NATURE

A baffling debate has been happening in Florida and it’s strange even by Florida standards. Orlando Sentinel Columnist Scott Maxwell joined News 6 Anchor Ginger Gadsden to talk it over.

Three words a crowd of Florida beach goers didn’t expect to hear during their Sunday in the sun… “It’s a bear!”

The brown seaweed that smells like rotten eggs and is washing up on our beaches may not be pleasant to be around, but experts say it's what many areas of the coast needed after recent storms.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission offers some tips on what to do if you encounter a bear.

Sea turtle nesting season officially started in Florida on Monday, but the day also started the one-month countdown to hurricane season.

Viewers of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources EagleCam were heartbroken over the weekend.

Before innovation, DAK’s lesser flamingos had only 1 chick in 20 years

The report shows Florida’s best waterfall is only hours outside Central Florida at Devil’s Millhopper Geological State Park.

University of Florida scientists are asking residents to report sightings of nonnative lizards, in order to prevent invasive spread.

Alligators and manatees seem to get all of the attention when it comes to Florida wildlife.

This hidden gem is not just an outdoor attraction, but serves an important purpose.

Two small manatees were rescued Monday on the West Coast of Florida, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Railbikes are pedal-power carts that are ridden on railroad tracks and have the same style as recumbent bikes in the way people sit on them and pedal.

Florida's emergency management division is going to bring an experimental dam project to the coast of Flagler Beach.

An international wildlife conference has moved to enact some of the most significant protection for shark species targeted in the fin trade and scores of turtles, lizards and frogs whose numbers are being decimated by the pet trade.

A Massachusetts woman is facing multiple assault and battery charges, accused of releasing a swarm of bees on sheriff’s deputies as they tried to serve an eviction notice.

Our Medieval ancestors left us with a biological legacy: Genes that helped them survive the Black Death likely make us more susceptible to certain diseases today.

A sloth is a mammal that resembles a monkey resides largely in forests around Central and South America.

Florida’s annual Python Challenge began Friday at 8 a.m.

Animal care staff at Brevard Zoo excitedly shared news Friday that a second of their endangered Grévy’s zebras had given birth to a foal.

Threatened shorebirds have been hatching throughout southeast Volusia County over the past week ahead of what is expected to be a busy Fourth of July weekend in Central Florida, according to county officials.

Orlando was more like San Antonio from a climate perspective.

Silver Springs State Park — an agritourist attraction out of Marion County — is hosting its mainstay feature glass-bottom boat tours yet again this summer.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida discovered and captured the largest python yet found in the state, measuring 18 feet long and weighing 215 pounds, according to a Wednesday news release.

Afghanistan's state-run news agency reported a powerful earthquake struck a rural, mountainous region of the country's east, killing 1,000 people and injuring 1,500 more.

Yellowstone National Park will partially reopen at 8 a.m. Wednesday, after catastrophic flooding destroyed bridges and roads and drove out tourists.

Memorial Day weekend is considered by some to be the unofficial start of summer and, by no coincidence, a great time to get back in the water. Unfortunately, according to conservationists and wildlife officials, manatees have similar plans.

She has four limbs, expressive eyes and likes to stroll through greenery in New York City.

Brides and grooms who want more sustainable options for their weddings are transforming an industry traditionally fraught with waste.

The European Union’s executive arm is moving to jump-start plans for the EU to abandon Russian energy amid the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.

Dozens of environmental and anti-nuclear organizations are opposing any attempt to extend the operating life of California's last running nuclear power plant.

Major energy producing states from Alaska to Pennsylvania are reaping a windfall from soaring oil and natural gas prices, stoked by the war in Ukraine and the U.S.-led ban on Russian oil imports.

New Mexico’s governor is asking for additional federal assistance to respond to wildfires burning across the state’s north, including one that is the second-largest in the state’s history and that officials estimate has destroyed hundreds of homes.

India has banned exports of wheat effective immediately.

Public schools were closed and evacuation bags packed this week as a stubborn wildfire crept toward the city of Los Alamos and its companion U.S. national security lab – where assessing apocalyptic threats is a specialty and wildland fire is a beguiling equation.

Officials say a viral video of people popping party balloons on a yacht at a South Florida marina and dumping the rubbery scraps into the bay has led to one arrest and more than $25,000 in fines.

The fatal floods that wreaked havoc in South Africa in mid-April this year have been attributed to human-caused climate change, a rapid analysis published Friday by a team of leading international scientists said.

The U.S. Army has identified Staff Sgt. Seth Michael Plant of Saint Augustine, Florida, as the soldier who died earlier this week after a bear attack in Anchorage.

A baby giraffe was born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park with an unusual disorder that caused her front limb to bend the wrong way.

Scuba divers at Lake Tahoe are sorting through their haul after an unprecedented, yearlong effort to remove litter from the alpine lake's entire 72 miles of shoreline atop the Sierra Nevada.

In the 30 years that Ara Mirzaian has worked with orthotics, he has never had a patient like this: A baby giraffe.

The Biden administration says it is canceling three oil and gas lease sales scheduled in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska.

Wildfires in the West are on a furious pace early this year.

The California Coastal Commission has rejected a long-standing proposal to build a $1.4 billion seawater desalination plant to turn ocean water into drinking water.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo pushed back forcefully Wednesday against critics — including some within the Biden administration — who say a government investigation of solar imports from Southeast Asia is hindering President Joe Biden’s ambitious climate goals.

Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee have asked the Justice Department to investigate whether a Trump administration interior secretary engaged in possible criminal conduct while helping an Arizona developer get a crucial permit for a housing project.

More people in northern New Mexico are being warned they might have to flee as the largest wildfire burning in the United States heads toward mountain resort towns.

The frequency and duration of droughts will continue to increase due to human-caused climate change, with water scarcity already affecting billions of people across the world, the United Nations warned in a report Wednesday.

The remote Greek island of Tilos has pioneered a recycling plant that could act as a blueprint for other islands — including popular holiday destinations — that struggle with waste disposal.

Australian government scientists say 91% of the Great Barrier Reef coral surveyed this year was bleached in the fourth mass event in seven years.

Volusia County’s summertime fertilizer ban will begin June 1 and run through September 30, according to Community Information Specialist Pat Kuehn.

Actor and activist James Cromwell glued his hand to a midtown Manhattan Starbucks counter to protest the coffee chain’s extra charge for plant-based milk.

California's water usage jumped nearly 19% in March.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged authorities to take stronger action to prevent wildfires and increase coordiation between various official agencies in dealing with them.

Stories about long-departed Las Vegas organized crime figures are surfacing after a second set of unidentified human remains were revealed as the water level falls on drought-stricken Lake Mead.

The biggest wildfire in the U.S. burning in New Mexico east of Santa Fe is spreading north toward mountain resort towns near Taos.

A federal attorney says President Joe Biden legally called for suspending new and gas lease sales while considering their effect on climate change, and onshore and offshore sales were legally postponed.

Brazilian environmental and Indigenous organizations are urging the United States to fund forest protection initiatives that directly involve forest peoples.

Lake Mead is receding and Sin City is awash with mob lore after a second set of human remains emerged within a week from the depths of the drought-stricken Colorado River reservoir just a short drive from the Las Vegas Strip.

A relatively rare East Coast earthquake centered northeast of South Carolina’s capital city has jolted large numbers of state residents awake.

Humans don’t know what they’re missing in Miami, just under the surface of a busy shipping channel in the “cruise capital of the world.”.

Firefighters in New Mexico’s Rocky Mountain foothills are excavating new firebreaks and clearing brush to keep a massive wildfire from destroying more homes and pine forests.

Many climate scientists share a sense of optimism with professionals in other tough jobs like emergency room doctors and researchers who study Alzheimer’s Disease even as they chronicle a world losing its protective balance with the sun.

The deepest fears of some New Yorkers are crawling to the surface as the metropolis continues its recovery from the pandemic.

Residents of a northern New Mexico city tried to recapture a sense of normalcy as their rural neighbors hunkered down amid predictions of extreme fire conditions.

Fast winds are complicating the fight against fires burning across northeast New Mexico.

California is preparing for an energy shortfall equivalent to what it takes to power about 1.3 million homes when demand is at its peak in the hottest months of summer.

As the largest wildfire burning in the U.S. marches across northern New Mexico, residents have been guided by their faith and their connection to each other and the land.

In lush fields southwest of Paris, farmers are joining Europe’s fight to free itself from Russian gas.

In a bid to protect coastal communities from climate change and encourage investment, African nations are increasingly turning to mangrove restoration projects, with Mozambique becoming the latest addition to the growing list of countries with large scale mangrove initiatives.

Bird flu is killing an alarming number of bald eagles and other wild birds, with many sick birds arriving at rehabilitation centers unsteady on their talons and unable to fly.

The Biden administration has announced a wide-ranging enforcement strategy aimed at holding industrial polluters accountable for damage done to poor and minority communities.

An Associated Press analysis has found a growing number of hazardous dams in poor condition across the U.S. The AP tallied more than 2,200 dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition that are rated as high hazard, meaning their failure likely would kill someone.

A NASA climate research scientist who has spent much of her career explaining how global food production systems must adapt to a changing climate was awarded the World Food Prize at a ceremony at the U.S. Department of State in Washington.

Firefighters have slowed the advance of the largest wildfire in the U.S. in New Mexico as heavy winds relented.

Firefighters in New Mexico are taking advantage of diminished winds to build more fire lines and clear combustible brush near homes close to the fringes of the largest wildfire burning in the U.S. The blaze has charred hundreds of square miles of tinder-dry forest, destroying dozens of homes and triggering the evacuation of thousands across an expansive stretch of rural northeastern New Mexico.

Stanford University will launch a new school focusing on climate change thanks to a $1.1 billion gift from billionaire venture capitalist John Doerr and his wife, Ann, the university announced Tuesday.

Drought-prone cities in the U.S. West are mapping snow by plane to refine their water forecasts.

Powerful gangs in Haiti are making it difficult for marine biologist Jean Wiener to do on-the-ground conservation work aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change.

Federal water officials have announced that they will keep hundreds of billions of gallons of Colorado River water inside Lake Powell instead of letting it flow downstream to southwestern states and Mexico.

The endangered California condor has returned to the skies over the state's far northern coast redwood forests for the first time in more than a century.

Using a helicopter to catch a falling rocket is such a complex task that Peter Beck likens it to a “supersonic ballet.”.

An unusually early and brutal heat wave is scorching parts of India, where acute power shortages are affecting millions as demand for electricity surges to record levels.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is asking President Joe Biden to declare a disaster as firefighters scramble to clear brush, build fire lines and spray water to keep the largest blaze burning in the U.S. from destroying more homes.

Indigenous Brazilians in the Amazon rainforest have endured years of scant recourse when prospectors and landgrabbers do violence in their territories.

The Biden administration has announced $3.1 billion in funding to U.S. companies that make and recycle lithium-ion batteries.

Wind-whipped flames are marching across more of New Mexico’s tinder-dry mountainsides, forcing the evacuation of area residents and dozens of patients from the state's psychiatric hospital as firefighters scramble to keep new wildfires from growing.

Germany and India have signed a series of bilateral agreements that will see the South Asian nation receive 10 billion euros ($10.5 billion) in aid by 2030 to boost the use of clean energy.

Swimmers at Berlin’s outdoor pools need to brace themselves for chillier water this summer.

Ferocious winds that sent what was a small wildfire racing toward homes on the outskirts of a northern Arizona city presented a dilemma.

Calmer weather conditions in northern New Mexico have helped over 1,000 firefighters battling the nation's largest active wildfire.

The water supply for Las Vegas has marked a milestone, with a water intake breaking the surface of drought-depleted Lake Mead and the activation of a new pumping facility to draw water from deeper in the crucial Colorado River reservoir.

President Joe Biden is turning to a Cold War-era law to boost production of lithium and other minerals used to power electric vehicles.

Thousands of firefighters are battling destructive wildfires in the Southwest as more residents are preparing to evacuate during the weekend in northern New Mexico.

Calmer weather conditions in northern New Mexico are helping over 1,000 firefighters battling the nation's largest active wildfire.

Bronx Zoo officials have announced the birth of a baby tree kangaroo that's the first of its species born at the zoo since 2008.

The federal government says a Colorado state prison inmate is the first person to have tested positive for bird flu in the latest outbreak in the United States.

Thousands of firefighters have continued to slow the advance of destructive wildfires in the Southwest.

India is in the throes of a record-shattering heat wave that is stunting wheat production.

California’s attorney general has subpoenaed ExxonMobil as part of what he called a first-of-its-kind investigation into the petroleum industry for its alleged role in causing a global plastic pollution crisis.