"MARIETTA, Okla. -- The ground had been shaking for a week, on and off, when the biggest of the earthquakes hit. People here heard two loud booms. Then the picture frames started falling. Wendy Gillham turned to see her flat-screen television crash to the floor only a foot or so from her infant girl. Then she looked outside and saw her chimney in pieces on her driveway."

"Long before disaster struck, the 5,900 residents of Lac-Mégantic had grown accustomed to the sight of large oil tankers rolling through their small, tightly knit community in the Eastern Townships of Quebec."

After 4 railcars plunged into a creek a year ago near Paulsboro, N.J., spilling vinyl chloride, the effects are still being felt by local residents.

"LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Lawsuits and alleged safety violations are mounting against Exxon Mobil Corp. following the rupture eight months ago of a pipeline that spilled thousands of barrels of oil in central Arkansas."

"We've heard that climate change likely played a very minor role in the havoc that typhoon Haiyan wrought on the Philippines."

"WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A New Zealand judge on Tuesday rejected a Kiribati man’s claim that he should be granted refugee status because of climate change."

"Fears for the future: About one in four people in Arkansas counts on drinking water from a source that is crossed by Exxon's burst Pegasus pipeline."

"National standards should be set for building construction, storm shelters and emergency communications to reduce death and damage from tornados, a federal agency that studied the deadly 2011 tornado in Joplin, Missouri, recommended on Thursday."

"Halfway across the world from the typhoon-ravaged Philippines, several small, remote communities at the northwestern tip of Turtle Island have been declared disaster areas from damage wrought by severe storms and flooding in mid-November."

"WASHINGTON -- Nuclear Regulatory Commission staffers are rejecting the concerns of lawmakers, state officials and watchdog groups who say nuclear waste tightly packed in spent-fuel pools at U.S. power plants is vulnerable to terrorist attacks."