"Twenty concrete vaults sit side-by-side, like self-storage containers, next to the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant. These concrete tombs hold fuel cells, each containing 12-foot rods of enriched uranium. The rods are toxic and radioactive and were never intended to be stored here indefinitely, among Ocean County's 560,000 residents."

"With the oceans absorbing more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide an hour, a National Research Council study released Thursday found that the level of acid in the oceans is increasing at an unprecedented rate and threatening to change marine ecosystems."

"A rare and dangerous fungal infection named Cryptococcus gattii has been quietly spreading from British Columbia southward to the U.S. Pacific Northwest. And it's changing as it goes. ... The most striking thing about this fungus is that it's popping up and establishing itself far afield from its usual range -- possibly because of climate change."

"The chairman of the International Whaling Commission offered a compromise proposal Thursday that would authorize commercial hunting for the first time in a quarter-century in exchange for reducing the number of whales killed each year."

"Worried whale researchers in Washington state are wondering where a grey whale had been feeding before it died in West Seattle last week. The 11-metre whale, which came ashore alive, swallowed an unusual amount of garbage, including sweatpants, a towel, a golf ball, rubber gloves, drink containers and numerous plastic bags."

"Bolivian President Evo Morales said capitalism is to blame for global warming and the accelerated deterioration of the planetary ecosystem in a speech today opening an international conference on climate change and the 'rights of Mother Earth.'"

The sand used to give blue jeans that worn look can cause silicosis, a potentially lethal lung disease -- in workers.

Michigan activist Lynn Henning, who endured abuse as she campaigned against water pollution caused by manure spreading, received the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize.

"An ocean census has revealed a 'new world' of richly diverse marine microbe life that could help scientists understand more about key environmental processes on Earth, a study said Sunday."