ICYMI: Bad to Worse in China, Pipelines No Longer, Grudging Crows

A weekly roundup for busy people

By Paul Rauber

Illustrations by Peter Arkle

July 10, 2020

In China, air pollution is now worse than it was pre-pandemic. There is also an outbreak of bubonic plague

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the US passes 3 million, with more than 132,000 deaths. States that reopened their economies early are seeing steep spikes in cases

People with Neanderthal ancestry who inherited a certain six-gene strand of DNA are at greater risk from COVID-19, as are those with type A blood

Black and Latino people in the US are three times more likely to become infected with the coronavirus as whites. 

In the first three months of the pandemic, from March 15 to June 15, US greenhouse gas emissions declined by 18 percent

North American bats may be susceptible to the coronavirus.

North Atlantic right whales and Madagascar’s lemurs are nearing extinction, warns the International Union for Conservation of Nature. 

California condors return to Sequoia National Park for the first time in 50 years.  

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt scraps an Obama-era plan to reintroduce grizzly bears to Washington State’s Northern Cascade mountains. 

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rules that the Trump administration’s removal of endangered species protections from grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone area was illegal.

At least 356 elephants die in Botswana of an unknown cause. 

An invasive seaweed is smothering huge areas of pristine ocean coral reefs in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands nature reserve.  

A week after their win before the US Supreme Court, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy abandon their $8 billion Atlantic Coast gas pipeline. A federal judge rules that the 1,000-mile-long Dakota Access Pipeline violates NEPA and must shut down. The Supreme Court deals a major blow to the Keystone XL Pipeline, saying that it needs further environmental review. 

A three-mile section of border wall that Trump supporters privately donated $25 million to build is in danger of falling into the Rio Grande

Tesla is now worth more than ExxonMobil.

Crows hold grudges against particular humans, and pass along their dislike to their family and flock.