coming week with another Starlink mission from Florida's Cape Canaveral.

A Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-96 mission with 29 more of the internet satellites lifted off at 4:41 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40.

This was ...Read more

DENVER — The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday determined Colorado cannot order the closure of coal-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act, and, therefore, the agency will deny the state’s plan to reduce the haze that clouds views at Rocky Mountain National Park and other federal lands.

The move is part of the Trump ...Read more

SpaceX has the first of a series of afternoon launches in the next week on tap Friday with another Starlink mission from Florida's Cape Canaveral.

A Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-96 mission with 29 more of the internet satellites is targeting 2:34 p.m. Eastern time in the middle of a four-hour window from 1:03 to 5:03 p.m. from Cape Canaveral ...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s State of the State address came a day after President Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from dozens of international and United Nations organizations, including the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change — the foundational U.N. agreement that has guided international cooperation to combat the ...Read more

NASA is opting to bring home the four members of Crew-11 early after one of them suffered a medical incident on board the International Space Station.

Without revealing their identity, NASA said the astronaut experienced the issue on Wednesday afternoon, and is in stable condition.

“NASA has set the standard for safety and security and ...Read more

In a decision that could complicate Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to build a giant water tunnel and remake California’s water system, a state appeals court has rejected the state’s plan for financing the project.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled against the state Department of Water Resources’ plan to issue billions of dollars in bonds...Read more

NASA announced a single crew member suffered a medical situation Wednesday on board the International Space Station that forced the postponement of a planned spacewalk. It has since said the crew member is stable, but that the Crew-11 mission may need to leave earlier than planned.

“Safely conducting our missions is our highest priority, and ...Read more

SEATTLE — Projects funded by Washington’s Climate Commitment Act have not been nearly as effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions as previously thought, state officials acknowledged this week.

Officials with the state's Department of Commerce overshot their own estimates by such a significant margin that on Tuesday they published a ...Read more

Sometime around Christmas, Sarah Burzio noticed that the holiday sales bump for her stationery business included some mysterious new customers: a flurry of orders from anonymous email addresses associated with Amazon.com Inc.

Burzio, who doesn’t sell her products on the retail giant’s site, soon discovered that Amazon had duplicated her ...Read more