Environment

Food Safety_Live.jpg

**FILE** The Sunland Inc. peanut butter and nut processing plant in eastern New Mexico, near Portales, is seen here on Nov. 27, 2012. The plant has been shuttered since late September due to a salmonella outbreak that sickened dozens. (Associated Press)

Germany Christmas Tre_Live.jpg

An elephant holds a Christmas tree on Jan. 4, 2013, at the Berlin Zoo at the launch of the annual feeding of Christmas trees. (Associated Press)

20130103-210445-pic-322855260.jpg

** FILE ** Tucked into the “fiscal cliff” tax package approved by Congress this week were billions of dollars in tax breaks, including a tax credit for the production of wind, solar and other renewable energy. (Associated Press)

20130103-183638-pic-540690187.jpg

Chinese paramilitary policemen build a fence Dec. 8 across from North Korea, seen in the background from the Chinese border town of Tumen. In recent months, North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un has intensified a border crackdown that has sought to seal the once-porous 880-mile frontier with China, smugglers and analysts alike say. (Associated Press)

Gulf Oil Spill-Restor_Live.jpg

**FILE** Scott Alford (center), a soil conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, points out features of a man-made marsh to Harris Sherman (right), undersecretary for natural resources and the environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Julie Grogan-Brown (left), also with the USDA, near Baytown, Texas. The marsh is part of a project to restore lost wetlands and islands off the Texas coast. (Associated Press)

20130103-100328-pic-770105748.jpg

Madison Homes is building 12 single-family homes in McLean’s Chesterbrook Manor. The homes will be built on lots of 9,313 to 19,009 square feet and will be priced from the upper $1,500,000s to $1,700,000.

Shell Arctic Drill Sh_Live.jpg

This aerial image provided by the U.S. Coast Guard shows the Royal Dutch Shell drilling rig Kulluk aground off a small island near Kodiak Island on Jan. 1, 2013. Officials said no leak has been seen from the drilling ship, which grounded off the island during a storm. (Associated Press/U.S. Coast Guard)

BUG.jpg

** FILE ** In this Friday, May 11, 2007, photo, a mosquito is sorted according to species and gender before testing for West Nile Virus at the Dallas County mosquito lab in Dallas. Scientists have been working on mathematical models to predict outbreaks for decades and have long factored in the weather. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

20130102-194530-pic-91266037.jpg

“The Bay is still dangerously out of balance, the rivers and streams are still impaired, but it’s getting better and that’s the good news,” Chesapeake Bay Foundation President William C. Baker says. (Associated Press)

20130102-165555-pic-9280638.jpg

In “Promised Land,” Matt Damon plays a gas company salesman trying to persuade residents of a town to allow fracking on their land. (Associated Press)

20130102-165555-pic-98734443.jpg

Matt Damon plays a drilling company representative who tries to ingratiate himself with the residents of a Pennsylvania small town, including a character played by Rosemarie DeWitt, in “Promised Land.” Industry groups and environmental activists alike see it as a message film about the perils of the gas boom and fracking. (Associated Press)