ICYMI: Tone-Deaf Toadlets, A Snowy Sahara, Blazing Spiders, & More

A weekly roundup for busy people

By Paul Rauber

January 12, 2018

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Illustration by Peter Arkle

Female pumpkin toadlets in Brazil have lost the ability to hear the mating calls of males. 

As a result of warmer waters, 99 percent of the green sea turtles born in the last 20 years in a large colony on Australia's Great Barrier Reef are female. 

2017 is the third-warmest year on record in the United States. 

Temperatures in Australia reach 117ºF, causing asphalt to melt and bats to fall dead from trees

The fungus that causes deadly white-nose syndrome in bats can be killed with ultraviolet light

Hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters consistent with climate change cost the United States $306 billion in 2017.

New York City will sue the top five oil companies for their role in climate change and will divest its pension fund of billions of dollars of investments in fossil fuel companies.

It snows in the Sahara Desert. 

Alligators in a North Carolina swamp stick their snouts above water before it freezes, allowing them to breathe until the ice thaws.

The United Kingdom bans plastic microbeads from “rinse-off” cosmetics.

Birds that nest near natural gas fields show signs of chronic stress

After complaints by Rick Scott, Florida’s Republican governor, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke removes the state’s waters from the list of those he proposes to open for oil drilling

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejects Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s plan to subsidize coal-fired and nuclear power plants in the name of “grid resilience.” 

After a Redding, California, man tries to kill a large wolf spider with a torch lighter, the blazing arachnid sets fire to his apartment, causing him to move out.

Falcons and kites in Australia deliberately spread wildfires in order to flush out prey. 

A federal judge dismisses charges (conspiracy and threatening a federal officer) against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his sons, allowing the anti-government activists to walk free

In 2018, China plans to reforest an area the size of Ireland

Orangutans use medicinal plants to treat sore joints and muscles.