From the evening of June 6 to the morning of June 7 2008, Central Indiana was pounded by severe thunderstorms and heavy rain. Amounts of nearly 11 inches were recorded in some areas. This rain quickly led to record-breaking flooding in some areas during the week after. 

These storms were produced when strong winds above the ground interacted with an outflow boundary left over from the storms that produced severe weather earlier in the day of June 6. This left the region with too much water, mud and debris, which ultimately resulted in catastrophic damage, destruction and devastation around Columbus, Indiana and its surrounding counties. 

Across the nation, people learned about the City of Columbus, possibly for the first time. While many didn’t realize there was a Columbus, Indiana, those who live there were experiencing flooding that had not been seen in about 100 years. Travelers stranded by rising, swift-moving floodwaters learned of Columbus as they became stranded on Interstate 65 and roads leading to and from the city. 

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Apparently, it is true that desperate times call for desperate measures. Reportedly, Beijing's 17 million residents are now under very limited and restrictive driving, manufacturing and constructing guidelines. These restrictions are all being imposed in an attempt to clean up one very polluted city.

It is reported that major construction is to stop, factories are to be shut down and half the automobiles are to be grounded every day until after the Olympics.

While the Beijing Environmental Bureau said that the air “will be safe…everyone can be at ease," many athletes, environmentalists as well as authorities from numerous countries attending the Olympics have significant concerns.

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Landslides caused by the Sichuan earthquake have blocked rivers and formed new, possibly unstable, lakes. Satellite images taken by the Taiwan's National Space Organisation (NSPO) show one such lake forming in Beichuan County, one of the areas worst hit by the quake.

[via BBC]

Gary Works is an extensive steelmaking complex that sits on approximately 3,000 acres along the south shore of Lake Michigan just 15 miles southeast of Chicago. It is known as the number one polluter in the Lake Michigan basin and the third largest throughout all of the Great Lakes. In fact, U.S. Steel reported dumping more than 1.7 million pounds of pollution into the Grand Calumet in 2005, the last year for which figures are available.

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In 2006, Americans spent roughly $15 billion on bottled water. That’s more than we spent on movie theater tickets and ipods. While $15 billion seems staggering, also consider the fact that we pitched roughly 38 billion plastic water bottles into our landfills.

The ever-growing bottle water industry is not only taking a toll on our wallets, it is also having an impact on our environment. When you consider that 24% of the bottled water we buy is actually just tap water that is repackaged and sold by companies like Coke and Pepsi, we really need to ask ourselves: Is it worth it?

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Just south of Liangqiao, in southern China’s Guangdong province is the small village of Shangba. On the surface, this community of roughly 3,300 appears to be a tranquil, rural village comprised of sugar cane fields and plentiful rice paddies.

When a closer look is taken, the people of Shangba have been living with a malevolent curse for years. In fact, this town is now known as “Village of Death.” It has earned this name because, over time, cancer has claimed the lives of approximately 80 percent of the Shangba townspeople. It seems that no one living in Shangba, young or old, is safe from the threat of cancer.

Since 1987, there have been more than 250 confirmed cancer-related deaths. The majority of cancers have involved the liver and digestive system. Along with cancer, a significant number of Shangba citizens also suffer from skin disorders and kidney stones.

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Texas A&M University in College Station Texas,¹ has been conducting research into so-called "select agents," i.e. biological agents that the government thinks can be turned into biological weapons. The university's efforts are part of an $18 billion federal program to develop vaccines.

On April 20, 2007 the Centers for Disease Control — the CDC — issued a cease-and-desist order for Texas A&M's work with the Brucella bacterium.² On June 30, the order was expanded to include all work with select agents and toxins.³ The CDC then conducted a five-day comprehensive inspection of the A&M labs and issued a report⁴ on August 31 listing numerous flaws in oversight, working conditions, and security, including missing vials of select agents, unauthorized research with recombinant DNA, access to the lab by unauthorized personnel, and exposures of lab workers to bacteria that cause brucellosis and Q fever that went unreported to the CDC.

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