"WASHINGTON -- More than 4 out of 5 Americans want to prepare now for rising seas and stronger storms from climate change, a new national survey says. But most are unwilling to keep spending money to restore and protect stricken beaches."

"Over the objections of environmentalists, community groups and neighboring Long Beach officials, Los Angeles harbor commissioners on Thursday approved a $500-million rail yard that could dramatically boost business but also drive more noise and dirty air into schools, parks and low-income neighborhoods."

"Little more than a year after making it to the top of IBM's list of worst commuter cities, Mexico City has returned to the urban transit spotlight -- this time at the receiving end of international praise."

"Republican legislators’ plan to take over key state commissions would remake the Coastal Resources Commission in a way that could strain a decades-long partnership with federal regulators.

At stake is $2.5 million in federal funds the state receives each year to help protect the environment in a federal-state partnership that has afforded North Carolina local control of coastal development permits.

"No part of the U.S. will escape the harsh consequences of climate change, which has already begun to cause trouble from Alaska to Florida, and from Maine to Hawaii, and which will worsen as the century goes on. But according to a report released January 28, the nation’s coastlines -- Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific and Great Lakes -- are likely to get the worst of it."

"Washington -- Denise Tortorello, a real estate agent at Riviera Realty in Point Pleasant, N.J., said she can't tell yet where property values are headed since Hurricane Sandy demolished a string of beach towns built on a slender strip of barrier islands in the Atlantic."

After years of disagreement, planners from California and Nevada seem to have finally agreed on a plan that will allow development while protecting Lake Tahoe's crystalline waters.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to take up the controversy of the thirsty Fort Worth area's bid to get water from Oklahoma.

"As moldy drywall thudded to the curb in a depressing drumbeat throughout Breezy Point, Queens, Thomas Ryan’s reciprocating saw stood out like a growling declaration of impatience."

"The federal report predicts a drier future for the seven states that rely on the Colorado for water. A range of solutions, some impractical, are proposed."

"It will take tens of billions of dollars to repair the damage wrought by Superstorm Sandy. But scientists who study climate change say repair is not enough. As the climate warms, ice sheets and glaciers will melt, raising the sea level. That means coastal storms will more likely cause flooding."

Years of poor land-use decisions and neglect of emergency preparedness probably made the losses of life and property from superstorm Sandy significantly worse. Similar situations exist in other U.S. coastal areas.

"For more than a century, for good or ill, New Jersey has led the nation in coastal development. Many of the barrier islands along its coast have long been lined by rock jetties, concrete sea walls or other protective armor. Most of its coastal communities have beaches only because engineers periodically replenish them with sand pumped from offshore. Now much of that sand is gone."

"Superstorm Sandy delivered only a glancing blow to Delaware, but it brought new focus on man’s attempts to manage nature, to hold back the sea."

"Every time a storm brings flooding to a large metropolitan area, there are calls to improve the levee systems that are designed to prevent flooding."