Latest Plants News
Papuan women's mangrove forest in Indonesia is increasingly threatened by development and pollution
JAYAPURA, Indonesia (AP) — On the southeastern coast of the city of Jayapura, Petronela Merauje walked from house to house in her floating village inviting women to join her the next morning in the surrounding mangrove forests. Merauje and the women of her village, Enggros,...
Serviceberry is a sadly underused native tree that helps wildlife and is worth planting
Winters were brutal throughout most of New England in Colonial America. It snowed a lot, often into spring, and there were no radiators (or antibiotics). Many settlers didn’t survive the season, but because the ground was frozen solid, the colonists couldn’t bury their dead in real time....
In southern India's tea country, small but mighty efforts are brewing to bring back native forests
UDHAGAMANDALAM, India (AP) — Scattered groves of native trees, flowers and the occasional prehistoric burial ground are squeezed between hundreds of thousands of tea shrubs in southern India's Nilgiris region — a gateway to a time before colonization and the commercial growing of tea that...
From the Amazon rainforest, Biden declares nobody can reverse US progress on clean energy
MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — Speaking from the Amazon rainforest, President Joe Biden declared Sunday that there’s no going back in America’s “clean energy revolution” even as the incoming Trump administration vows to spur fossil fuel production and scale back efforts against climate change. ...
New York judge rejects state efforts to shutter bitcoin mine over climate concerns
NEW YORK (AP) — A cryptocurrency plant in central New York can continue operating after a court rejected the state’s effort to shutter the facility over concerns about its climate impact. The decision was hailed as a victory by Greenidge Generation, a large-scale crypto mine in...
Wisconsin agency issues first round of permits for Enbridge Line 5 reroute around reservation
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Enbridge's contentious plan to reroute an aging pipeline around a northern Wisconsin tribal reservation moved closer to reality Thursday after the company won its first permits from state regulators. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources officials...
Food aid interventions can curb climate change-induced hardship. But should they do more?
CHIPINGE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Gertrude Siduna appears to have little appetite for corn farming season. Rather than prepare her land in Zimbabwe’s arid southeastern Chipinge district for the crop that has fed her family for generations, the 49-year-old — bitter at repeated droughts...
Disease could kill most of the ‘ohi‘a forests on Hawaii's Big Island within 20 years
Ten years ago, a mysterious new disease was found sweeping through Hawaii’s native ‘ohi‘a forests, killing off the foundation of the islands’ ecology and one of the state’s most culturally important trees. Now, researchers are in a race against time. They say most of the...
Contained, extinguished and mopping up: Here's what some common wildfire terms mean
LOS ANGELES (AP) — With destructive wildfires burning on both coasts, fire officials might use jargon unfamiliar to residents of states where such big blazes are relatively rare. Here's an explainer of some wildfire terminology: Containment vs. extinguished ...
A 6.2-magnitude quake strikes off the coast in southern Chile without reports of damage
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck off the coast of southern Chile Friday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage and no warnings of a tsunami. The quake’s epicenter was 278 kilometers (172 miles) west-northwest of Cochrane, Chile,...
