"For many with a stake in Alaska native corporations, promise of a better life remains unfulfilled."

"A once-unthinkable day is looming on the Colorado River. Barring a sudden end to the Southwest’s 11-year drought, the distribution of the river’s dwindling bounty is likely to be reordered as early as next year because the flow of water cannot keep pace with the region’s demands."

"The contamination of many First Nations by unregulated landfills and dumps is a dirty story that has yet to be fully told. Aside from the mess you can see – and smell – the risk of groundwater pollution is probably the most severe environmental impact from these waste sites. Add an improperly engineered garbage dump and the results are more than toxic."

"A Veterans Affairs official told Congress on Thursday that despite the evidence of widespread contamination of drinking water at Camp Lejeune, the agency doesn't think that the science yet exists to link exposure to the toxic water led to a host of cancers and other diseases suffered by former base residents."

Campo Kumeyaay Nation, a small tribe in the desert mountains east of San Diego, benefitted from the casino that opened in 2001. Now it wants to build a 25-turbine wind farm called Kumeyaay 1, the only large-scale renewable energy plant on Indian land in the country. But a big problem is the tribe's tax status: as a sovereign nation it can not receive the federal tax credits that make such projects feasible.

"Above the Arctic Circle in Canada near Greenland, five Inuit villages have won a court order that blocks a German icebreaker from conducting seismic tests of an underwater region that abounds with marine life -- and possibly with oil, gas and minerals."

"The Navajo Nation's proposed coal plant always rested on shaky ground. Now, it may collapse entirely."

A fifth of Pakistan is under water, and more than 14 million victims are flooded out. The Taliban and terror-linked groups are helping people more rapidly than the U.N. and western nations. The floods seem to be verifying predictions of climate refugees and climate change as a threat to global and U.S. security. The current government of Pakistan may be failing. Will global warming cause a nuclear-armed nation to be taken over by terrorists?

Walruses in the Arctic depend on sea ice as a base for hunting and transportation. The native Yupik and Inupiat people have depended on the walrus for meat, clothing, and tools. Now the climate-driven shrinking of sea ice is threatening both walruses and humans.

"Continued climate change will drive Mexican farm workers to migrate to the United States in greater numbers, environmental experts predicted on Monday."
 

A Penn State anthropologist puts forth a new hypothesis: that the nearly universal human tendency to bond altruistically with animals is a unique trait that has evolved because it gives us many advantages.

"In the first few days after BP's Deepwater Horizon wellhead exploded, spewing crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, cleanup workers could be seen on Louisiana beaches wearing scarlet pants and white t-shirts with the words "Inmate Labor" printed in large red block letters. Coastal residents, many of whom had just seen their livelihoods disappear, expressed outrage at community meetings; why should BP be using cheap or free prison labor when so many people were desperate for work? The outfits disappeared overnight."

"A small Colorado tribe takes control of its energy resources and becomes a billion-dollar corporation — but has it gone too far?"

"Where would Jesus drill? Religious leaders who consider environmental protection a godly mission are making the Gulf of Mexico oil spill a rallying cry, hoping it inspires people of faith to support cleaner energy while changing their personal lives to consume less and contemplate more."

"Louisiana is married to the oil and gas business, for better or for worse. The energy industry depends on Louisiana to supply 30 percent of the nation's oil supply, and Louisiana depends on the industry as the state's biggest economic engine. But there is a cost, as the Deepwater Horizon has proven."