No. 1331, January 8, 2026

Tell the EPA: We Need Clean Car Rules

Under the direction of President Donald Trump, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is working to nix federal clean-car standards that protect the air we breathe and help save money at the gas pump.

A rollback proposal could come any day now — and will be a blatant giveaway to Big Oil and auto executives. While industry stakeholders rake in profits, Trump’s proposal will let more cars burn more gas, resulting in more oil use, higher gas costs, and worse air pollution that harms our health and climate.

We need to keep the EPA's current standards in place to deliver cleaner cars that improve our quality of life and help protect the climate that wildlife needs to thrive.

Call out Trump's polluter-first agenda: Tell the EPA to protect our progress toward a better future by preserving clean-car standards — not running them off the road.

Trump’s Offshore Plan Could Cause 4,000+ Oil Spills

According to a new Center for Biological Diversity analysis, the Trump administration’s proposal to escalate offshore oil drilling could lead to 4,232 oil spills dumping 12.1 million gallons of oil into ocean waters.

That could harm countless species — including sea otters and blue whales in the Pacific, Rice’s whales and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific walruses and Cook Inlet belugas off Alaska.

“Beaches and marine life coated in crude will be our future if Trump’s scheme goes forward,” said the Center’s Oceans Legal Director Kristen Monsell.

Help us fight this terrible plan with a gift to the Future for the Wild Fund.

To Save Bull Trout, Work Halted on Idaho Marina

In response to litigation from the Center and allies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has ordered construction stopped on a luxury marina and lakeside housing on Idaho’s Lake Pend Oreille that could severely damage habitat for threatened bull trout. The development is at the mouth of Trestle Creek, home to more than half the basin’s annual spawning sites.

“The Army Corps made the right call by stopping work on this highly destructive development,” said Sarah Brown, a Center attorney in the northern Rockies. “The developer completely ignored permit conditions meant to protect the bull trout.”

Trestle Creek is also home to bald eagles, migratory birds, beavers, and kokanee salmon.

Trump Quits World’s Bedrock Climate Treaty

Trump just announced that he’s withdrawing the United States from the world’s oldest climate treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — the 1992 launchpad for the Paris Agreement (which he already pulled out of). Officially effective in a year, the withdrawal completely removes the United States from the global climate framework and negotiations. Trump also withdrew the country from dozens of other global environmental agreements and bodies.

“Pulling out of the UNFCCC is a different order of magnitude from the Paris Agreement,” said the Center’s Energy Justice Director Jean Su. “Letting this lawless move stand could shut the country out of climate diplomacy forever.”

Suit Filed to Protect American Horseshoe Crabs

The Center just sued NOAA Fisheries for missing its deadline to move forward on protecting American horseshoe crabs. In February 2024 we led 25 other groups in petitioning to list these 10-eyed, body-armored invertebrates under the Endangered Species Act. Now the agency is 19 months late on deciding whether they deserve protection.

Nearly twice as old as the dinosaurs, horseshoe crabs have been crawling ashore for massive beach orgies every spring for more than 450 million years. In the past few decades, though, they’ve declined by more than 70% because of habitat loss and overcollection. Biomedical companies “harvest” them to drain their blue blood for drug-safety testing — so we’re also pushing a transition toward safer synthetic alternatives.

“These living fossils have saved so many people, and now it’s up to people to save them,” said the Center’s Will Harlan. “So we’re going to court to make the Trump administration do its job.”

Revelator: Wildlife to Watch in 2026

What species are poised to define conservation issues in the year ahead? As we dive into 2026, says a new article in The Revelator, we should keep our eyes on New Zealand’s kākāpō parrots — along with grizzly bears, manatees, hellbenders, wolves, pangolins, and a couple of rare plants.

If you haven’t yet, make sure to subscribe to The Revelator’s free weekly e-newsletter for more wildlife and conservation news.

Emergency Checklists Must Include Birth Control

The Center’s recent report on what’s missing from the emergency preparedness lists of 49 states — namely, birth control and other sexual and reproductive health products — revealed that only Maryland recommends taking the full range of necessary items with you in a natural disaster.

That may not sound like a big deal, but — as The 19th revealed in a feature on our report — it is: Studies have shown that after Hurricane Katrina, for example, 40% of women who’d been doing family planning stopped birth control; 2 out of 55 became pregnant unintentionally. Other studies have found an increase in sexual assault after disasters, meaning that access to supplies can be crucial.

Especially as climate change worsens and catastrophic events increase, it’s critical to include womens’ reproductive health needs in emergency planning.

That's Wild: Tiny Cat Seen in Thailand After 30 Years

Ever heard of wild flat-headed cats? Well, we hadn’t. But these Southeast Asian felines, about half the size of your average housecat, are so rare in their native Thailand that none had been seen since 1995 — until remote cameras captured their nocturnal wetlands wanderings in 2024 and 2025.

Prionailarus planiceps are threatened by the usual suspects — habitat loss chief among them — and these marvelous sightings are giving scientists and advocates a new chance to plan for their conservation.

Watch the rare footage.

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Photo credits: Tailpipe by Ruben de Rijcke/Wikimedia Commons, traffic by Daniel R. Blume/Wikimedia Commons; sea otter courtesy NOAA, Kemp’s ridley sea turtle courtesy NPS; bull trout by R. Tabor/USFWS; air pollution by Ralf Vetterle/Pixabay; horseshoe crab by Robert Pos/USFWS; Sirocco, the famous kākāpō, courtesy New Zealand Department of Conservation; {{if not --[[No Condoms]] SavedSearch_501944}} SHEP report cover via Canva; flat-headed cat courtesy DNP/Panthera Thailand.

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