After more than a century, the North American river otter has returned to the Bronx River in New York City–at least this one intrepid one did. Community groups say the otter’s presence is the result of decades of restoration and conservation work and a sign it’s growing more habitable to wildlife. 🌎

The Return of the River Otter

A rare sighting in the Bronx River has New York conservationists cheering

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The loss of life is happening at a pace "without precedent in human history," according to the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London. Biodiversity has experienced a whopping 73 percent decline in the last 52 years. But some populations are actually rising. 🌎

The State of the Living Planet is "Without Precedent"

World Wildlife Fund releases its biennial report with grim news and some cause for hope

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The US Forest Service is proposing to move its headquarters from Washington, DC, to Salt Lake City. If completed, the agency would lose all nine regional offices; close 57 research facilities across 31 states and consolidate that work into a single location in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Proposed Forest Service Reorganization Is an Attack on the Venerable Agency

The Trump administration claims to be streamlining operations while asking Congress to terminate an important program

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The federal government has just finalized a suite of updates to the Endangered Species Act that undermines its ability to protect habitat. Each of the rule changes, conservationists argue, could put the nation’s wildlife icon in peril. However, manatees are uniquely vulnerable to all three. 🌎

Manatees Face an Uncertain Future Under These New Rules

The Florida manatee shows what a weakened Endangered Species Act could mean for conservation

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Vermejo is the brainchild of CNN founder Ted Turner, who purchased the land—part of Ted Turner Reserves and the biggest in his constellation of properties totaling some 2 million acres—in 1996. Vehicles at Vermejo bear dandelion-yellow stickers with Turner’s motto, “Save Everything.”

Vermejo’s Private Paradise

A sprawling New Mexico bison sanctuary shows the promise—and uncertainty—of private conservation

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The NEVI program was set to spend $5 billion to help states build a nationwide highway EV charging network. But President Donald Trump, on the first day of his second term, tried to scrap NEVI the programs. Meet one of the attorneys who led the charge to restore funding for millions of people.

The Mission to Make EV Charging Accessible to Everyone

Donald Trump tried to scrap the NEVI program. Then Sierra Club attorney Joe Halso stepped in.

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Farmers have face a conundrum in recent years: They want to make extra money by leasing portions of their land for large-scale renewable energy projects but neighbors fear that farmland is being traded for energy development. But what if there was another way? Enter agrivoltaics.

Can Agrivoltaics Bridge the Urban-Rural Solar Divide?

Sometimes the best of both worlds is the easiest solution

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The Trump administration finalized a rule on Monday that significantly rolls back fuel economy standards on motor vehicles—a move that harms public health, the environment and consumers pocketbooks. It comes as gas prices skyrocket and Americans reel from an affordability crisis.

Fuel Costs Will Increase, and Carbon Emissions Too, After Trump’s CAFE Standards Rollback

The Trump administration’s new policy will make the high cost of living even more unaffordable

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Before World War II, many buildings were constructed from natural materials like wood, stone, and thatch. However, after the war, organic building elements were replaced by petrochemicals. But Bio-based materials offer homeowners easy, cheap options that allow consumers to avoid pesky synthetics.

Bio-Based or Bust

Natural materials create healthier, greener spaces in which to live and work

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The Trump administration is trying to delist wolves to placate frustrated ranchers whose bottom lines are being undercut by tariffs. Blaming the big-bad wolf is an old trope beloved by ranchers, but allowing killing wolves won’t stop predation. Here's what will. 🌎

Can Killing Wolves Save the Beef Industry?

Experts warn that a new executive order meant to help ranchers won't actually work

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Tern Island, a former military outpost, is the main nesting ground for green sea turtles, but abandoned and deteriorating structures trap and kill nesting females. @joespring.bsky.social, who covered this in our fall issue, just reported that over 1,000 turtles were rescued from such standings. 🌎

Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles Had to Be Rescued More Than 1,100 Times on This Remote Island

As Tern Island, a former military outpost, decays, its rusting seawalls and decaying buildings are trapping the threatened animals. But some help is on the way.

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There have been four global coral bleaching events recorded since 1998, with coral experiencing its sharpest decline of nearly 9 percent between 2023 and 2024, according to a recent report. This occurred during the last El Niño event. Researchers say this year's El Niño could be way worse.

Corals Face an Existential Threat as the Super El Niño Heats Up

These marine invertebrates are already at risk from the climate crisis and rising ocean temperatures

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Fifty energy utilities in the United States are failing to transition off of fossil fuels—the primary driver of the climate crisis—toward clean energy sources, despite the clear evidence that change is needed, according to the Sierra Club's 2026 Dirty Truth report, released today.

Utilities Score All-Time Low on Transition From Coal and Gas as Climate Crisis Accelerates

According to the Sierra Club's “Dirty Truth” report, energy companies are failing more than ever

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Beavers are freshwater animals; this is indisputable. But beavers are engineers capable of creating the habitats they need to survive, which is why researchers are finding them in unexpected places. This includes coasts, where freshwater meets the sea. 🌎

Researchers Find Beavers in Unexpected Places

The animals are expanding into new ecosystems that surprise scientists and benefit local species

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More than 3 billion people play video games, making them the largest form of entertainment on Earth. They are also platforms where enormous communities can be built and values can spread. Increasingly, they are even becoming a place where climate change themes are rendered, explored, and contested.

How Video Games Can Boost Climate Awareness

The best way to learn about climate change might be to build your own virtual city

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It’s no secret that data centers have vast environmental consequences. But far less attention has been paid to the industries poised to benefit from their enormous power needs. As the projected demands from AI rise, some developers are increasingly turning to fossil fuels—particularly gas.

Could Data Centers Be a Last Gasp for Gas?

Fossil fuel companies are relying on data centers to extend the use of their product

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As the federal government erases place names and decenters voices of color, local leaders at these California state parks are trying to reflect the full breadth of the state’s history.

California State Parks Are Bringing Native History to the Forefront

As the Trump administration seeks to erase history on public lands, these parks are offering a fuller picture

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The Supreme Court has recognized and upheld the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases for nearly two decades. But the EPA is repealing the 2024 greenhouse gas standards for power plants and eliminating climate pollution controls for the electric sector. This is disastrous for the climate.

Trump, Zeldin Try to “Unleash” Dirty Energy with Repeal of Pollution Standards

The EPA’s rollback of emissions from power plants puts public health, climate at risk

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When was the last time you heard the words climate change during a news broadcast? While news reports abound of extreme weather disasters—scorching heat waves, dangerous flash flooding, and monster wildfires—few news broadcasters mention that these disasters are being supercharged by climate change.

Why Won’t the Media Say “Climate Change”?

Climate coverage has been dropping even as extreme climate-supercharged weather gets worse

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This year’s El Niño is coming in hot: The weekly Niño 3.4 Index reached +2.7°C on August 12, far higher than previous already warm cycles and earning the title “super El Niño.” Despite these highs, scientists say what's to come will likely break even more records. Reported by @3mm4sm1th.bsky.social

The Super El Niño Has Arrived

Coral cores show that we are entering an unprecedented warming weather pattern on top of climate change

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Prior to the 1850s, the Bay Area had an estimated 540,000 acres of tidal wetlands and marshes. As the region was settled, those wetlands were dredged and filled. An ecological reckoning came in the early 1960s with the Save the Bay campaign. That activism lives on today.

Bay Area Communities Unite to Take On Sea Level Rise

Sierra Club chapters and the Bay Alive Campaign helped shape policies to address an urgent crisis

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For decades, turtle sightings were rare. “If you saw a turtle, you saw its ass as it was fleeing away from you with the greatest of fear,” said one researcher. Now, thanks to his decades-long work, surfers regularly spot turtles coming up for air, and snorkelers see them feeding on algae. 🌎

The Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle Is Making a Comeback

How locals and conservationists are helping the honu resurgence

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Over the next century, the waters of the Chesapeake could rise as much as 5.2 feet. This isn’t apparent on a daily basis unless you live on Tangier Island. There, it’s a reality as inescapable as the water itself.

On Tangier Island, the Waters Keep Rising

As the Trump administration continues to ignore the climate crisis, Virginia's Tangier Island continues to sink

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Last week, the news site NOTUS broke the story that the Trump administration is considering a land exchange in Yosemite National Park with a private developer. The deal would allow the developer to build a private road through the park. www.sierraclub.org/sierra/propo...

Proposed Yosemite Land Swap Is the Latest Attack on Public Lands

The Trump administration has wasted no opportunity to serve up protected places for private interests

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The collapse of an entire society—its politics, its rhythms of daily life—doesn’t happen overnight. It comes progressively, in overlapping waves, until a culture becomes unrecognizable—a brutal truth at the heart of Emily St. John Mandel’s masterpiece novel, Exit Party (Knopf, 2026).

A Deep Dive Into A Split-Screen World

Emily St. John Mandel's new novel weaves two unhinged realities into one

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As phytoplankton photosynthesize and zooplankton secrete waste and die off, their materials aggregate to form marine snow. As the snow descends to the ocean floor, sometimes taking weeks to travel depending on its weight, it serves another critical purpose.

Chasing Marine Snowstorms to Understand Carbon Storage

How the multicolored specks floating throughout the ocean can help us understand shifting conditions

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The federal government recently canceled a rule that was years in the making and has been in place for decades. Called the Roadless Rule, it protected millions of acres. Now the Trump administration wants to cancel those protections to allow more logging and mining.

The US Forest Service Moves to Cancel Its “Best Idea”

The Roadless Rule protected nearly 60 million acres of forest—until now

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While federal staff are the backbone of public land, waves of staffing cuts and budget shortages have made doing their jobs harder than ever. As the challenges of operating popular destinations with limited resources grow, the role of the public land volunteer is more important than ever.

These Volunteers Are Often the Unsung Heroes of Public Lands Management

Meet the people who help support underfunded public lands and the staff who steward them

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Grizzly bear attacks and encounters are showing up across social media. These intense interactions are tailor made for virality, but the rapid spread of such videos often creates a false sense of fear. Here’s what researchers say about the recent wave of incidents. 🌎

Here’s Why Grizzlies Suddenly Feel Like They’re Everywhere

How social media creates a distorted sense of reality for grizzly bear recovery

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Up into the 1980s, dead and fallen trees were viewed as “waste” that harbored diseases and helped spread fires. It was common practice to remove them. Researchers are now discovering that these downed logs continue to contribute to the ecosystem, well after death.

Watching Logs Decay Is More Interesting Than You’d Think

Logs can act like “giant teabags” to leach nutrients into ecosystems

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