The naughty list: Hurricane Sandy was just one storm on the long list of strange and worrying weather events in 2012. Here's a roundup of the year’s most extreme weather, from droughts to derechos. Climate Central

Second chances: Now that the Mayan apocalypse is firmly behind us, we can start looking forward to the future again. Yay! Check out this list of up-and-coming scientific fields and potential breakthroughs to keep an eye on in 2013. Scientific American

Rig gone rogue: Oil giant Shell rang in the New Year with yet another failure: a wayward oil rig. One of the company's Arctic drilling rigs broke free from towboats amid stormy seas and beached itself on an Alaskan island. Carrying 150,000 gallons of fuel and other chemicals, the rig itself is serious threat to the island’s coastlines, but luckily, there’s no evidence of a leak -- yet. BBC, New York Times

Fat pharm: Bad news for your New Year’s diets: antibiotics in your meat may make you fat (see "Gut Check: Growing Evidence That Chemicals Can Sabotage Your Diet." Farms often pump cows, pigs, and chickens full of antibiotics to help fatten them up quickly. Scientists now know that these "medicines" keep animals chubby by making their gut bacteria more efficient at extracting energy from food. The question is what happens when we eat meat laced with those antibiotics? Mother Jones

Hitting bottom: Drought plagued 2012, and 2013 is off to an equally dry start. As we've been reporting, water levels in the Mississippi River are so low that the river could soon be impassable by shipping barges. Millions of tons of commodities flow down the nation’s largest waterway, including 60 percent of the nation’s grain. The Independent

Sunken treasure: Panning for gold isn’t easy, especially at the bottom of the sea. Mining company Nautilus Minerals wants to mine the Pacific Ocean for gold, copper, and silver, but conflicts with the Papua New Guinea government have put the project on hold. Meanwhile, China, Japan, and Russia are barreling ahead with similar projects to mine the deep. The Guardian

Fiscal feathers: Dejected hunters seem to be the norm these days, especially in Iowa, where the fowl have fled the fields. The pheasant hunting industry is critical to the state’s economy, but surveys show that over the past four years, the pheasant population has been 81 percent below average. Iowa's bird habitat falls mostly within private lands, which have been increasingly sold off for development or farming. Other states are reporting similar bird declines that are bringing more budget woes to governments reliant on hunting revenues. New York Times

Single stream: Bachelors often get bad raps about their homemaking abilities, but now their recycling skills are under fire, too. British researchers have found that men who live alone are the least likely to recycle (and the folks best at it are couples). Perhaps it's time for a green-themed New Year’s resolution, gentlemen? Start easy, with those beer cans. The Guardian

A year in greenreads: Before your 2013 to-read pile starts climbing up, don't miss these gems of environmental journalism from last year. OnEarth

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