"The Obama Administration [Thursday] gave Shell approval to prepare for oil drilling in environmentally fragile Chukchi Sea off Alaska although a critical oil spill containment vessel has not been certified. Shell will be permitted to start 'certain limited preparatory activities' for drilling off Alaska’s northwest coast, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters."
"Louisiana officials on Thursday ordered people along the Tangipahoa River between the towns of Kentwood and Robert to evacuate due to the expected failure of a dam in Mississippi that was damaged by Tropical Storm Isaac."
"President Felipe Calderón of Mexico announced Wednesday that the national oil company, Pemex, had struck oil in deep water, its first success after years of exploration in the deeper reaches along the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico."
"Before the Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed 40 years ago, early New Englanders had nearly hunted seals to death. They wanted them for their furs and to keep them from eating cod. Massachusetts even paid bounties on seals: $5 per nose. The act has helped gray seals and harbor seals recolonize New England waters, but fishermen off the coast of Cape Cod say they have become a nuisance."
"As the Caribbean grapples with the pollution of its waters, the ratification of a protocol designed to help arrest the problem appears to be gathering steam."
"A settlement reached in federal court promises an accelerated attack on pollution from the labyrinth of pipes under Boston and from pavement runoff, an effort designed to prevent raw sewage and other pollutants from reaching area waterways."
"SAN FRANCISCO -- The Center for Biological Diversity filed a legal petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday that asks the agency to set plastic pollution limits for ocean waters under the Clean Water Act."
"WILDWOOD, Mo. -- The wells supplying people’s homes are running dry here at the heart of the nation’s drought, which the government announced on Thursday has spread to 63.2 percent of the country, centered in the parched earth of the southern Midwest."
