Three vital provisions give the Act its teeth. It’s “citizen-suit” provision lets public-interest groups and individuals petition and sue sluggish federal agencies to make sure the Act protects ...

The variability among living organisms on the earth, including the variability within and between species and within and between ecosystems. Biological diversity, often shortened to biodiversity, is ...

DESCRIPTION: The ocelot is a medium-sized, spotted cat. It grows to about three feet long, not including its tail, and weighs around 30 pounds. It is described as crepuscular and nocturnal, spending ...

Synthetic phosphate fertilizer poses a serious threat to our environment. Phosphate rock mining, along with the inorganic fertilizers and animal feed supplements and pesticides for which phosphate is ...

Monarch butterflies are important culturally and ecologically across North America. Generations have watched in wonder as yellow-and-black striped caterpillars fold into green-and-gold chrysalises and ...

For every county in the United States, the map below shows information on all the animals and plants protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act as threatened or endangered. To see the number of ...

The grizzly bear is so named because its hair is grizzled, or silver tipped, yet the name is commonly believed to be derived from “grisly,” meaning “horrible.” DESCRIPTION: A subspecies of brown bear, ...

The word jaguar comes from the South American Tupi and Guarani languages. A likely origin is the word yaguareté, meaning “true, fierce beast.” DESCRIPTION: The largest cat native to North America and ...

The BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in 2010 spilled 205.8 million gallons of oil and 225,000 tons of methane into the Gulf of Mexico. Only about 25 percent of the oil was recovered, leaving more than ...

DESCRIPTION: Freshwater mussels are bivalve mollusks that have a two- valved hard shell, a soft body with respiratory, digestive and reproductive organs, and a muscular foot for locomotion, burrowing ...

An analysis of oil and gas pipeline safety in the United States reveals a troubling history of spills, contamination, injuries and deaths. This time-lapse video shows pipeline incidents from 1986 to ...

At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because ...