Punishing winds and mammoth swells shoved the freighter Selendang Ayu hard ashore in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska two weeks ago, cracking the ship in two, leading to the deaths of six crewmen and setting off an oil spill originally estimated at more than 40,000 gallons.

Complete article: The New York Times

In parts of Fairbanks, Alaska, houses and buildings lean at odd angles.

Some slump as if sliding downhill. Windows and doors inch closer and closer to the ground.

It is an architectural landscape that is becoming more familiar as the world’s ice-rich permafrost gives way to thaw.

Complete article: Earth’s permafrost starts to squelch (BBC News)

Wind turbines. Don’t you just hate ‘em’ Hideous inefficient eyesores, ruining the view… Rubbish, says Roger East. For anyone else who’s tired of the constant barrage of anti-wind propaganda, here’s some timely ammunition.

Complete article: Blowing away the myths (Green Futures)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 - The Defense Department, which controls 28 million acres of land across the nation that it uses for combat exercises and weapons testing, has been moving on a variety of fronts to reduce requirements that it safeguard the environment on that land.

Complete article: Pentagon Is Pressing to Bypass Environmental Laws for War Games and Arms Testing (The New York Times)

A longstanding theory that provides much of the basis for our understanding of climate change - that the mile-thick ice sheet covering Antarctica developed because of a shift in ocean currents millions of years ago - has been challenged by Purdue University scientists.

Complete article: Antarctic iced over when greenhouse gases - not ocean currents - shifted (Innovations Report)

China is shifting the national energy policy by putting its first priority on energy conservation and improving the energy efficiency from its previous emphasis on energy exploitation.

The move will help the country control the emission of carbon dioxide to meet possible Kyoto Protocol obligations years ahead of schedule, experts said.

Complete article: Energy conservation, efficiency highlighted (China Daily)