Bad as cigarettes: Can a scientific study be referred to as “landmark” if it confirms what any objective observer would have already figured? Like, say, that the extraction of tar sands oil up in Canada results in some terrible carcinogenic pollution entering local waterways? Because that’s what’s happening in Alberta, now confirmed by a long-term study funded by none other than the notoriously tar sands-friendly Canadian government. New York Times

Solar-backed securities: For a couple of years now, folks have described Solar Mosaic as a sort of “Kickstarter for solar.” You pledge some bucks, help put photovoltaic panels on the roof of someone deserving, and feel good about doing it. As of this week, however, the funding site may start appealing to more than those do-gooder, feel-gooder types. Your contribution would now be a loan, with a rate of return that is way better than a savings account would currently bring you. Earth2Tech, Grist

Built to fix: Whenever Congress gets around to voting on Sandy emergency relief, embedded in the bill will be some downright stubborn provisions -- and funds -- for rebuilding coastal beaches and infrastructure that is pretty much guaranteed to be wiped out again by wind, waves, and water. Lesson unlearned... Yale Environment 360

Pressing your luck: Shell’s “series of alarming blunders” in the Arctic isn’t news to any Today OnEarth regular, but for a moment, let’s focus on the positive. For instance, why the grounded tanker didn't spill as it was bashed by waves on the rocky coast. Credit a double hull, and the “good fortune” that the ship ran aground close to rescue vessels. Let’s hope there isn’t even a chance for a next time, even if hauling the rig through a storm remains an attractive tax loophole. Morning Edition

These billion piggies went to market: This video of pig factories in China is pretty gross. But the farms are steadily increasing in a country of 1.3 billion people who have a growing appetite for meat, and where no town, no matter how picturesque, is safe from the putridity that comes from profuse pork. Guardian

Let them drink yellowcake: Mining for uranium doesn’t look so bad: just some black boxes speckled across a vast landscape of rolling Wyoming hills. But it’s what’s going on underground that has some folks nervous: the pumping of millions of gallons of radioactive waste into aquifers that lie very deep underground, which it turns out, do contain water we can drink ... or could have drank, before well, you know. ProPublica

Glowing globes: What better way to learn about complex physical systems on a spherical planet, than on an actual sphere. These big, glowing, digital Earths aren’t your parents’ globes. But the makers of them, and their sponsors like NOAA, hope they soon could find their way into elementary school classrooms. New York Times

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Image: NOAA