Several high-profile federal and international reports this past fall highlighted the threats posed by human-caused climate change. But the words “climate change” have been removed from multiple reports and planning documents at the National Park Service.

The year 2017 was a devastating one for North Atlantic right whales. There are just over 400 of the critically endangered whales left, and there were 17 confirmed deaths. In every case in which the dead whale could be examined, the cause of death was found to be either entanglement in fishing gear or being hit by a ship.

The world has produced more than eight billion metric tons of plastic since around 1950. And the vast majority of that – almost 80 percent of it – has ended up in landfills or out in the environment. In fact, millions of tons of plastic waste enter the ocean each year, and tiny pieces of plastic have been found in the stomachs or tissues of turtles, birds, fish, and whales. Now, researchers from McGill University are turning this story upside down.

People in different countries often speak different languages. And even within a community, different groups may have distinct dialects or slang. Turns out, the same is true of pilot whales.

Each month we check in with the writers at Nature News to talk about the stories they've been following. This week we spoke with Benjamin Thompson from the Nature Podcast.

Cancers are a leading cause of death worldwide. Nearly forty percent of us are diagnosed with cancer at some point in our lives. And cancer care cost close to $150 billion in 2017. Of course, we also spend billions on cancer research to develop new ways to better detect and treat cancers.

Monarch butterflies are in trouble. Populations have declined steeply in recent years. A 2017 report found that monarchs in the Western U.S. could be extinct within decades if the current trends continue. New research is shedding light on some of the factors at play and some of them are unexpected like an increase in the size of monarchs. Andy Davis is a Research Scientist, Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia and Editor of the journal, Animal Migration . He's also the author of the

Despite the government shutdown, NASA was live streaming on New Year’s Day as the New Horizons space craft made a flyby of the most distant object humanity has ever explored – an icy, red, snowman-shaped object known as 2014 MU69. You may have heard it referred to by its nickname Ultima Thule.

Going on a diet is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions that Americans make. Whether it’s for weight loss, more energy, or just better overall health, there are a lot of options, and tons of information out there. Unfortunately, that information is often conflicting or it changes, and it’s hard to know what to trust.

We have started this new year with quite a bit of uncertainty: We're in the midst of a partial government shutdown, there are ongoing civil wars and humanitarian crises in Syria and Yemen, tensions with Russia and North Korea, and then there's the looming threat of climate change.