"CLINTON, Ill. -- Fly over Clinton and the 266-acre landfill south of town doesn't look much different than 44 other landfills in Illinois.

But beneath its surface of inoffensive trash, the kind you put at the curb each week, are 4 trillion gallons of water used every day for public use, industry and irrigation in 15 Central Illinois counties.

And if ever the two shall meet, there could be trouble for the 750,000 people who rely on the Mahomet Aquifer, especially if Area Disposal's landfill starts accepting PCBs, a certain type of hazardous waste.

"Get ready for the heat. Scientists at Stanford University in California and Purdue University in Indiana say global warming is going to hit hard in Corn Belt states where it most matters -- the corn market. The study, financed by the U.S. Department of Energy, says that the corn market will be walloped in the coming years by climate change."

"Pacific reef shark populations have plummeted by 90 percent or more over the past several decades, according to a new study by a team of American and Canadian researchers, and much of this decline stems from human fishing pressure.

Quantifying the decline for the first time, the analysis, published online Friday in the journal Conservation Biology, shows that shark populations fare worse the closer they are to people — even if the nearest population is an atoll with fewer than 100 residents.

"They say oil and water don't mix, but when it comes to oil and gas drilling, water and oil are practically joined at the hip. It takes millions of gallons of water to drill a well. Water is the 'hydraulic' in the hydraulic fracturing process used to release oil and gas deposits. Disposing of wastewater is a costly challenge for drillers. And, at every step along the way, preventing groundwater contamination is the paramount concern for inspectors and regulators."

The US Agriculture Department's Wildlife Services agency, at farmer request, kills predators that may harm farm animals. But critics say it does serious harm to non-target species and uses needlessly cruel and indiscriminate methods.

"The mothers of a string of babies born with a birth defect on the same Kent street are convinced they've found the cause -- a banned weedkiller that's the subject of a legal battle being fought in the US by famed lawyer Erin Brockovich."

"Federal officials have been quick to reassure the public that there is no health threat from the mad cow disease discovered in the carcass of a Tulare County dairy cow. But there is a lot they don't know about the type of infection in that carcass -- including how the cow got the disease, how long it was ill, and the risk to the public if that strain gets into the food supply."

"Koalas are expected to be listed as a threatened species across parts of Australia from Monday, and some environment groups claim the government has excluded the marsupial from protection in certain areas due to mining interests."