The Supreme Court drastically reduced federal protection for wetlands in 2023. Two environmental lawyers explain how private businesses and nongovernment organizations can help fill the gap.
British Troops coming ashore at Gold Beach on D-Day in 1944.
CBW/Alamy
With submissions about to close on the government’s proposed fast-track consenting legislation, its possible impact on New Zealand’s diminished and delicate ecosystems demands proper scrutiny.
Wetlands at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland shows signs of ‘pitting,’ where areas of cordgrass have converted to open water.
Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program via Wikimedia
A coastal scientist explains why marshes, mangroves and other wetlands can’t keep up with the effects of climate change, and how human infrastructure is making it harder for them to survive.
Cities should be planned around existing natural resources.
Stephen Appiah Takyi
Stephen Appiah Takyi, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) e Owusu Amponsah, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)
The inability of city authorities to enforce land-use regulations has allowed people to carry out ecologically unfriendly activities along the water bodies.
Wetlands like this need protection because they absorb carbon dioxide and curb floods.
Rodger Shagam/Getty Images
New Zealand’s new government has vowed to explore ‘blue carbon’ options for removing atmospheric CO₂ to meet net zero goals. But first we need a national strategy for this developing field of science.
With the support of the Greens, there’s a chance the ‘Restoring Our Rivers’ Bill will pass. Will it be enough to put the Murray-Darling Basin Plan back on track?
Riverside communities in the Pantanal make sustainable use of natural resources within an unpredictable system.
Suburban development in Maricopa County, Arizona, with lakes, lush golf courses and water-guzzling lawns.
Wild Horizon/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Arizona is considering a multibillion-dollar desalination project to address its urgent water needs. Three water experts call for a go-slow approach and point to Israel as a role model.
Knowing the ‘next drought is just around the corner’, Australia’s Water Minister Tanya Plibersek is striking a new agreement to return water and health to the Murray-Darling Basin.
Soaring wetland emissions of methane mirror those which accompanied previous abrupt changes in Earth’s climate.
I. Noyan Yilmaz/Shutterstock
Projects have not been delivered. States are bickering. If the Albanese government is to uphold its election promise to deliver the Murray plan, hard tradeoffs are needed.
A flaming peatland fire in Alberta, Canada.
(Greg Verkaik)
Peatlands safely store hundreds to thousands of years’ worth of humanity’s toxic legacy but climate change and physical disturbances are putting these pollution vaults, and us, at risk.
Satellite image showing the lack of water in the Doñana National Park.
Sentinel 2
A recent study reveals that 59% of the ponds in Doñana have not been flooded since at least 2013. Water abstractions from the aquifer are one of the main reasons behind the demise of this iconic wetland.
Many ecologically important wetlands, like these in Kulm, N.D., lack surface connections to navigable waterways.
USFWS Mountain-Prairie/Flickr
In Sackett v. EPA, a suit filed by two homeowners who filled in wetlands on their property, the Supreme Court has drastically narrowed the definition of which wetlands qualify for federal protection.
The Hudson Bay Lowlands is among the fastest warming regions on the planet, with temperature increases projected to be up to three times higher than the global average.
(Vito Lam)
The impacts of climate change on the terrestrial ecosystems, that comprise interconnected webs of snow, water, plants and animals, can be rapid, complex, and unpredictable.