Water & Oceans

"Almost 6 million Texans, or about 20% of the population, live in an area susceptible to flooding, according to first-of-its-kind data gathered as part of a statewide effort to harden Texas against floods and rising sea levels."

"Every schoolchild learns the name: Mesopotamia – the Fertile Crescent, the cradle of civilization. Today, much of that land is turning to dust."

"As a blistering marine heat wave persists off the coast, a full-blown emergency is unfolding along the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States."

"Twenty-two attorneys general urged a federal court Wednesday to reject a proposed $10.3 billion settlement over contamination of U.S. public drinking water systems with potentially dangerous chemicals, saying it lets manufacturer 3M Co. off too easily."

"The water temperature around the tip of Florida has hit triple digits — hot tub levels — two days in a row. Meteorologists say it could be the hottest seawater ever measured, although some questions about the reading remain."

"The Atlantic Ocean’s sensitive circulation system has become slower and less resilient, according to a new analysis of 150 years of temperature data — raising the possibility that this crucial element of the climate system could collapse within the next few decades."

"Baltimore City has refused to comply with a directive from state and federal environmental regulators that it expand the scope of a program that helps residents clean up after sewage backs up into their homes."

"Massachusetts environmental regulators have denied a request by the company dismantling a shuttered nuclear power plant to release more than 1 million gallons (3.8 million liters) of radioactive wastewater into Cape Cod Bay."

"The United Nations has started pumping oil off a decaying vessel moored off Yemen’s Red Sea coast, averting a potential spill and environmental disaster, UN officials have said."

"The start of industrial-scale seabed mining to extract car battery metals from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean has been delayed after the international agency charged with overseeing the work concluded late last week that it needed more time to finalize mining rules."