Public

"The United States doesn’t yet face the critical shortage of power that has left more than 600 million people in India without electricity this week. But the U.S. grid is aging and stretched to capacity. More often the victim of decrepitude than the forces of nature, it is beginning to falter. Experts fear failures that caused blackouts in New York, Boston and San Diego may become more common as the voracious demand for power continues to grow. They say it will take a multibillion-dollar investment to avoid them."

Lake Ontario's lake trout have been a key indicator of pollution that affects humans and other species.

As ethnobotanists meet in New York City, they offer reminders that obscure and endangered species should be preserved because they sometimes form the basis of miracle drugs.

"The earth is performing an enormous disposal service for the human race. About half of the carbon we are dumping into the atmosphere does not stay there and is instead taken up by the oceans and land. Were this not the case, scientists say, the earth would probably be warming far more rapidly. One of the biggest questions in climate science is: How long will that disposal service last?"

"Democrats, environmentalists and clean energy backers hope GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's solidified opposition to a key wind energy tax break helps motivate voters in closely contested, windy states to tip the election toward President Obama."

"With about a month and a half remaining in the Arctic melt season, sea ice cover continues to decline at a rapid pace, and is currently on par with where the 2007 record melt season stood at the same time of year."

A Senate Environment Committee hearing on climate science Wednesday only exemplified the political deadlock that keeps the United States from basing policy on established science.

Ann Arbor's stretch of the Huron River seems an oasis where people can go kayaking and tubing to cool off in the summer. But not far from the river, the ruins of a coal-gas plant dating back to the late 1800s may still be oozing pollutants into the groundwater.

"TOKYO -- The Japanese utility that operates the nuclear power plant sent into meltdown by last year's tsunami received a trillion yen ($12.8 billion) public bailout Tuesday, effectively putting it under government control."

"The lines are now drawn on a political hot button in Iowa: a lucrative tax break for wind energy. Mitt Romney is against it, President Barack Obama favors it — opposing stances that could have political and economic implications in Iowa, which has more wind energy jobs than any other state in the nation."