Natural Resources

"A new study for the federal Minerals Management Service concludes that the construction of pipelines related to oil and gas production in the Outer Continental Shelf of the Gulf of Mexico 'can cause locally intense habitat changes, thereby contributing to the loss of critically important land and wetland areas.'"

"'Climate disruption is the greatest threat ever to America's national parks,' warns Stephen Saunders, president of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and principal author of a new report released Thursday that identifies the 25 U.S. national parks, lakeshores, seashores and monuments most at risk of global warming."

"The Obama administration on Wednesday moved to curtail the practice of mountaintop mining to extract coal, angering mining companies that said the move threatens thousands of jobs."

"In what is being touted as the world's biggest dam-removal project, an agreement was reached Tuesday to remove four dams on the Klamath River and restore a 300-mile migratory route for California's beleaguered salmon."

"Bureau of Land Management's proposal for the West Mojave 'does not contain a reasonable range of alternatives' to limit off-road-vehicle routes in the sensitive habitat, the ruling states."

"This fall may prove to be a watershed moment for the parks," as a six-part PBS series by Ken Burns highlights their glories and their problems -- air pollution, a changing climate, and needed upkeep among them.

"Opponents of offshore oil drilling in the Arctic are making a last-ditch effort to convince the Obama administration to impose the same kind of moratorium on oil and gas development that it did on major commercial fishing in the Far North."

"Two-thirds of the world's major deltas, home to nearly half a billion people, are caught in the scissors of sinking land and rising seas, according to a study published Sunday."