Green & indigenous News

The human kidney filters about a cup of blood every minute, removing waste, excess fluid, and toxins from it, while also regulating blood pressure, balancing important electrolytes, activating Vitamin D, and helping the body produce red blood cells. This broad range of functions is achieved in part via the kidney's complex organization. In its outer region, more than a million microscopic units, known as nephrons, filter blood, reabsorb necessary nutrients, and secrete waste in the form of urine.

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A new genetic study examines an unusually large hybridization event that followed the Fukushima nuclear accident, when escaped domestic pigs bred with wild boar. The research shows that domestic pig maternal lineages sped up generational turnover, rapidly diluting pig genes. The findings reveal a mechanism likely operating wherever feral pigs and wild boar interbreed.

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About a year ago, researchers at the University of Michigan found that the extratropical cyclones that are the biggest drivers of winter weather in the Great Lakes region are warming and trending northward. That means, outside of the northern reaches of the region, residents can expect that their winters will be warmer and wetter on average.

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Scientists in the laboratory of Rendong Yang, Ph.D., associate professor of Urology, have developed a new large language model that can interpret transcriptomic data in cancer cell lines more accurately than conventional approaches, as detailed in a recent study published in Nature Communications.

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How did the complexity of many organisms living today evolve from the simpler body plans of their ancestors? This is a central question in biology. Take our hands, for example: Every time we type a message on our mobile phone, we are using an evolutionary "masterpiece" that evolved over millions of years. Notably, we typically grasp and manipulate objects with the palm of our hand—its ventral side. The back of our hand, or dorsal side, plays almost no role. This differentiation of our limbs, with a ventral side adapted for contact and a dorsal side protected by nails or toenails, is essential for life on land.

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Around the Balkan Peninsula, the African plate is sinking beneath the European plate. A piece of deeply submerged African crust resurfaced 40 million years ago far away from the sinking zone. How this phenomenon of so-called vertical extrusion can be explained and whether the Rhodope mountain range in southern Bulgaria was formed in this way is a matter of scientific debate. Dr. Iskander Muldashev and Professor Thorsten Nagel from the TU Bergakademie Freiberg have now shown how this process works in a recent publication in the journal Geology. The formation of the Rhodopes was only 40 million years ago—the mountain range is therefore 30–50 million years younger than previously assumed.

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Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with strong heat-trapping capabilities. Although there is less methane in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, the foremost greenhouse gas, researchers attribute 30% of modern global warming to methane. Observations show that methane levels have increased over time, but the factors driving changes in the rate of accumulation remain unclear.

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A new smart platform invented by Purdue University researchers to wirelessly monitor subsoil health could change the landscape of agricultural sensing systems. The invention addresses a critical need in agriculture nationwide: the efficient use of water, fertilizers and pesticides. Due to the variability of soil conditions across large fields, applying uniform amounts of these inputs can lead to significant waste, increasing costs for farmers and causing environmental harm if nutrient runoff reaches water systems.

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Climate change and evolving growing conditions present new challenges for breeding. It is important to take local environmental conditions into account. An international team led by the IPK Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research has used AI and big data to develop a method of determining which winter wheat varieties are best suited to specific locations. The study's results have been published in the journal Genome Biology.

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A new study conducted at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) shows that grassland-based grazing systems—currently covering a third of Earth's surface and representing the world's largest production system—will see a severe contraction as global temperatures rise. Depending on the scenario analyzed, 36–50% of the land with suitable climatic conditions for grazing today will experience a loss of viability by 2100, affecting more than 100 million pastoralists and up to 1.6 billion grazing animals.

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Many ecologists hypothesize that, as global warming accelerates, change in nature must speed up. They assume that as temperatures rise and climatic zones shift, species will face local extinction and colonize new habitats at an ever-increasing rate, leading to a rapid reshuffling of ecological communities. A new study by researchers at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and published in Nature Communications shows this is emphatically not the case.

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For many years, the deep ocean has been seen as a nutrient-poor environment where microbes living in the water survive on very limited resources. But new research from the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) challenges that idea. A study led by SDU-biologists at the Department of Biology shows that nutrients might not be so sparse after all in the deep and that microbes have access to a hitherto unknown source of dissolved organic food.

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The climate fiction movie The Day After Tomorrow, released in 2004, popularized the devastating effects of sudden climate change on Earth. The plot dramatizes the consequences of a shut-down in an ocean current, and features the Northern Hemisphere plunging, within a few weeks, into an ice age.

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In a new study published in Cell, scientists in the Bork Group at EMBL Heidelberg reveal that microbes living in similar habitats are more alike than those simply inhabiting the same geographical region. By analyzing tens of thousands of metagenomes, the team found that while most microbes adapt to a specific ecosystem, a rarer subset known as "generalists" can thrive across very different habitats.

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency has added dozens of communities to the list of those eligible for both individual and public federal disaster assistance following the October 2025 storm that caused widespread damage across Western Alaska.

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Three Alaska Native corporations and the state agency pushing the Ambler Road quietly signed a nonbinding agreement late last year.

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This story was originally published by Michigan Advance.

Kyle Davidson
MIchigan Advance

On Friday, Feb. 6, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released the final version of its Environmental Impact Statement on Enbridge’s proposed Line 5 tunnel project, starting a 30 day waiting period before making its final decision on whether to grant the pipeline company a permit to move forward with the proposal.

Canada-based Enbridge celebrated the release of the statement as a true milestone, with spokesperson Ryan Duffy praising the six-year review as “thorough, transparent, and science driven.” However, Line 5 opponents argue the final document fails to address several key concerns, including the project’s impacts on Indigenous treaty rights and alternatives for transporting oil outside of the Great Lakes.

The Line 5 tunnel project would replace the segment of dual pipelines operating in the Straits of Mackinac – where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet – with a new, single segment housed in a tunnel in the bedrock beneath the lakes.

The 645-mile long pipeline runs from Northwestern Wisconsin, through Michigan where it ends in Sarnia, Ontario. It carries up to 22.68 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids through the Straits of Mackinac each day.

Julie Goodwin, a senior attorney for Earthjustice, which is supporting the Bay Mills Indian Community in its fight against the pipeline, said the final environmental impact statement sets up a predetermined decision to approve the tunnel by failing to consider scenarios where oil is not flowing through the straits.

In its review, the corps looked at four main scenarios: taking no action and allowing the dual pipelines to continue operating, constructing a tunnel beneath the lakebed as Enbridge would prefer, placing a gravel/rock protective cover over the dual pipelines, and replacing the dual pipelines with a new segment installed using horizontal directional drilling under the lakebed.

“The corps had the opportunity, of course, during this environmental review process to look at alternatives that transport oil outside of the Great Lakes region or in different ways. And they just, they never took that opportunity,” Goodwin said.

A 2016 study from the University of Michigan determined more than 700 miles of shoreline in lakes Huron and Michigan would be vulnerable to pollution should Line 5 rupture. A 2018 study published by Michigan State University determined that the economic damage from a Great Lakes oil spill would amount to $5.6 billion dollars.

While the environmental impact statement acknowledges the straits are a profoundly sacred place in the culture, history and spirituality of Anishinaabe Tribal Nations, it does not address the tunnel project’s impact on treaty rights, which grant tribal nations the right to hunt, fish and gather on lands ceded to the federal government.

The corps writes that its review of treaty rights is separate from its review of the project under the National Environmental Policy Act and that it is consulting on a government-to-government basis with federally recognized Tribes to determine if the tunnel project would infringe upon treaty rights. The final finding will be included in its record of decision.

On March 21, 2025, Bay Mills Indian Community alongside the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi, and Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi sent a letter to the Army of Corps of Engineers withdrawing their participation as cooperating agencies in drafting the environmental impact statement, due to President Donald Trump’s Administration’s plan to expedite review of the tunnel project.

The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians similarly withdrew from talks with the corps on March 26.

Nichole Keway Biber, the Mid-Michigan campaign organizer for Clean Water Action and a Tribal citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, calls out concerns in Enbridge’s Line 5 tunnel project plan. Aug. 26, 2025. (Photo by Kyle Davidson, Michigan Advance)

Whitney Gravelle, president of the Bay Mills Indian Community, said it has been frustrating to watch the corps move forward with the environmental impact statement without completing surveys and research on cultural resources and treaty rights.

“That’s one of the reasons we left as a cooperating agency,” Gravelle said. “The corps has disregarded tribes. They’ve disregarded tribal treaty rights, they’ve disregarded cultural resources, and it has just been one of the most dehumanizing processes I have ever participated in.”

The tunnel itself will bore through several cultural sites, archaeological resources and what Anishinaabe consider to be the site of creation, Gravelle said and there are hundreds if not thousands of archaeological sites on the north and south ends of the straits.

“Those burial places are how we understand our history, how we understand our culture, how we understand our trade movements, or where we’re meant to be harvesting, hunting and gathering,” Gravelle said. “To then be told that all of these places can be destroyed and that it doesn’t really matter, what you’re really saying is that our Indigenous lifeways then don’t matter.”

Gravelle emphasized that the impacts from the tunnels construction are not abstract or theoretical, telling Michigan Advance that these places are where parents go to teach their children ceremony on the water, uncles teach their families how to hunt and put food on the table and elders share stories so their community can understand who they are as a people.

“To have those rights limited or overlooked or misunderstood is really undermining the impact that will be felt by generations,” Gravelle said. “Not only by myself, but by my niece, you know, by my children, by the generations that will exist long after I’m gone from this earth.”

In a statement, Sean McBrearty, the campaign coordinator for anti-Line 5 Oil & Water Don’t Mix coalition pointed to several of the environmental impacts included within the assessment.

“The EIS confirms that the tunnel would result in permanent wetland loss and require excavation and removal of roughly 665,000 cubic yards of bedrock from beneath the Straits of Mackinac, the ecological heart of the Great Lakes system,” McBrearty said. “These impacts are not temporary, and they cannot be undone.”

While much of the focus on Line 5 has centered around the Straits of Mackinac, Gravelle noted that concerns about an oil spill stretch the length of the pipeline, which has leaked more than 30 times over its lifespan, spilling more than 1 million gallons of oil.

However, Gravelle and several other pipeline opponents emphasized that a permitting decision from the Army Corps of Engineers does not give Enbridge a green light to move forward with the project, as the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy has yet to decide on a Clean Water Act permit for the project. The Sierra Club and Oil and Water Don’t Mix have already called on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to block the project from moving forward.

“All eyes are really turning to Governor Whitmer,” Goodwin said. “She has two choices to either cave to the Trump administration’s agenda and their friends in the oil industry, or stand up for Michigan and protect the Great Lakes.”

The post Army Corps of Engineers releases final report on Line 5 tunnel leading up to permitting decision appeared first on ICT.

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The Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management director updated lawmakers and outlined a "significant cleanup mission" planned for this summer.

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The boreal forest—the world's largest terrestrial biome—is warming faster than any other forest type. To understand the changing dynamics of boreal forests, Min Feng and colleagues analyzed the biome from 1985 to 2020, leveraging the longest and highest-resolution satellite record of calibrated tree cover to date. The study, published in Biogeosciences with four co-authors from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, confirms a northward shift in boreal forest cover over the past four decades.

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When I launched Mongabay in 1999, I’d just finished college, armed mainly with a love of rainforests, a pile of musty field notes from Borneo to Madagascar and the uneasy realization that the forests I’d explored were vanishing faster than most people knew. I coded the first version of the site by hand in my apartment. There was no strategy — just a desire to share what I’d seen and to make credible information freely accessible. Recently, I spoke with Alejandro Prescott-Cornejo, Mongabay’s senior marketing associate, about that journey and where we’re headed. Looking back, the most meaningful recognition hasn’t come from awards, but from the moments when journalism made a tangible difference: an illegal concession halted in Gabon, an investigation in Peru that helped expose planned rainforest destruction, or the thanks we’ve received from Indigenous leaders who trust us to tell their stories accurately. The real reward has always been impact. Journalism doesn’t plant trees or prosecute illegal loggers, but it creates the conditions that make those things possible. Those moments shaped the decision in 2012 to transition Mongabay from an advertising-driven website into a nonprofit. Advertising rewarded clicks; the nonprofit model let us reward impact. It allowed us to launch Mongabay Indonesia, then expand to Latin America, India and beyond. Today, we work with more than a thousand journalists in roughly 85 countries, many rooted in the communities they cover. Their local knowledge gives Mongabay a depth that’s unusual in the media space. The biggest impacts, though, are…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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From 1948 to 1953, a gold mine called Giant Mine released about 5 tons of arsenic trioxide per day into the environment around Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Emissions declined from the 1950s until the mine closed in 2004, but the surrounding landscape remains highly contaminated with arsenic.

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KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Drought conditions have left over 2 million people facing hunger in parts of Kenya, with cattle-keeping communities in the northeast the hardest hit, according to the United Nations and others. In recent weeks, images of emaciated livestock in the arid area near the Somali border have shocked many in a region that reels from the effects of climate change. In recent years, rainy seasons have become shorter for some communities, exposing them to drought. Normally, animals are the first to die. The livestock losses echo what happened between 2020 and 2023, when millions of animals died in the region that extends from Kenya into parts of Ethiopia and Somalia. At the time, a famine predicted for Somalia was averted by a surge in international aid. Four consecutive wet seasons have failed in parts of the Horn of Africa, which juts into the Indian Ocean. The wet season from October to December was one of the driest ever recorded, according to the U.N. health agency. Because the rains were brief, parts of eastern Kenya were the driest they have been during that season since 1981. Some 10 counties in Kenya are experiencing drought conditions, according to the National Drought Management Authority. The northeastern county of Mandera, bordering Somalia, has reached the “alarm” classification, which means critical water shortages have led to the death of livestock and the wasting of children. The suffering extends into Somalia, Tanzania and even Uganda, where many are threatened by similar weather patterns and water…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Last Updated on February 9, 2026 A First Nation in British Columbia has filed a lawsuit seeking to reclaim lands it says were improperly taken more than a century ago by a federal Indian agent and members of his extended family. The Dzawada’enuxw Nation (formerly Tsawataineuk First Nation) filed the lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court […]

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Goats are increasingly being used in efforts to manage invasive common buckthorn in Midwestern woodlands. New research demonstrates when and how they are best used.

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A new study published in the journal Urban Ecosystems has revealed that the common black garden ant (Lasius niger) behaves differently depending on whether it lives in a bustling city or the quiet countryside. The researchers, led by an international team from Ukraine, Germany, and Poland, found that urban ants are much more willing to accept low-concentration sugar solutions, which their rural counterparts typically reject. These findings suggest that the pressures of city living may be fundamentally altering their nutritional landscape.

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