Disasters

"Massive floods have ravaged vast swathes of Asia's rice bowl, threatening to further drive up food prices and adding to the burden of farmers who are among the region's poorest, experts say."

"The Obama administration said Monday it was moving forward with oil-drilling leases off the coast of Alaska issued by the Bush administration in 2008, a victory for oil companies in the battle over Arctic Ocean drilling."

Because of a federal district court decision striking down Kansas' gas-safety law, neither the state nor federal government is inspecting gas storage fields which could present a fatal hazard.

"HARRIMAN, Tenn. — Streets of empty houses sit with dark windows around the glittering coves of the Emory River. A glance away, giant earth-moving machines scoop, pull and push ash, the unwelcome trespasser that nearly three years ago belched from a failed landfill to ooze over 300 acres and the river. As the machines reshape the muck, massive tankers continually sprinkle water to keep dangerous silica floaters out of the air and out of people’s lungs."

"FORT PIERRE, S.D. -- A summer of record flooding along the Missouri River is leaving a band of destruction—broken roads, drowned farmland and condemned houses—through the nation's midsection."

"A devastating Texas drought that has browned city lawns and caused more than $5 billion in damages to the state's farmers and ranchers could continue for another nine years, a state forecaster said on Thursday."

"'It is possible that we could be looking at another of these multiyear droughts like we saw in the 1950s, and like the tree rings have shown that the state has experienced over the last several centuries,' State Climatologist John Nielson-Gammon told Reuters.

"An ongoing federal investigation into last year's massive rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has found that a particularly lax U.S. regulatory regime was a significant factor in the events leading up to the disaster."

"ISLAMABAD -- Environmentalists are blaming climate change for the unprecedented massive monsoon rains in Pakistan, which so far this year have affected eight million people, claiming 350 lives and damaging 1.3 million homes."

"Five prefectures' nuclear burden a hot potato no one wants to catch."

"Five engineer climbers will take four more days to meticulously photograph every marble block as they look for damage caused by the August earthquake."