"FRESNO, Calif. -- For decades, this city in California's agricultural heartland relied exclusively on cheap, plentiful groundwater and pumped increasingly larger amounts from an aquifer as its population grew."
"When a powerful storm unleashed 2 inches of rain on Allentown over six hours last summer, that water didn't just saturate lawns, flood roads and dampen basements. It also filled storm sewers with cascading water that blew the tops off manholes along the bloated sewage collection system."
"This month, the world will get a new report from a United Nations panel about the science of climate change. Scientists will soon meet in Stockholm to put the finishing touches on the document, and behind the scenes, two big fights are brewing."
"Oil industry lobbyists sought to gain an exemption from the leading California environmental law as they pushed back against legislation mandating oversight of hydraulic fracturing, multiple people familiar with the activities said."
"The United States will destroy its six-ton stockpile of elephant ivory as a way to combat wildlife trafficking, an international fight that often has law enforcement outgunned by well-financed crime syndicates, White House panelists said on Monday."
"The ivory - raw and carved whole tusks and smaller items seized by or abandoned to U.S. agents over the last 25 years - will be crushed as part of a push to publicize the illegal trade that threatens wild elephants, rhinoceros, tigers, great apes and other iconic species, said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.
"The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff said there were no safety issues that would preclude a 20-year license renewal for FirstEnergy Corp's 894-megawatt Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Ohio."
John Platt, author of Scientific American's Extinction Countdown blog, offers up a great list of things that may help environmental journalists illuminate some of the issues in question as the Act prepares for its second 40 years. Photo: A California condor outfitted with tracking tags, courtesy USFWS.
"Next time you go to toss that 'flushable' wipe in the toilet, you might want to consider a request from your sewer utility: Don’t."
"Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in an effort to win U.S. backing for the Keystone XL pipeline, has sent a letter to President Barack Obama proposing joint action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas sector"
"George Washington National Forest is more than just one of the largest expanses of pristine land in the East. It’s the leafy cradle of the Shenandoah, James and Potomac rivers, a source of drinking water for millions of people in greater Washington."
