"As a lover of ancient rock art, Steve Acerson usually roams Utah’s backcountry searching for images of hunters and rams carved on boulders and canyon walls. But one morning, on a hillside speckled with those prehistoric petroglyphs, he was also finding signs of a younger civilization: Shotgun shells. Bullets. Shredded juniper trees. Exploded cans of spray paint."
"Local doctors are in the eye of a storm swirling for the past three years over whether corn that’s been genetically modified to resist pesticides is a source of prosperity, as companies claim, or of birth defects and illnesses".
"The warehouse in Tianjin that exploded on Aug. 12 was one of many buildings across China that store toxic chemicals near residential areas or major roads, in violation of safety regulations, according to a review of satellite imagery and public records."
"As of this week, the average of the group of forecast models used to predict the intensity of El Niño are calling for an event that would surpass the record-strong El Niño of 1997-1998."
"'Conditions may exist that could result in a... release of large volumes of contaminated mine waters,' stated a 2014 EPA report on the inactive Gold King Mine, whose toxic waters befouled rivers in 3 states earlier this month."
"On a remote Utah ridge covered in sagebrush, pines and wild grasses, a Canadian company is about to embark on something never before done commercially in the United States: digging sticky, black, tar-soaked sand from the ground and extracting the petroleum."
"President Barack Obama and Nevada's U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, two of the most powerful Democrats in the nation, are playing key roles in the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas on Monday."
Seasonal tropical cyclones were active across the globe. Danny peaked as a category 3 hurricane, then weakened to a tropical storm as it approached the Leeward Islands. Goni threatened major rains to the Hawaiian Islands. Goni left a trail of death and destructions in the Philippines.
"Newly released documents show that firefighters responding to an oil train derailment and fire last year in Lynchburg, Va., waited more than two hours for critical details about the train and what was on it."
"Humans are throwing ecosystems out of whack by not only killing a large number of animals, but by killing adults and top carnivores in particular, a study suggests. One answer is to act more like animal predators."
"If humans hope to fish the oceans more sustainably, they are going to have to start fishing like fish, a new study suggests.
That means harvesting younger, smaller fish to leave more of their elders to continue maturing and reproducing. And it means fishing quotas that are more in line with what nonhuman predators consume.
