Devils Hole pupfish were one of the first listed endangered species, and conservationists have fought to shield them from developers and farmers. "But faced with their mysterious disappearance, scientists are acknowledging that all the human attention, and the error that comes with it, may be killing them," writes Kathleen Hennessey. Twice a year scuba divers descend into 60,000-year old, 10-foot by 70-foot subterranean cavern to count the fish one by one, and this year the spring count was only 38 adults – less than half of the population of last fall. After the pupfish were listed as endangered in 1967, "irrigation pumping caused the hole's water to fall below the gravel-covered angular fish where the pupfish feed and breed. Fish began to die," writes Hennessey. Although the water level and temperature is kept constant and the shelf seems to be healthy, the fish population continues to decline.

"Salmon are dying in Seattle creeks. Toxic copper is being dumped at Seattle boatyards. And across the region, a filthy mix of oil, heavy metals, chemicals, pet waste and street crud flows into local waterways after every big rain," writes Robert McClure. Five environmental groups are suing EPA for allegedly failing to make Washington's water pollution water system give protected salmon enough protection. "Hundreds of businesses in the Puget Sound region are either discharging pollutants directly into local waters, or are allowing polluted stormwater to flow off roofs and paved areas, according to government records cited in the environmentalists' filing," writes McClure. The environmentalists also claim that EPA is failing to monitor the state's issuance of pollution licenses.

"During the last three years, a trickle of field observations has become a flood of more than 800 peer-reviewed reports documenting how plants and animals are adapting to changing temperatures," writes Robert Lee Hotz. "Searching for reliable clues, scientists turned to those who for generations have kept a precise weather eye on the seasons. Researchers have combed personal diaries, bird-watchers' ledgers, herbarium files, museum collection notations, old photographs and naturalists' field notes." The research shows that spring is coming earlier than 30 years ago – up to 13 days in North America and up to 15 days in Europe. Sap is rising sooner in the sugar maples; in Japan, Michigan, and Washington, D.C., cherry blossoms are flowering an average two weeks earlier; rivers and streams reach the spring high-water level up to 10 days earlier; and in New England ruby-throated hummingbirds arrive 18 days earlier, and wood ducks return a month earlier.

By 2025 California expects to add 7 million sport utility vehicles and light trucks and 2 million cars. The production from the state's largest oil fields is declining by 2 percent per year. "With Californians slurping more and more fuel, a milestone looms for a controversial drive to build an oil supertanker dock in Los Angeles harbor," write Ronald D. White and Elizabeth Douglass. The supertankers are 1,100 feet long and 200 feet wide and can carry more than 2 million barrels of oil. Currently, the channel at the Los Angeles harbor cannot accommodate these supertankers, so the oil comes on smaller carriers, or supertankers anchor miles offshore and transfer their oil using smaller ships. A company named Pacific Energy Partners wants to build a terminal capable of handling a fully loaded supertanker. Environmentalists and some residents argue that oil tankers at dock emit more pollution than container tanks, and they worry about potential oil spills and explosions.