New Zealand lawmakers have introduced legislation recognizing whales as legal persons. The move, inspired by an Indigenous declaration, would affirm whales’ rights to a healthy environment and to migrate.

Thank you @insideclimatenews.org and @katiesurma.bsky.social for featuring He Whakaputanga Moana (The Whale Protection and Legal Personhood Declaration) and our alliance with Hinemoana Halo and @nyulaw.bsky.social’s MOTH Program to advance the implementation of the declaration. bit.ly/4ry4AWH

A new report reveals the “nature gap” in the U.S.: Environmental degradation and climate risks disproportionately affect communities of color and low-income areas, worsening health disparities and economic inequality. insideclimatenews.org/news/2302202...

A declaration recognizing whales as legal rights-holders is influencing legislation in New Zealand and sparking an international push to translate Indigenous customs into binding protections. insideclimatenews.org/news/2202202...

I went to Big Bend this weekend to enjoy some nature but then the ole wall reared its head and I reported a story. Please read if you care about our remaining wild places! @insideclimatenews.org insideclimatenews.org/news/1702202...

HCN is partnering with Report for America to launch the Western Environmental Reporting Collaboration (WERC). Reporters will work with both a host newsroom and High Country News on environmental stories across the West. 🚨 Apply by 2/16/26. ℹ️ Questions: [email protected] buff.ly/uMNzkC4

NEW from @dylanbaddour.bsky.social and I for @insideclimatenews.org ‘A Disaster Waiting to Happen’: How the Fracking Boom Put an Oil Field in the Guadalupe River Floodplain insideclimatenews.org/news/0802202...

In eastern Angola, a highland wetland system feeds rivers, wildlife and millions of people across Africa. Long protected by local communities, it has now gained international recognition as Angola’s first Ramsar site.

“As Indigenous peoples, we draw our identity from place. We are that river; that river is us.” Here’s how that led to a new treaty recognizing whales' rights. insideclimatenews.org/news/0502202...

One of Africa’s Most Important Water Sources Just Got Some Very Good News Angola’s “source of life” is now a Ramsar wetland of international importance. insideclimatenews.org/news/0502202...

Wildfires are getting worse. Republicans are pushing legislation that would weaken environmental protections and open vast swaths of land to logging. Scientists say policies should focus on making infrastructure and landscapes fire-resilient.

On a new episode of Your Call’s One Planet, the spotlight is on the Rights of Nature movement, featuring @katiesurma.bsky.social from @insideclimatenews.org:  https://f.mtr.cool/otwahliusc

Wildfires are getting worse. Republicans are pushing legislation that would weaken environmental protections and open vast swaths of land to logging. Scientists say policies should focus on making infrastructure and landscapes fire-resilient. insideclimatenews.org/news/0302202...

ICYMI from the weekend: @dylanbaddour.bsky.social and I on a surge in pollutant emissions from oil and gas facilities in Texas in the big freeze insideclimatenews.org/news/3101202...

Trump’s Plan for Venezuelan Oil Raises Prospects of Paramilitary Violence Latin America has lots of experience with private military contractors protecting foreign companies in lawless conflict zones. It seldom goes well. insideclimatenews.org/news/2301202...

"Carney’s critique ignores Canada’s own role in sustaining the structures he criticized. Chief among them are economic treaties that grant formidable rights to Canada’s influential mining sector and other multinational corporations."

Canada’s Mining Firms Are Big Beneficiaries of the Global Order Its Prime Minister Just Criticized As Mark Carney urges value-based leadership, critics point to trade rules championed by Canada that undermine those ideals. insideclimatenews.org/news/2201202...

The China-Canada trade deal is bad for U.S. automakers, but the damage was already done by the Trump administration pushing away a longtime economic partner. My latest: insideclimatenews.org/news/2201202...

Heat, drought, and high winds exacerbated deadly blazes in Chile this weekend and stoked fires that continue to smolder in Argentina.

As protests spread across Iran, experts say decades of environmental mismanagement and repression of scientists and environmental activists are driving the unrest.

As protests spread across Iran, experts say decades of environmental mismanagement and repression of scientists and environmental activists are driving the unrest. insideclimatenews.org/news/1401202...

Such a smart and timely story on the ecological nightmare that is Iran, and its human toll. I don’t think you’ll read the story anywhere except at Inside Climate News. From @katiesurma.bsky.social … insideclimatenews.org/news/1401202...

Iran’s Regime Has Survived War, Sanctions and Uprising. Environmental Crises May Bring It Down. As protests spread across Iran, experts say decades of environmental mismanagement and repression of scientists and environmental activists are driving the unrest. insideclimatenews.org/news/1401202...

A must-read to understand oil & Venezuela by @nkus.bsky.social "Venezuela has faced more known ISDS claims than any other nation, more than 65, with about a third filed by oil and mining companies" insideclimatenews.org/news/1301202...

One of the U.N. orgs Trump said he would withdraw from, the Economic and Social Council, hosts the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which serves as a key platform for Indigenous people to raise concerns about human rights and land rights insideclimatenews.org/news/1101202...

"I am the river and the river is me—it’s just part and parcel of who we are. We treat it as a living being and as an ancestor. But it applies to everything. I am also the land and the land is me. I am the air and the air is me, because without them, we don’t survive."

Indigenous leaders worldwide are redefining environmental law. Māori leaders Ned Tapa and Rihi Karena share how New Zealand communities won legal recognition of the Whanganui River as a living being. insideclimatenews.org/news/1201202...

There’s an “ecocide” happening in the Venezuelan Amazon, and it’s enriching drug traffickers. Trump's move to exit international organizations isn't helping. insideclimatenews.org/news/1101202...

In Ecuador’s Battle of Toad vs. Road, Toad Wins (Thanks to the rights of nature) insideclimatenews.org/news/0701202...

An Ecuadorian court has blocked construction of a highway after ruling it poses an imminent and irreversible threat to the rights of a critically endangered toad, a decision that underscores the country’s unique constitutional protections for nature. insideclimatenews.org/news/0701202...

A heartbreaking story of loss, and the destructive cuts of DOGE, at NOAA, by Inside Climate News' Marianne Lavelle, who, like Libby Jewitt, is a national treasure. insideclimatenews.org/news/0601202...

Many of the world’s most biodiverse countries are also deeply in debt. The world’s largest nation-state creditor could hold the keys to a solution. Will China step up?

UK to ban boiling lobsters alive as animal welfare standards tightened ft.trib.al/PifF1nN

Countries Want Debt Relief for Conservation. Is China Ready to Play a Role? “Debt-for-nature” swaps are helping some lower-income countries increase conservation. The world’s largest nation-state creditor has the leverage for deals—if it chooses to use it. insideclimatenews.org/news/2112202...

Countries Want Debt Relief for Conservation. Is China Ready to Play a Role? “Debt-for-nature” swaps are helping some lower-income countries increase conservation. The world’s largest nation-state creditor has the leverage for deals—if it chooses to use it. insideclimatenews.org/news/2112202...

Always fun to collaborate on a story. Check out @wyattmyskow.bsky.social, @blancabegert.bsky.social, and my coverage of the state of Colorado River negotiations.

U.S. oil giant Texaco spent decades polluting the Ecuadorian Amazon. Now, three arbitrators have ordered the Ecuadorian government to pay $220 million in compensation to the company.

Federico Borman, member of an Indigenous community impacted by oil operations, said his aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and father “have died or are dying of cancer tied to oil contamination.” “To think their own country—my country—has to pay the company that began it all makes me sick,” he added.

#ISDS allows firms to avoid accountability for environmental or social damages caused by their investment projects while draining squeezed public finances, our @jostransky.bsky.social says in @insideclimatenews.org piece on latest twists in Chevron v Ecuador 👇 insideclimatenews.org/news/1012202...

U.S. oil giant Texaco spent decades polluting the Ecuadorian Amazon. Now, three arbitrators have ordered that $220 million in compensation be paid—by the Ecuadorian government to the company. insideclimatenews.org/news/1012202...

China is one of the biggest development funders and operators in the world. It’s also silencing environmental reporters who dare to tell the truth about the harms some of those projects have caused across the global south Thank you to @thexylom.com for publishing this story.

Thank you to the @thexylom.com for publishing this story about how China is silencing the environmental journalists in Africa. If the public doesn’t know, it can’t act. www.thexylom.com/post/how-chi...

As Countries Take Steps to Protect Wildlife in Legal Trade, Animal and Plant Trafficking Rages On insideclimatenews.org/news/0212202...

There’s no more important story out there then environmental defenders—the people who peacefully protect the ecosystems we all rely on. Join us tomorrow for this panel about The Ethics of Reporting and Storytelling about At-Risk Climate Defenders www.climatelegaldefense.org/events/the-e...

New from @dylanbaddour.bsky.social and @insideclimatenews.org: Researchers in Houston found that 90% of new petrochemical facilities will be built in places with high concentrations of people of color and poor families.

Must reading from @georginagustin.bsky.social at Inside Climate News: A Massive, Chinese-Backed Port in Peru Could Push the Amazon Rainforest Over the Edge insideclimatenews.org/news/0112202...

With everything happening at the federal level, it's easy to lose track of the states on climate and clean energy policy. I wrote about a major trend in state policy and why we should all pay attention to what Massachusetts does next: insideclimatenews.org/news/2011202...

Before the public can act, they must know. But China is silencing independent journalists reporting on the environmental impacts of its massive Belt and Road Initiative—mines, ports, dams, power plants etc in mostly poor countries. Here’s how they’re doing it and why it matters.

Texas has no regulations to protect workers from the state’s blistering heat and overturned city ordinances that required rest breaks. What does that mean for workers in one of the hottest parts of the country? @keertigopal.bsky.social and I spent months investigating for @insideclimatenews.org (1)