"Swaths of Cape Cod's salt marshes are slowly disintegrating. For the human observer, the most notable sign of their decline might be the increase in night herons. They crouch like low, dark smudges on the salt marshes at dawn after feeding on the surfeit of Sesarma crabs through the night."

"U.S. EPA finalized a policy [Tuesday] intended to help cash-strapped cities facing expensive environmental mandates for cleaning up sewer overflows."

"TOKYO — Japan is on the verge of returning to atomic power after a local mayor on Thursday gave his approval to restart a pair of reactors, idled in the wake of last year's nuclear accident.

The nuclear restart could come as soon as this weekend, Japanese media reported. It would mark a controversial victory for the central government, which has spent months arguing that Japan needs nuclear power to sustain its fragile economy.

"After five years of toil, a consortium of several hundred U.S. researchers has released a detailed census of the myriad bacteria, yeasts, viruses and amoebas that live, eat, excrete, reproduce and die in or on us."

"Described in two papers in Nature and a raft of reports in other journals, the data released Wednesday describe microbes of the skin, saliva, nostrils, guts and other areas of 242 adults in tiptop health.

"U.S. officials ruled on Wednesday that a tiny lizard would be kept off the endangered species list after agreements with Texas and New Mexico landowners intended to protect its habitat and preserve oil and gas production in the region."

"MIAMI — Federal environmental regulators on Wednesday approved an $880 million state plan intended to dramatically reduce the flow of farm and suburban pollution into the Everglades."

"Wildfire season is well underway. Based on the number of acres burned in 2012 to date, this year is running below the 10-year average (1,012,419 acres compared to 1,546,333 acres). What's notable though is that although there have been fewer fires (24,062 this year-to-date versus 33,755 for the 10-year average), a few are giant beasts."

"RIO de JANEIRO -- President Dilma Rousseff today opened Rio +20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, at Brazil's giant pavilion in Athletes Park opposite Riocentro, the main seat of the conference meetings."