Cutting through the fog: Getting confused about whether climate change is to blame for every drought, heat wave, wildfire, hurricane, or derecho that comes our way? Here are four explanations to help you understand what's behind the wacky weather. ABC News

Disease detectives: A developing model of infectious diseases -- SARS, Ebola, HIV, West Nile, and the like -- shows that epidemics don’t just happen but "are a result of things people do to nature.” So the US Agency for International Development is funding the Predict project to figure out where diseases are most likely going to occur, based on how people are altering the natural landscape. New York Times

Shaky memories: Thousands took to the streets in the Shifang, China, to protest the planned construction of a heavy metals refinery in a seismically active region. Not too long ago in 2008, a massive earthquake caused two chemical factories to collapse, releasing toxic fumes and pollution and forcing thousands to evacuate. The Economist

Glacial goodbyes: Over the past three decades, New Zealand's glaciers have been steadily disappearing, losing about 15 percent of their size between 1977 and 2008. While this melting is less dramatic than glacier declines in other parts of the world, experts predict that in New Zealand, like elsewhere, the rate of vanishing will accelerate. Stuff

A beautiful ugly: The world’s most vivid scenes of pollution and environmental destruction are -- to one observer -- also landscapes of a particular magnificence. In his book, Visit Sunny Chernobyl, author and environmentalist Andrew Blackwell traverses denuded Amazonian forests, the dirtiest city on Earth, and the site of the worst-ever nuclear disaster, where to his surprise, “nature has taken over.” NPR

Image: Christopher Chan