"The bald eagle may no longer be at risk of extinction, but the U.S. effort to protect the national bird became harder on Wednesday."

"On the night of Sept. 9, 2010, a 30-inch natural gas pipeline buried underneath the city of San Bruno, California, exploded. The fire was so large and the corresponding roar so loud that many residents thought a plane from the nearby San Francisco International Airport had crashed."

"SAN FRANCISCO — The threats from climate change are many: extreme weather, shrinking snowpack, altered ecosystems and rising and more acidic seas, to name a few. Another lesser-known issue may hit especially close to home for city dwellers. In the world’s already smoggy metropolises, pollution is likely to grow worse, a phenomenon scientists have taken to calling the climate penalty."

"SEATTLE — The U.S. Department of Labor has ordered a Hanford Nuclear Reservation contractor to reinstate a worker who the department says was fired for voicing concerns about nuclear and environmental safety, officials announced Wednesday."

"Europe's ageing nuclear fleet will undergo more prolonged outages over the next few years, reducing the reliability of power supply and costing plant operators many millions of dollars."

"Cities are almost always hotter than the surrounding rural area but global warming takes that heat and makes it worse. In particularly days over 90°F, are associated with dangerous ozone pollution levels that can trigger asthma attacks, heart attacks, and otthe future, this combination of urbanization and climate change could raise urban temperatures to levels that threaten human health, strain energy resources, and compromise economic productivity."

"North Carolina House and Senate leaders announced a compromise on a stalled coal ash bill late Tuesday, days before legislators end their session."

"For the better part of a century, from 1840 to around 1940, the U.S. was the world's biggest buyer of ivory. Hunters killed hundreds of thousands of elephants, and uncounted numbers of Africans were enslaved to carry the tusks to ships bound for America. Most of that ivory went to a tiny town in Connecticut — a town that's now grappling with this dark part of its past."

"Entrepreneurs have been trying for years to get something valuable out of algae."