"At the peak of the whaling industry, in the late 1800s, North Atlantic right whales were slaughtered in their thousands. With each carcass hauled on to the deck, whalers were taking more than just bones and flesh out of the ocean. The slaughtered whales had unique memories of feeding grounds, hunting techniques and communication styles; knowledge acquired over centuries, passed down through the generations, and shared between peers. The critically endangered whale clings on, but much of the species’ cultural knowledge is now extinct."

"U.S. officials on Monday are expected to declare the first-ever water shortage from a river that serves 40 million people in the West, triggering cuts to some Arizona farmers next year amid a gripping drought."

"The death toll from a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Haiti soared on Sunday as rescuers raced to find survivors amid the rubble ahead of a potential deluge from an approaching tropical storm."

"When the Senate backed a massive budget package this week, it set off a monthlong sprint by committees to divide up $3.5 trillion among a host of domestic programs with a major focus on climate change."

"Thousands of people in the Dominican Republic were left without electricity or running water on Thursday in the wake of Tropical Storm Fred, which weakened to a depression as it grazed the northern coast of Cuba on track to Florida."

"The groundwater of at least nine military installations near the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Virginia is contaminated with high levels of toxic fluorinated “forever chemicals,” according to a report Wednesday by an environmental group that cites Defense Department records."

"Tropical Depression Fred was crossing over the large Caribbean island of Hispaniola on Wednesday when it was downgraded from tropical storm status. ... [But it will]  skirt just west of Florida this weekend on a path toward landfall in the southeastern United States early next week, potentially making two U.S. landfalls."

"The Colorado River through the national park holds lessons for managing an essential and diminishing resource in a rapidly warming climate."

"A federal judge ruled Monday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must update nearly three-decade-old regulations about the chemicals that can be used to disperse offshore oil spills, which some environmental groups contend cause serious health problems."

"The Senate on Tuesday approved a roughly $1 trillion proposal to improve the nation’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections, advancing a historic burst in federal spending after years of failed attempts on Capitol Hill to invest anew in the country’s aging infrastructure."