President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he reversed bans on offshore drilling in vast parts of the Arctic Ocean and dozens of canyons in the Atlantic Ocean, a U.S. judge said in a ruling that restored the Obama-era restrictions. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason in a decision late Friday threw out Trump's executive order that overturned the bans that comprised a key part of Obama's environmental legacy.

The Trump campaign is reportedly seeking a list of "climate change victories" that can be attributed to Donald Trump's presidency, reflecting a shift in strategy ahead of the 2020 election as polls show growing voter concern over global warming. A spokesman for the Trump campaign said they were unaware of White House conversations on messaging with EPA officials, but confirmed that the campaign is gathering research for an aggressive defense of the president's climate change record.

Officials began to clean up a massive oil spill Friday that dumped nearly 800,000 gallons of oil and water into a California canyon, making it larger — if less devastating — than the state's last two major oil spills. The newly revealed spill has been flowing off and on since May and has again stopped, Chevron spokeswoman Veronica Flores-Paniagua said. She and California officials said the spill is not near any waterway and has not significantly affected wildlife. The last flow was Tuesday.

Poland Spring announced Monday a plan to use 100% recycled plastic for all its noncarbonated water containers, a move that comes amid growing concern about plastic pollution. The Maine-based company said the effort kicks off this month with 1-liter bottles. By 2022, the company plans to use 100% recycled plastic for bottles in all of its still water lines. A niche product called Poland Spring Origin also uses 100% recycled plastic bottles.

The sightlines at Wrigley Field, the panorama from Navy Pier, the vantage points at the Adler Planetarium observatory — all structures built more than 100 years ago — are at least 4 inches lower now. In the northern United States and Canada, areas that once were depressed under the tremendous weight of a massive ice sheet are springing back up while others are sinking. The Chicago area and parts of southern Lake Michigan, where glaciers disappeared 10,000 years ago, are sinking about 4 to 8 inches each century.

Climate change issues — and, more specifically, demands by Democratic activists for policies grouped under the label of a Green New Deal — are fast becoming a marquee issue in the 2020 presidential race. Increased voter anxiety over the warming planet and a deft marketing campaign by progressive activists have pushed candidates to take positions substantially bolder and louder than those of past elections. A recent poll found the idea of a Green New Deal has the support of 81 percent of registered voters, including nearly two-thirds of Republicans; and the Brookings Institution recently produced data showing that some of the regions at most risk of suffering economically from climate change are also the places most fiercely resistant to addressing it.

Across the Southwest, people are longing for the monsoon rain like a lost summer romance. They're declaring their love online for the seasonal weather pattern that makes the scorching heat somewhat bearable in places like Phoenix and Las Vegas, and helps snuff out wildfires. They're peering out their windows for signs of storm clouds rolling in and calling rain drops a tease. And they're not giving up hope, despite many cities experiencing their driest summers on record.

Add salmon to the list of species affected by Alaska's blistering summer temperatures, including the hottest July on record. Dead salmon have shown up in river systems throughout Alaska, and the mortalities are probably connected to warm water or low river water levels, said Sam Rabung, director of commercial fisheries for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Conservationists told a federal judge Wednesday that an imminent government plan to shrink the territory of the only red wolves living in the wild would hasten the animal's extinction in violation of federal law. An estimated 35 wild red wolves remain, down from about 120 a decade ago. Another 200 currently live in captive breeding programs.

Environmental research projects on everything from endangered animals to air and water quality are being delayed and disrupted by the month-long partial federal government shutdown, and not just those conducted by government agencies. Scientists with universities, nonprofit organizations and private companies say their inability to collaborate with federal partners, gain access to federal lands and laboratories, and secure federal funding is jeopardizing their work.