October, 09 2019, 12:00am EDT
MIAMI, FL
The Puerto Rican parrot and the Florida manatee are among 10 U.S. species especially at risk from climate change-fueled superstorms, says a report released today by the Center for Biological Diversity.
Human-caused climate change is multiplying the destructive power of hurricanes by increasing their intensity, rainfall and storm surge -- the huge walls of water that crash into coastlines during storms. These superstorms cause flooding, severe winds and scattered debris that can kill or injure animals and damage habitats.
"The climate crisis is feeding monster hurricanes that bring suffering and death to some of our nation's most vulnerable wildlife," said report author Shaye Wolf, the Center's climate science director. "With each superstorm, coastal species already near extinction are blown away by brutal winds, drowned by floodwaters or left with decimated habitats. It'll only get worse until we get serious about curbing climate pollution."
Wolf analyzed data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service and scientific literature to determine which endangered species are most threatened by intensifying Atlantic hurricanes. The table below lists 10 of the species most at risk, along with their population sizes and locations.
Many species on the list suffered enormous population declines from one or more recent Atlantic hurricanes, including Harvey, Maria and Irma. For example, Hurricanes Maria and Irma wiped out nearly half of the wild Puerto Rican parrot population. Hurricane Irma slashed the Florida key deer population by 23 percent.
The report concludes that urgent action to combat the climate emergency is necessary to save these species from extinction. Those actions include a rapid phase-out of fossil fuel production and a just transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy. It also calls for protecting and restoring living shorelines and defending the Endangered Species Act from the Trump administration's attacks.
"The Trump administration is dismantling critical climate policies with one hand and tearing down the Endangered Species Act with the other," Wolf said. "To preserve a future where magnificent green sea turtles still nest on our shores, and to avoid catastrophic ecosystem collapse, we need to act now."
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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 diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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'Hands Off Public Media!' Thousands March, Workers Strike in Czechia Over Right-Wing Attack
The right-wing reforms, approved by the Babiš cabinet last week, would eviscerate the annual budgets for both public radio and television programming by 15% next year—bringing them back to 2008 levels by cutting a combined €57 million—while also changing the funding mechanism going forward. Instead of funds generated through fees paid by individuals, households, and businesses, the annual budgets would now come from government allocations, which critics of the changes say would give the ruling party more influence over content.
"The media don't belong to politicians," Mikulas Minar, an organizer with the group behind the protest movement—dubbed the Million Moments for Democracy—told Deutsche Welle on Sunday. "They belong to us all and we won't allow them to be stolen from us."
The fight over the countries public media system, "is not just about money," reports The Guardian.
“The reforms have been prepared without consultation and without guarantees for the independence of public service media,” Pavla Kubálková, a member of Czech Television’s strike committee, told the newspaper. “A large part of society remembers what the news looked like when politicians chose the content before 1989. We don’t want to go back there.”
On Monday, the striking workers formed a symbolic human chain around the Czech public radio offices in Prague.
Protesters ended their march at the public broadcaster's headquarters in Prague on Sunday, June 21, 2026. (Image: Ondrej Deml/CTK/picture alliance)
“What matters most to us is preserving independence and the direct relationship between Czech Television and its viewers,” added Kubálková, warning against increased political pressure on the public broadcasters from the state.
As the Guardian reports, those concerns, "were reinforced last week when Josef Nerušil, an MP for the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party, which is part of the governing coalition, appeared to suggest that changes to funding should eventually lead to greater scrutiny of what public broadcasters air."
“The point is to change the funding,” Nerušil told Czech Radio. “But if we’re talking about what public service media should broadcast, then of course, in a further step, we want to get to a broader discussion.”
Nerušil admitted the aim was “to control not only the financial side but also the content side,” as he accused the broadcasters of political bias in their coverage.
The workers on strike and the people in the street, said Kubálková, should signal to the government that the people of Czechia are ready for a fight.
“The employees of both broadcasters are ready to defend their service to citizens, and we are determined to continue with even more vigorous protests,” she said. “We will do everything we can to defend public service media in their current form.”
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