"Activist group Sea Shepherd on Tuesday pulled the plug on its annual campaign to disrupt Japanese whaling, saying it can no longer match the country's military and economic power."
"Devastation caused by Tropical Storm Harvey will only exacerbate congressional debate over flood insurance reform, likely forcing lawmakers to pass a short-term extension before the federal program expires at the end of September."
"As rain poured and floodwaters inched toward his house in south Houston, Wes Highfield set out on a risky mission in his Jeep Cherokee. He drove in several directions to reach a nearby creek to collect water samples, but each time he was turned back when water washed against his floorboard."
"With Tropical Storm Harvey dumping record rainfall on Houston, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faced a dilemma as water volumes rose to perilous levels in its two reservoirs west of the city center."
"Climate scientists, who specialize in thinking about the Earth system as a whole, are often reticent to link any one weather event to global climate change. But they say that aspects of the case of Hurricane Harvey—and the recent history of tropical cyclones worldwide—suggest global warming is making a bad situation worse."
"Regularly inundated by floodwaters ever since its settlement in the mid-1800s, Houston looked on warily even before Harvey roared ashore. In Houston, the chronic deluges that have repeatedly swamped its neighborhoods are getting worse and more costly — not just for locals, but for federal taxpayers."
"Around 13 million people are under flood watches and warnings stretching from Corpus Christi to New Orleans as the remnants of Hurricane Harvey menace the already drenched Texas and Louisiana."
"The Lummi Nation declared a state of emergency Thursday after a weekend spill of Atlantic salmon from a fish farm in San Juan waters."
"The fate of a mine near headwaters of a sacred river hinges on a wetlands permit; the tribe wants tougher federal standards to apply—not looser state ones."
"Harvey continued to intensify as it steered for the Texas coast, with the forecasters saying early Friday that it had strengthened to a Category 2 storm."
