Cars that eat paradise

While known for pristine beaches and blue skies, Pacific Islands are also polluted with thousands of man-made monuments: rusting cars, trucks and other wreckage.

Ocean oddities: ghost ships

As long as a boat stays afloat, it can still keep moving, even if there is no one onboard. For vessels abandoned at sea, currents and winds become captain and crew. With that endless kinetic energy to drive them, and a vast, often empty ocean to roam, the ghost ships may eerily sail on indefinitely.

When beaches are trashed, who pays the price?

A recent NOAA-funded study found that when the amount of marine debris normally on beaches is doubled, coastal economies could experience a substantial negative impact due to a decrease in beach visits and loss of economic activity in those communities.

A pipeline runs through it

The 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline could soon slice across Appalachia. If completed, the hundreds of miles of 42- and 36-inch diameter steel would carry 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas every day.