If the Arctic continues to warm as it has been, polar bears will be largely extinct by 2100.  

California investigators blame last year’s Kincade Fire, the state’s worst, on power lines owned by Pacific Gas & Electric.  

Severe heat in Washington, DC, closes down COVID-19 testing centers. 

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the US hits 4 million, with 144,000 deaths. On July 23 alone, there were 71,000 new cases and 1,039 deaths.

New York requires visitors from 31 states to quarantine themselves for two weeks. 

While Yosemite National Park is now open with no cases of COVID-19 reported, traces of the coronavirus are detected in the park’s sewage.

Larry Householder, the Republican speaker of Ohio’s house of representatives, is arrested along with the former chair of the Ohio GOP and four lobbyists in connection with a $60-million bribery scheme that resulted in state taxpayers bailing out two failing nuclear power plants with more than a billion dollars. 

After exhausting $10 million in federal pandemic relief, coal company Rhino Resource Partners files for bankruptcy. 

The EPA avoids a lawsuit by regulating carbon emissions from airplanes, but at levels chosen by the airlines themselves.

The mating call of the Ecuadorian hillstar hummingbird is in an ultrasonic range only audible to other hummers. 

Ethiopia begins filling the massive Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. Downstream in Egypt, 100 million people depend on the Nile for irrigation and drinking water.  

Pluto’s atmosphere—such as it is—appears to be collapsing.  

A coyote visits the National Mall in Washington, DC.  

California’s Lassen Pack, the only wolf pack in the state, boasts eight new pups.