Environment | WPN World People News

Businesses are surrounded by floodwater as the Souris River crests Sunday in Minot, N.D. The river surpassed its 1881 record level of 1,558 feet above sea level, flooding an estimated 4,000 homes in Minot.

Kittens play in their cage at the Souris Valley Animal Shelter. Over 460 pets of evacuees are sheltered due to the flood. FEMA is working closely with federal, state, local and tribal partners in the ongoing flood fight.

Debris is piled near the street in this hard hit area of Bridgeton. FEMA is in the area coordinating recovery efforts.

The American public is less likely to believe in global warming than it was just five years ago. Yet, paradoxically, scientists are more confident than ever that climate change is real and caused largely by human activities.

Japanese officials say conditions at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant have markedly improved since the March 11 disaster, but the plant still won't be completely stabilized until early next year. At a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Association in Vienna Monday, officials released two reports that detail what went wrong — and what went right — in the aftermath of the crisis.

America's largest rivers have wreaked havoc on the Midwest this spring, inundating towns and farmland from South Dakota to Louisiana. Nature is responsible for most of it — huge snow packs in Colorado and Wyoming, and historic levels of rain. But some of the flooding isn't natural; it's controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers.

A waterfall in the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra, Indonesia

Members of the IAEA fact-finding team in Japan visit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

The funds that causes stem rust has been mutating rapidly

Japanese officials say conditions at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant have markedly improved since the March 11 disaster, but the plant still won't be completely stabilized until early next year. At a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Association in Vienna Monday, officials released two reports that detail what went wrong —and what went right — in the aftermath of the crisis.