In South Florida, a polluted bubble ready to burst

As this in-depth article wryly notes, the problems with Lake Okeechobee are many and varied. But Florida's leadership just doesn't seem to get it. But a certain estuary will if things are allowed to proceed as feared.

Case study: Climate change making life difficult for Snowshoe Hare

It's just one example, sure, of what is happening as the climate changes due to human actions. But it is a telling one. I was lucky - darn lucky - to see a showshoe hare here in Vermont last winter. And I used to see them when living in the Adirondacks in the late 80s. Things are different now, of course. It's no longer just a concern for the loss of habitat, but now a changing climate as well. Read about it here.

Some on Jersey shore just don't get the fact: The sea level is rising

As this article explains, some homeowners on the New Jersey shore refuse to grant easements because they fear losing their view of the ocean to newly built dunes. Well, geez, view or no view, the Army Corps of Engineers is hardly going to be able to stop the Atlantic Ocean from rising. Nor will it be able to halt future storm surges. Dah?

A new paper released on Thursday reported that climate change compounded Hurricane Sandy's flooding, the damage. The paper also said that climate change worsened the U.S. heat waves, the shrinkage of Arctic sea ice, drought in Europe's Iberian peninsula, and extreme rainfall in Australia and New Zealand.And still, the U.S. Congress refuses to pass even the most mundane anti-greenhouse gas legislation. Still. Read more about the paper's findings.

A senator's fight for a Montana stream

The senator is Max Baucus. I wish him luck in the endeavor this article focuses on, but I can't help but wonder where he was on a lot of other public land issues - things that Frank Church would have fought for and won.

Oil spill and Lake Champlain pollution source

This, of course, is just one of a million-plus oil spills in the Lake Champlain watershed. I shot this pix in a local warehouse "park" yesterday. This is exactly the sort of non-point-source pollution that bedevils any and all efforts to clean up the water quality of this big lake and basins like Chesapeake Bay, too.

Give new Adirondack Forest Preeserve lands a wilderness classification, groups say

They're right, as a matter of fact. True wilderness, whether in New York State's Adirondack Park or on federal public land, is the surest and most responsible category for wild lands. The media likes to categorize the decision-making process as some sort of "debate," but there is no real debate: Wild places deserve to be protected as wilderness.