Nature and the Environment

T.G.I. Friday's Among Those Charged With Dumping Waste and Raw Sewage in Brooklyn Waterways

Because untreated grease gives us all something to smile about!​Here's yet another reason we find ourselves weary of the continuing existence of T.G.I. Friday's.

How to Keep Bees Out of the Red

david.niknvscanon/FlickrBees, the right color.​Remember the story about the mysteriously red bees? Well -- big surprise -- it turns out that bees are just as drawn to artificial sweeteners as humans are. Bees from several local hives were caught dipping into the red maraschino cherry juice at ... More >>

Bin Laden Book Club: Terrorist's Recordings Recommend More Than Killing Americans

​Sunday's New York Times includes a somewhat original, overlooked take on the most infamous terrorist in the world, the still-not-caught Osama bin Laden, who released two new audio recordings over the weekend. The article, instead of the standard "Where's Waldo?", focuses on bin Laden's "wide- ... More >>

Animal v. Human: Who Will Win in the Battle of New York City Domination?

​New York City. If it's not the raccoons, it's the coyotes,  geese, sewer gators, rats, bedbugs, or the dangerous fornicating opossums. The New York Post reveals that city officials decided to try to fuck with biology by introducing the rat-tailed marsupials into Brooklyn a few years ago to r ... More >>

Whole Foods Cops Out on Fork in the Road's Challenge to Stop Selling Severely Endangered Seafood Immediately

​The confusing Whole Foods "dot" identification system for seafood. In a press release that just hit our email box at Fork in the Road, Whole Foods announces the chain-wide implementation of their color coding system for identifying fish according to sustainability, as certified by the Blue O ... More >>

The Giraffes

New York State Geese Are All Fucked

​You thought it was bad that 400 Canada geese in Prospect Park were killed? Now the state is planning to euthanize 170,000 of them. Run for your lives, geese! According to City Room, who got hold of a report by some government agencies, "The nearly 400 geese gassed to death this month after ... More >>

Special Things for People Without Summer Fridays: Baby Sea Lion (Video!)

​New babies! We love new babies. Especially when they are super-cute baby sea lions born at the New York Aquarium: An as-yet-unnamed female sea lion has been born to mama sea lion Clarice, and is the first sea lion to be born at the Aquarium.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Study Finds Local Native Plants Face Extinction

Bittersweet at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens​A 20-year study of plant life in a fifty mile radius of New York City by the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens has found that more than 50 plant species native to the region face extinction under pressure from decreasing undeveloped land and the spread of non ... More >>

Coyote in Holland Tunnel: Didn't Pay Toll

​We're told that the NYPD's elite Emergency Services Unit has been called to the Manhattan side of the Holland Tunnel to chase down a coyote initially spotted in the tunnel. According to the most recent report from the cops, the commuting coyote left the tunnel and was last seen on Varick St ... More >>

City Universities Are Part of Bloomberg's Green Jobs Vision

2009 Darwin Awards: Crime Down? Criminal Stupidity is Up.

Crime is reportedly down, so does that mean there are fewer criminals? Maybe criminals are just getting more stupid. Two co-winners of the just-announced 2009 Darwin Awards — "Honoring those who improve the species . . . by accidentally removing themselves from it!" — are evidence. U ... More >>

McCain weighs in on Sarah Palin's cap

​The ongoing pissing match over Sarah Palin's inked-up gimme cap has a new combatant, now that John McCain has taken a stand. If you managed to miss this earth-shaking controversy, the Senator's former running mate was photographed in Hawaii wearing a McCain campaign sun visor with the logo bl ... More >>

"The Cove" Trailer: Dolphins in Your Bento Box

The Cove exposes a Japanese town's secret dolphin trade, where the intelligent sea mammals are captured for amusement and slaughtered for food. The film, which stars Richard O'Barry, once the world's leading authority on dolphin training and a consultant on the show Flipper, opens today at the Ang ... More >>

The Cove Exposes the Horrific Treatment of Dolphins

But what about the uglies?

LaGuardia Geese Will Be Gassed, Shot, and Falconed in New Safety Program

Congratulations to the New York Post, which has received action on one of its crusades, an early call to get the LaGuardia Canadian geese that brought down Flight 1549. The cause was taken up by state senators including Hiram Monserrate, and the Post kept up the pressure till it bore fruit: now the ... More >>

Feds Crack Down on Sperm Whale Teeth Traffickers

A Massachusetts antique dealer has been indicted by the Justice Department for illegally importing sperm whale teeth. (We didn't know this was a hot black market commodity, but then again, there's a collector's market for just about everything. Apparently the hot sperm whale teeth spots in the U.S a ... More >>

No Fish by 2048? The End of the Line--Interview with Journalist Charles Clover

Photo courtesy The End of the Line "Imagine a world without fish." That's the tagline of The End of the Line, a documentary that landed on my desk last week. The press release goes on to say that if we continue to overfish the oceans at the current rate, there will essentially be no fish to eat by ... More >>

Earth, a Big Screen, Family-Friendlier Planet Earth

Today's Urban Wildlife Issues

The Times tells us today about feral parrots. Wait -- feral? You mean like the old ladies who owned them said Polly want a cracker? and the parrots said NO Polly don't want a goddamn cracker, bit their faces and flew out the window? No, on closer inspection they mean the Quaker parrots we mentione ... More >>

ND/NF: Louis Psihoyos Must Save the Dolphins

DEC Stings Poachers, Smugglers of Turtles, Snakes, and Salamanders

Today the state department of environmental conservation got to play Elliot Ness, announcing charges against 18 people nabbed in "Operation Shellshock," a sting on illegal poaching, transportation and sales of protected reptiles, specifically turtles, rattlesnakes and salamanders. The Times repo ... More >>

Dolphins Prepare Meals

What's for dinner?Apparently, humans are not the only ones who are particular about their food. According to British researchers at the University of Exeter, a dolphin has twice been filmed preparing its food according to a certain "recipe"--a behavior that's extremely rare, even in mammals. The fe ... More >>

RODENT RULES

They’re just trying to get a nut

The Fish That Wasn't

A whale of a cultural clash in an early New York legal battle

Fight For Your Right to Feed Pigeons

R.I.P, You Noble Whale

Noise from the Front

All Wet

Bloomberg's man Dan Doctoroff has an answer for rising seas: more coastal condos!

On The Red Carpet #2

Off the Leash

In the exotic pet universe, it's all about whose is weirder than whose.

When Lamps and Chairs Attack

Fahrenheit 2050

The man who would've been president warns of an imminent deep impact

'Curious George'

Foul Play

Raw sewage continues to pour into the city's waterways

'March of the Penguins'

'Deep Blue'

Escape From Zoo York

The fast and the furriest: Animating season opens with the journey of a manic menagerie

Creature Comforts

Meet the Beetles

An invitation to a sweet holiday in other species' mystery

Stirring Up A Storm

Enviros hope 'The Day After Tomorrow' will change the climate regarding climate

Coal Dirt Cheap

New EPA Rule Threatens to Increase Local Pollution

Zak the California Sea Lion

Chimp Change

Sierra Club Scores Shrub's First 100 Days

Prez Not All Bad on Environment. Just Mostly.

Libertarian Belle

Gale Norton Rings in an America Where Polluters Police Themselves and Environmentalists Go Extinct

Trading Gas

Polluters Fight Global Warming—and Government Regulation—With a New Market in Emissions Credits

The Sludge Report

Hoo Goes There

A long-eared owl takes up residence in Central Park

Green vs. Green

A Bitter Struggle in New York City Splits the Sierra Club