On Horn Island, off the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, there are still mats of oil from last year's Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster. BP will be returning to clean them up.
"Only a year ago Russia was overwhelmed by an exceptional heat wave, triggering hundreds of fires that destroyed thousands of hectares of woodland. Burning peat bogs around Moscow stifled the city in a thick cloud of bitter smoke."
"Drought worsened in the Midwest during the last week as record-high temperatures stressed the developing corn and soybean crops, while cotton and pastures eroded amid a historic drought in the southern Plains."
"It's official: July was a scorcher. High temperatures in communities across the USA broke or tied records 2,676 times, almost double the number (1,444) of a year ago, the National Weather Service reports."
The debt ceiling deal enacted by the House Monday contains provisions that will profoundly affect federal policy on the environment and energy. Environmentalists are crying foul. The Senate may vote on it Tuesday.
"In remote places like California's Death Valley, over-reliance on GPS navigation systems can be a matter of life and death."
"Despite decades of efforts to restore and protect the Great Lakes, dozens of old power plants still are allowed to kill hundreds of millions of fish each year by sucking in massive amounts of water to cool their equipment."
Kate Sheppard observes that it is very hot outside in much of the eastern U.S. She notes a blog post by Miles Grant citing NOAA records showing "June 2011 was the 316th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average." Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh says that the Heat Index is a government conspiracy.
"A lengthy, blistering heat wave that is blanketing the eastern half of the United States is putting significant stress on the nation's power grid as homeowners and businesses crank up their air conditioners."
"An oppressive and potentially deadly summertime mix of sizzling temperatures and high humidity baked a large swath of the country again on Sunday, pushing afternoon heat indexes in dozens of cities to dangerous levels."
