Ice coverage on the Great Lakes decreased 71 percent between 1973 and 2010, EarthSky reported, citing a study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published in the Journal of Climate. The lakes currently have only a 12 percent ice cover, less than a third of the ice cover present at this time last year.
This winter has been the fourth warmest on record in the United States, with only one state—New Mexico—experiencing temperatures below average, the Weather Channel reported.
Ohio’s governor plans to raise severance taxes to four percent for oil and natural gas extracted using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, according to Bloomberg News. The plan, meant to fund income-tax cuts in the state, could raise over $1 billion by 2016.
A month-long water shortage led to an outbreak of cholera in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where communities were forced to take water from a contaminated lake, United Press International reported.
Twelve British nuclear sites are at risk from flooding and erosion as sea levels rise, a government study found, according to the Guardian.
A new study on wetlands development showed that two man-made wetlands—one planted and the other left untouched—exhibited similar growth and species diversity over a long period of time, yet the un-planted wetland captured more carbon, The New York Times reported.