Today's Top 5

Biologists Say Half the World's Species Could Be Extinct By End of Century

One in five species on Earth now faces extinction, and that will rise to 50% by the end of the century unless urgent action is taken. That is the stark view of the world’s leading biologists, ecologists and economists who will gather on Monday to determine the social and economic changes needed to save the planet’s biosphere. “The living fabric of the world is slipping through our fingers without our showing much sign of caring,” say the organisers of the  Biological Extinction conference held at the Vatican this week. - The Guardian

Proposed Trump Budget Would Hike Defense Budget, Cut EPA

Trump is slated to sign documents as soon as Monday compelling the EPA to begin undoing recent regulations, including the Clean Power Plan that slashes greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation and the Waters of the U.S. rule that defined which waterways are subject to pollution regulation. - Bloomberg

Millions Without Water in Chile Capital After Floods

Rainstorms and landslides in Chile have contaminated a major river forcing the authorities to cut off drinking water to at least four million people in the capital, Santiago. Officials said the water supply from the Maipo river would be cut to most of the city until the water flowed clear. - BBC

New Jersey Lowers Childhood Blood Lead Level Benchmark to Increase Early Intervention

Lead screening and treatment requirements for New Jersey children are about to get tighter as the state establishes stricter guidelines to better care for those at risk. New Jersey adopted the most up-to-date benchmark from the federal Centers of Disease Control and Prevention to determine when and how a child should be treated for elevated levels of lead in their blood. Health experts said research now finds that even low levels can lead to developmental problems. - Press of Atlantic City

Coal Industry Casts Itself As Clean Energy Player

President Trump has questioned the science behind climate change as “a hoax” in positioning himself as a champion of coal. The three largest American coal producers are taking a different tack. Seeking to shore up their struggling industry, the coal producers are voicing greater concern about greenhouse gas emissions. Their goal is to frame a new image for coal as a contributor, not an obstacle, to a clean-energy future — an image intended to foster their legislative agenda. - New York Times

Today's Top 5 Trending: Honduras Activists, Coal Exec Sentenced, Antarctic Ice Sheet Predictions, Coral Die-Offs, Flint Lawsuit

Why Is Honduras the World's Deadliest Country for Environmental Activists? 

My story today on the environmental as an important battleground for human rights, and why Honduras has become so dangerous for indigenous and environmental activists. - The Guardian

Coal Exec Gets Maximum Sentence in West Virginia Mining Disaster

Former Massey Energy Co. CEO Don Blankenship, who rose from humble beginnings in Mingo County to become the wealthy and powerful chief executive of one of the region’s largest coal producers, will serve one year in prison and pay a $250,000 fine for a mine safety criminal conspiracy, a judge decided Wednesday. - Charleston Gazette

Antarctica in the Year 2500

A new scientific study predicts varying scenarios in which climate change could cause the West Antarctic ice sheet to melt in the coming decades and centuries. If greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced significantly, seas around the world could rise to potentially catastrophic levels before 2100. This graphic shows what could happen by 2500. - Los Angeles Times

Scientists Blame El Nino, Warming for 'Gruesome' Coral Death

Kiritimati is where El Nino, along with global warming, has done the most damage to corals in the past two years, experts said. While dramatic images of unprecedented total bleaching on Australia's Great Barrier Reef are stunning the world, thousands of miles to the east conditions are somehow even worse. - Associated Press

Michigan Claims Immunity in Flint Class Action Lawsuit

Attorneys for the state and Gov. Rick Snyder are asking a judge to dismiss one of several class action lawsuits filed on behalf of Flint residents over the city’s ongoing water contamination crisis, claiming immunity in federal court. A motion filed Monday with U.S. District Judge John Corbett O’Meara argues the federal court does not have jurisdiction to hear the case and that plaintiff claims against Snyder are “not viable.” - Detroit News

Today's Top 5 Trending: Canadian Mining Abuses, Ocean Garbage, Idaho Lead Woes, Melting Ice Caps, Clinton and Greenpeace

Guatemalan Woman's Claim Puts Focus On Canadian Firms' Conduct Abroad

For a long time, Margarita Caal did not talk about what happened that afternoon. None of the women in this tiny village high in the hills of eastern Guatemala did, not even to each other. But that day, Caal said, the men who had come to evict her from land they said belonged to a Canadian mining company also took turns raping her. After that, they dragged her from her home and set it ablaze. - New York Times

How Bad Is Ocean Garbage, Really? 

Plenty of studies have sounded alarm bells about the state of marine debris; in a paper published in February in the journal Ecology, researchers set out to determine how many of those perceived risks are real. In 83 percent of cases, the perceived dangers of ocean trash were proven true.  - The Atlantic

Like Flint, Idaho Knows Lead Poisoning

The lead poisoning in Flint, Mich., has Idaho environmental authorities taking extra steps to ensure such an event can’t happen here. Jerri Henry, who runs the drinking water program for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, saw what happened in Flint and asked herself: “Are we doing enough?” Idaho Statesman

These Ice Cap Images Show Arctic's Rapid Change

 NASA’s Earth Observatory gathered satellite imagery of two well-studied ice caps on Canada’s Ellesmere Island located north of the Arctic Circle to illustrate the ice’s disappearing act. The imagery captured in 2004 and 2015 shows a major decline in ice cover. When you add an outline of where the ice caps once stretched during a 1959 survey, the decline becomes even more notable. Freakishly warm temperatures in the Arctic this winter — which were up to 20°F above normal in some areas — will likely to hasten their decline and eventual demise. - Climate Central

Usually Calm, Clinton Loses Cool Over Greenpeace Fossil Fuel Question

A question about Clinton's record on accepting donations from the fossil fuel industry tipped the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in this year’s election over the edge. - Reuters

Today's Top 5 Trending: Latin American Environmentalists, Schools and Lead, Climate Politics, Scotland Closes Last Coal-Fired Power Plant

For Latin American Environmentalists, Death is a Constant Companion

Two-thirds of environmentalists who died violently around the world since 2002 lost their lives in that region. For the five years ending in 2014, more than 450 were killed, according to an international network of conservationist groups. Over half were in Honduras and Brazil. - Washington post

Schools Nationwide Still Grapple With Lead in Water 

This winter’s crisis in Flint, Mich., has cast new attention on lead in water supplies. But problems with lead in school water supplies have dragged on for years — aggravated by ancient buildings and plumbing, prolonged by official neglect and tight budgets, and enabled by a gaping loophole in federal rules that largely exempts schools from responsibility for the purity of their water. - New York Times

Where Do The Remaining Presidential Candidates Stand On Climate Change?

We are now officially through half of the United States Presidential election primary and caucus season, and there are currently 5 contenders left in the Republican and Democratic parties vying for their party’s respective nomination. Delegate math shows that Governor John Kasich has no chance to become the Republican nominee, so we’re left with four real candidates to examine. - De Smog Blog

Climate Change May Be a Burning Issue, But Election Campaign Tells a Different Story

While Alaska is clearly on the melting edge of climate change, this fundamental shift barely registered in the Republican caucus held earlier in March and won by Ted Cruz. Even though Democratic candidates have been more willing to discuss climate change, the topic wasn't front and centre ahead of Saturday’s caucus. - The Guardian

Scotland Closes Last Coal-Fired Power Plant

Scotland may be home to golf, haggis, and Sean Connery — but it’s no longer hospitable to coal. On March 24, Scottish Power shut down Longanett power station, its last standing coal-fired power plant. - Grist

Today's Top 5 Trending: Flint Lawsuit, Christie Lead Veto, Utah Land Battle, High-Speed Rail Fight, Bird Deaths

Flint Families File Lawsuit Over Water Contamination

A group of Flint families with children has filed new lawsuits in the Michigan city's water crisis, accusing private companies of professional negligence and government employees of misconduct that led to the contamination of the water supply. - Reuters

NJ Governor Defends Veto of Lead Poisoning Bill, Calls Problem 'Over-dramatized'

 Gov. Chris Christie is pushing back against measures by Democratic lawmakers to protect thousands of New Jersey children already exposed to dangerous levels of lead. Christie is defending his veto of a previous effort to increase funding for lead abatement on financial terms and stressing that the state already spends tens of millions each year to help keep children from getting sick. In a press conference last week, Christie said the issue has been “over dramatized” and blamed Democratic-led requests for extra funding for driving the state’s budget problems. - Montclair NJ Spotlight

Remote Utah Enclave Becomes Latest Battleground Over Reach of US Control

At a moment when much of President Obama’s environmental agenda has been blocked by Congress and stalled in the courts, the president still has the power under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create national monuments on federal lands with the stroke of a pen. A coalition of tribes, with support from conservation groups, is pushing for a new monument here in the red-rock deserts, arguing it would protect 1.9 million acres of culturally significant land from new mining and drilling and become a final major act of conservation for the administrations - New York Times

Controversy Over California Ballot Measure To Kill High-Speed Rail and Use Money for Reservoirs

The campaign, bankrolled by San Joaquin Valley farmers, is already drawing fire from environmentalists and fellow farmers, who call it a "Trojan horse." - San Jose Mercury News

Alaska Scientists Continue Researching Sea Bird Mystery Deaths

Common murres are one of the northern hemisphere's most common seabirds. Die-offs have occurred before but not on this magnitude. Common murres routinely live 20-25 years but have a metabolism rate so high that they can use up fat reserves and drop to a critical threshold for starvation, 65 percent of normal body rate, in three days of not eating. - Associated Press

Today's Top 5 Trending: US-Canada Climate Commitments, Houston's Hurricane Threat, Lead in Wells, CA's Stormwater, Lesser-Known National Parks

Obama and Trudeau Unveil Climate Efforts

President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday morning new commitments to reduce planet-warming emissions of methane, a chemical contained in natural gas that is about 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide and that can leak from drilling wells and pipelines. - New York Times

'We're Sitting Ducks'

Houston, home to millions of people and one of the largest shipping lanes in the world, is unprepared for the hurricane that could bring ecological and economic disaster. - Pro Publica

The Corrosive Dangers Lurking in Private Wells

Across the country, millions of Americans served by private wells drink, bathe and cook with water containing potentially dangerous amounts of lead, Reuters reporting and recent university studies show. - Reuters

Parched California Tries to Grab Stormwater Before It Escapes

A network of basins and wells, designed by geologists, can channel storm runoff into natural underground vaults before it vanishes into the sea. - Scientific American

National Parks: Where We Go and Don't Go

Much of the Park Service’s land in the West is poorly visited and little-known. - High Country News

Today's Top 5 Trending

UN Climate Chief Christiana Figueres to Step Down

Figueres' departure at the end of her term, which was announced in a letter to all the parties to the UNFCCC, means that the two main driving forces behind the Paris talks are both leaving as the agreement moves into a risky implementation phase. - Mashable

Alarming Rise in Mass Animal Deaths

Tens of thousands of wild animals have been dramatically dying around the world. Although the hows and whys often remain unexplained, climate change and pollution form part of the reason. - Deutsche Welle

Lawsuit Seeks Removal of Lead Pipes in Chicago

Chicago officials should be forced to remove thousands of lead pipes connecting homes to city's water supply, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday that accuses the city of failing to adequately warn residents how the toxic metal can leach into tap water after street repairs. - Chicago Tribune

How California Could Be Missing Pesticide Cancer Risk

California’s pesticide police could be missing a serious health concern for residents and farmworkers by failing to monitor what happens when pesticides get mixed together. - Reveal News

Is Oklahoma's New Earthquake Reduction Plan Enough to Stop the Shaking?

Following an earthquake swarm that included the state's third-largest quake ever, regulators moved to reduce wastewater disposal by oil and gas producers. - Inside Climate News