Two Months, One Page

By Paul Rauber

Illustrations by Peter Arkle

July 1, 2013

A Chinese ship that is carrying 22,000 pounds of meat from protected anteaters runs aground on a protected coral reef near the Philippines.

Rhinoceroses are now extinct in Mozambique.

The world's poorest countries agree to cut their carbon dioxide emissions to avoid runaway climate change.

A circus elephant in Tupelo, Mississippi is injured in a drive-by shooting.

illustration of a beaver wearing a medal

A beaver dam prevents 27,500 gallons of Chevron diesel oil from contaminating Willard Bay, a 10,000-acre reservoir in Utah. The family of six beavers suffer burned skin and eyes from the fuel and are treated at a wildlife rehabilitation center.

A pipeline carrying tar sands oil from Canada spills thousands of barrels in a subdivision near Mayflower, Arkansas, forcing the evacuation of 22 homes.

A 5.6 earthquake in Oklahoma in 2011 was caused by oil drilling, a study finds.

illustration of two birds, one thinking about a cliff and the other thinking about a freeway overpass

Cliff swallows have evolved shorter wings to better survive living under highway overpasses.

Activist Tim DeChristopher is freed after spending 21 months in prison for entering bogus bids at an auction for oil- and gas-drilling rights on Bureau of Land Management parcels in Utah. He plans to attend Harvard Divinity School.

President Barack Obama designates five new national monuments.

Los Angeles pledges to become coal energy–free by 2025.

Eleven U.S. cities commit to divesting from fossil fuel companies.

illustration of a lump of coal with a sign in front that says 'history'

Ontario, Canada, announces that it will become the first North American industrial region to eliminate coal power next year.

BP ends the era of "Beyond Petroleum," selling off all of its wind power assets to focus on oil and gas.

Poisoning from eating lead ammunition kills three endangered condors in and around the Grand Canyon. It is suspected in the deaths of four others.

China accounted for 68 percent of the increase in global carbon dioxide emissions between 2000 and 2010. India accounted for 8 percent. U.S. emissions fell during much of that period.

Hypothyroidism in U.S. newborns on the West Coast increases by 28 percent following the arrival of fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

illustration of a seal holding its ears surrounded by explosions

The California Coastal Commission rejects a plan by the U.S. Navy to conduct sonar and explosives training off Southern California because of its projected toll of dead or deafened marine mammals.

Glaciers in the Andes that took 1,600 years to form have melted in only 25 years.

All new U.S. electrical generation in March comes from solar.