"In recent years, California’s Agassiz’s desert tortoise population has been decimated by shootings, residential and commercial development, vehicle traffic, respiratory disease and predation by ravens, dogs and coyotes. Now, dwindling populations of the reptiles with scruffy carapaces and skin as tough as rhino hide are facing an even greater threat: longer droughts spurred by climate change in their Sonoran Desert kingdom of arroyos and burrows, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study."

"We've long known that the fish we eat are exposed to toxic chemicals in the rivers, bays and oceans they inhabit. The substance that's gotten the most attention — because it has shown up at disturbingly high levels in some fish — is."

But mercury is just one of a slew of synthetic and organic pollutants that fish can ingest and absorb into their tissue. Sometimes it's because we're dumping chemicals right into the ocean. But as a published recently in Nature, Scientific Reports helps illuminate, sometimes fish get chemicals from the plastic debris they ingest.

"LANSING, Mich. — State Natural Resources Director Keith Creagh prohibited drilling on land tracts in the Au Sable River’s “holy waters” corridor Thursday while approving oil and gas exploration leases that worried fly fishermen and environmentalists."

"TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Three U.S. senators asked a federal agency Wednesday for evidence that a pipeline crossing a section of the Great Lakes is safe, following a roughly 10 percent increase in its capacity to carry oil."

"DETROIT -- Torrents of water spew from broken pipes in Detroit's Crosman School, cascading down stairs before pooling on the warped tile of what was once a basketball court."

"A New York environmental group says the use of fracking waste on some of the state’s roads is occurring more than initially thought. The state agency that regulates the use of fracking brine says it ensures the waste does not have high concentrations of pollutants."

"Skimpy-clothed people splashing amid the red sandstone canyons of Utah define our images of Lake Powell. But six months ago, engineers and water officials from the seven states of the Colorado River Basin quietly met in Santa Fe to consider a more serious possibility: Continued drought could leave too little water in the reservoir for the eight giant turbines in Glen Canyon Dam to produce electricity."

Columnist Allen Best reports for the Denver Post December 8, 2013. [27]

"Plan grants increased water access to all three parties, but environmentalists warn of unpredictable consequences."

"Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and state officials today announced the latest and largest slate of proposed projects to be funded by BP PLC to restore environmental damage and lost public use from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill."

"Over a four-year span, the United States lost more than 360,000 acres of freshwater and saltwater wetlands to fierce storms, sea-level rise and booming development along the coasts, according to a newly released federal study."