Glenn Scherer

NEW YORK — Catherine Quayle has been caring for sick and injured wild animals in New York City for the past 12 years, first as a volunteer at the Wild Bird Fund, the city’s only wildlife rehabilitation center, and now as that NGO’s communications director and a licensed rehabber. Despite all her experience, she is […]

Reports on the health and vitality of the Amazon — often dubbed as Earth’s lungs — have been grim for years. Record drought has stressed large swaths of the world’s largest rainforest. Major Amazon River tributaries, including the Rio Negro and Madeira River, hit their lowest levels in more than a century of measurement in […]

As climate change intensifies, people around the world are learning firsthand how dangerous high temperatures can be. But prolonged heat becomes even more dangerous, and deadly, when paired with high humidity — a one-two punch known as a humid heat wave. Scientists report that humid heat waves have intensified rapidly over recent decades and are […]

Announced at the end of March, the “Atlas for the Americas Flyways” website tracks high concentrations of migratory bird species at risk of major population declines along their routes throughout the Americas. This new United Nations-backed tool identifies heavily trafficked breeding grounds, migratory stopover locations and wintering areas, with the aim of providing policymakers and […]

A new study has found that when deforestation and land use change break up key habitats vital to amphibian life cycles, those disconnects can play havoc with the animals’ microbiome, leaving them more susceptible to disease. This troubling finding could also apply to a host of other species, the study researchers say, but may also […]

Winds sweep across the world’s oceans every day, and harnessing that largely unused resource has the potential to provide abundant, clean and reliable energy. Experts widely agree that marine wind could play a vital role in reducing fossil fuel reliance and tackling climate change, while also bolstering energy security. “The beauty of it is that […]

SALOBRA, Brazil — Life revolves around water in this quiet fishing village in Brazil’s southern Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland. Here, a clear tributary meets the broader Miranda River, part of a vast floodplain where multiple streams spill across the landscape and wildlife thrives. Jaguars prowl riverbanks, giant otters patrol the channels, parrots fill the […]

“I would like for me and my children to live here forever,” said Lâm Thu Sang, a resident of Vietnam’s Cần Thơ, a city of more than 2 million people located near the mouth of the Mekong River on one of the world’s largest river deltas. But that may not be possible. In the past, […]

Deforestation coupled with climate change is rapidly pushing the Amazon Rainforest toward a perilous tipping point that could come much sooner than previously thought. That’s the warning from a new paper, published in Nature, which determined that deforestation of 22-28% of the rainforest, combined with 1.5-1.9° Celsius (2.7-3.4° Fahrenheit) of global warming, could trigger a […]

There’s good news about Asia’s mainland leopard cat: Prionailurus bengalensis is thought to be one of the world’s most abundant, widely distributed wildcats. With a conservation assessment of “least concern” on the IUCN Red List, sightings are reported from India to the Russian Far East. That’s partly because mainland leopard cats are highly successful generalists. […]