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Climate change is fueling fires in the West -
The Sand Fire that blazed through Southern California this week destroyed 38,000 acres in the Santa Clarita Valley. This latest inferno is part of a trend of more frequent and intense wildfires brought on by heat and drought. Since the late 1970s, the number of fires on public lands in the West has increased 500 percent. Climate Central
African elephant poaching is down, but not nearly enough -
A new report by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species says that 60 percent of elephants found dead last year in the wild were poached. In 2011, 80 percent of dead elephants had been killed for their ivory tusks. While these numbers are a step in the right direction, poaching rates are still far too high to allow the species to recover. Only 500,000 of the pachyderms remain in Africa, down from 1.2 million in the 1970s. Reuters
Climate change affects fish mating rituals -
A study of ocellated wrasses in the Mediterranean Sea finds that high levels of carbon dioxide change the fish's complex reproductive behavior. Though the research focused on just one species, scientists worry that similar effects on other fish could exacerbate existing ocean stressors like overfishing, warming, and plastic pollution. Climate Central
Scientists call on Interior Department to keep coal in the ground -
This week 67 scientists wrote a letter urging the department to halt the leasing, extraction, and burning of coal on public land, practices that currently account for 41 percent of the country's coal production. The group argued that if the program continues, the United States will not meet the targets outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement. InsideClimate News
The 2016 Summer Olympics will not be a win for the environment -
Officials from Brazil's Federal Audit Court now say Rio de Janeiro will receive almost none of the environmental benefits promised by organizers of the games, such as reducing sewage and trash flow into Guanabara Bay and Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon. With only days to go before the opening ceremony, water quality remains very, very poor. (Sorry, swimmers.) Reuters
Sea level rise threatens 18 U.S. military sites -
An analysis of the impact of climate change on coastal bases finds that by 2050 at least half of the installations studied will see daily flooding and the majority will experience 10 times as many floods as they do presently. Four bases could lose 75 to 95 percent of their land by the end of the century. Reuters