"Here’s a sobering update on efforts in Mexico, Hong Kong and mainland China to stave off the extinction of the vaquita, a critically endangered porpoise inhabiting Mexican waters at the north end of the Gulf of California that is the world’s smallest, and rarest, cetacean."
"With water scarce in Northern California’s Klamath Basin, a federal agency is again releasing water into the Klamath River to prevent a repeat of the 2002 fish kill that left tens of thousands of adult salmon dead."
"Expert says neonicotinoids, even at EPA’s ‘safe’ levels, could devastate aquatic invertebrates: ‘The water issue is probably as important as the pollinators’"
"Global warming caused by human emissions has most likely intensified the drought in California by 15 to 20 percent, scientists said on Thursday, warning that future dry spells in the state are almost certain to be worse than this one as the world continues to heat up."
"Recently released testing results in western Pennsylvania, upstream from Pittsburgh, reveal evidence of radioactive contamination in water flowing from an abandoned mine. Experts say that the radioactive materials may have come from illegal dumping of shale fracking wastewater."
"As far away from society as you might seem while floating on the Colorado River through Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, or hiking along its shorelines, heavy metals are polluting the river in concentrations that could pose a health risk."
"On a sun-scorched wasteland near India's southern tip, an unlikely garden filled with spiky shrubs and spindly greens is growing, seemingly against all odds."
"Chinese authorities warned that cyanide levels in the waters around the Tianjin Port explosion site had risen to as much as 277 times acceptable levels although they declared that the city's drinking water was safe."
"Vast areas of California's Central Valley are sinking faster than in the past as massive amounts of groundwater are pumped during the historic drought, state officials said, citing new research by NASA scientists."
As the 10th anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe approaches, many news media are doing stories that try to make sense of it. For journalists, it's an inexhaustible subject because it's about people's lives and the moral perils of the governments we choose. It's about the looming catastrophes we deny.
Advertisement 
