Environment

Arctic_Ozone_Layer.sff.jpg

FILE - In this Sept. 13, 2006 file photo, ice chunks float in the Arctic Ocean as the sun sets near Barrow, Alaska. The Arctic is a thermostat against overheating and a barometer of change, but now its own protective ozone layer that keeps out damaging ultraviolet radiation has thinned to record levels, the U.N. weather agency said Tuesday April 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Arctic Sounder, Beth Ipsen)

B3-Debt-Tsunami-GG-WEB.jpg

Illustration: Debt tsunami by Greg Groesch for The Washington Times

Austria Nuclear Safet_Lea.jpg

Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, speaks during a news conference at an IAEA meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Monday, April 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

20110403-194500-pic-744604854.jpg

The Consumer Product Safety Commission cites concern about too little oxygen and carbon dioxide buildup in the inflatable spheres known as "water walking balls." The commission is urging people to stay out of them because of a risk of suffocation or drowning. One company that sells the water balls says on its website that there is enough oxygen to last 30 minutes. (Associated Press/Consumer Product Safety Commission)

CHERRY_001_04031643.jpg

With sunshine and warmer temperatures Sunday, it was a beautiful day to relax under the cherry trees that rim the Tidal Basin. (Drew Angerer/The Washington Times)

The_Sunshade_Option.sff.jpg

This March 23, 2011 picture shows Steven Hamburg, left, a scientist with the U.S. Environmental Defense Fund, and John Shepherd, a University of Southampton climatologist, leaders of a three-day conference of international experts at a Royal Society retreat in Chicheley, England on how the world might oversee research into manipulating the Earth's atmosphere to combat global warming. Like many environmentalists who oppose tampering with the atmosphere, these scientists and other conferees said they would prefer that governments instead agree on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. (AP Photo/Charles J. Hanley)

20110403-175449-pic-960338198.jpg

Oceanographer Curt Ebbesmeyer displays a necklace made of ocean flotsam on Wednesday in Seattle. He expects the first items of flotsam from Japan's tsunamis and earthquake to hit West Coast beaches in a year. (Associated Press)

20110403-173622-pic-158548620.jpg

Leaking radioactive water drains through the crack of a maintenance pit (right) into the ocean near the Unit 2 reactor of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Japan. Highly radioactive water was leaking into the ocean Saturday from a crack discovered at the nuclear power plant. (Associated Press via Kyodo News)

Japan Earthquake_Live.jpg

A man walks Sunday over debris in an area devastated by the March 11 tsunami to search for his house and belongings in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan. (Associated Press)

Japan Earthquake_Lea(2).jpg

Highly radioactive water leaks through a crack in a maintenance pit (right) into the sea near the Unit 2 reactor of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, in a photo released by the Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the facility, on Saturday, April 2, 2011. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co. via Kyodo News)

Cyprus_Turkey_Nuclear_Worries.sff.jpg

FILE- Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot environmental activists protest against Turkey's plans to build a nuclear power plant on its southern coast near a seismic fault line, during a demonstration in the divided island's capital Nicosia, in this file photo dated Saturday, March 19, 2011. Turkey is pushing ahead on building a nuclear power plant close to an earthquake-prone Ecemis Fault area on the Mediterranean coast, dismissing fears from neighboring Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou who claims that Japan's nuclear disaster is a warning of the risks to the whole region.(AP Photo/Philippos Christou)

JAPAN.jpg

In this Friday, April 1, 2011, photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co., workers for the company experimentally spray adhesive synthetic resin over the ground at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, northeastern Japan. TEPCO expects the resin spraying to prevent dust exposed to radiation materials from spreading out of the premises. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co.)

B4-shutter.jpg

Illustration: Shuttered Congress

ADDITION_Hong_Kong_Japan_Earthquake.sff.jpg

Japanese music band AKB48 performs during the concert "Artistes 311 Love Beyond Borders" in Hong Kong on April 1, 2011. Hong Kong entertainment industry staged the charity concert to raise funds for victims of Japan's massive earthquake and tsunami. From left are, Ayaka Umeda, Ami Maeda and Sakiko Matsui. (Associated Press)

Hong_Kong_Japan_Earthquake.sff.jpg

Japan-based Hong Kong singer Agnes Chan performs during the charity concert "Artistes 311 Love Beyond Borders" in Hong Kong Friday, April 1, 2011. Hong Kong entertainment industry staged the concert to raise funds for victims of Japan's massive earthquake and tsunami. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

SIMPSON.JPG

Idaho Republican Rep. Michael K. Simpson and other critics say the Obama administration is violating a federal law that designates Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the leading candidate for nuclear-waste disposal. (Associated Press)

20110331-213948-pic-790452518.jpg

"I could see the future. Maybe I could go there and help out. I had a vision. Now we're in the Final Four. My vision panned out," said Jamie Skeen, a fifth-year senior who transferred to Virginia Commonwealth University from Wake Forest. (Associated Press)