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"Tropical forests used to absorb carbon. Now they emit as much as all US transit" - a standout headline as a new study published by Science magazine caused a bit of a media stir. Once considered an all important carbon sink, the study is suggesting that tropical forests have reached a significant turning point.

Research published in the American Journal of Primatology earlier this month finds that the overall Western Chimpanzee population declined by six percent annually between 1990 and 2014, a total decline of 80.2 percent. The main threats to the Western Chimpanzee are almost all man-made. Habitat loss and fragmentation driven by slash-and-burn agriculture, industrial agriculture (including deforestation for oil palm plantations as well as eucalyptus, rubber, and sugar cane developments), and extractive industries like logging, mining, and oil top the list. In response to the finding that the Western Chimpanzee population has dropped so precipitously in less than three decades, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) elevated the subspecies' status to Critically Endangered on its Red List of Threatened Species.

Producing the meat that goes into US pet foods results in 64 million tons of greenhouse gases each year, according UCLA's Gregory Okin. The geographer's newly published study encourages less-meaty or plant-based pet foods.

The World Wildlife Fund has published a new report, Eating for 2 Degrees - New and Updated Livewell Plates, which outlines how simple steps, such as reducing red meat consumption, could help to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. The report shares the minimal dietary changes needed to meet the Paris Agreement commitment to keep global warming below 2°C.

Novo Nordisk, a global healthcare company specialising in diabetes, obesity and other serious chronic diseases, published its Annual Report 2017 online today at novonordisk.com/annualreport. It is the company's fourteenth integrated annual report accounting for the company's financial, social and environmental performance.

The Food Waste Reduction Alliance released "Best Practices and Emerging Solutions Toolkit," a guide for companies to reduce food waste. The guide provides advice for overcoming barriers to food donation, new technologies for reducing food waste, and strategic planning to avoid generating waste.

ExxonMobil is to become the first fossil-fuel giant to report on threats to its oil and gas assets due to possible future regulation of carbon emissions. The move won plaudits from clean-energy campaigners, who say fossil fuels will become economically unviable as governments tackle carbon emissions. "That the largest American oil and gas company is the first to come to the table on this issue says a lot about the direction that energy markets are taking," says Danielle Fugere, president of As You Sow

Coca-Cola began building a $100 million beverage plant in Heilongjiang, China that will seek to achieve LEED silver certification. The plant is expected to open in 2016.