Just as wars over oil played a major role in 20th-century history, a new book makes a convincing case that many 21st-century conflicts will be fought over water.

A few years ago, trees started coming down across the road from Joan Graham’s Michigan horse farm. She set in place a plan to conserve her land after her death by giving it to a conservancy. But just to be safe, she added a grave twist: She would have her body — and anyone else who wanted to join her — buried on the land.

Officials in Richmond, Calif., want to raise Chevron’s taxes and are blocking refinery upgrades, pending environmental review. Chevron is California’s largest greenhouse gas producer. While the company tries to improve its image, it’s also hinting that it might be time to relocate.

The tugboat was working to prevent another oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The Coast Guard said two of tug’s tanks — containing an estimated 33,500 gallons of diesel fuel — were damaged and there was a fuel sheen on the water about 3 miles long and 30 yards wide.

Despite 25 years and billions of dollars spent on cleanup efforts, the Chesapeake Bay remains one of the country’s most polluted waterways. With waste of all kinds, each of the almost 17 million people living in the watershed contributes to the pollution.

‘Tis the season for images of snowflakes. Unfortunately, many artistic renderings of snow crystals show an eight-sided structure — something that can’t occur in nature. So this year, one scientist decided to set the record straight.

Four small quakes have been centered near New Madrid in southeast Missouri in the past week, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In the early 1800s, the New Madrid fault line created some of the most violent earthquakes in U.S. history.

It was just before Christmas last year when a massive coal ash retention pond gave way near Kingston, Tenn. An estimated one billion gallons of the gray material spilled into a river and inundated acres of sparsely-populated land. One year later, clean-up is going slower than expected and it’s more expensive too.

The climate change deal brokered in Copenhagen “lays the foundation for international action,” the president said, but the challenge now is to build momentum inside the U.S. to create a clean energy economy. The first part of that effort is legislation already waiting in the Senate.

A senior Obama administration official says the U.S., China, India and South Africa have reached a “meaningful agreement” on climate change. The official characterized the deal as a first step, but said it was not enough to combat the threat of a warming planet.