PLANET IN PERIL

Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative As the human population has climbed past seven billion, and the consumption per person of everything from burgers to blue jeans has risen inexorably, the finiteness of Earth’s freshwater is becoming ever more apparent. Full story here.

Calgary Herald-Feb'12 Collateral damage from Canada's booming oilsands sector may be irreversible, posing a "significant environmental and financial risk to the province of Alberta," says a secret memorandum prepared for the federal government's top   Courtesy of Beautiful Destruction. bureaucrat . Full story here.

HELEN BRANSWELL-TORONTO— The Canadian Press/Globe and Mail - Mar 1'12 One of the world's leading scientific journals has criticized the federal government for policies that limit its scientists from speaking publicly about their research. Full story here.

HuffingtonPost Mar 1 - 2012 DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Animal welfare groups reacted with outrage Wednesday after the Iowa Legislature made the state the first to approve a bill making it a crime to surreptitiously get into a farming operation to record video of animal abuse. Full story here.

Los Angeles Times - Feb 29'12  Royal Dutch Shell launched an extraordinary preemptive legal strike Wednesday against opponents of offshore oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean.. .Details here.    (photo: NASA/Kathryn Hansen)

John Schwartz - New York Times - Feb 26'12 NEW ORLEANS — The civil trial over America’s biggest oil spill has been delayed for a week as efforts to settle the multibillion-dollar litigation intensify. Details here.

Manitoba Wildlands - Feb. '12 For the second time Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent has declined to issue an emergency order to protect woodland caribou. Details here.