Running out: A special report published today looks at the inevitable resource crunch as the rapidly growing global middle class starts demanding Western levels of consumption. Call it "Peak Everything" as supplies of goods -- from water to oil to coffee to wheat -- are strained. Bloomberg

Sounds like a Bond plot: The Russians (okay, Russian scientists) have drilled into a never-before-touched lake buried under 2.2 miles of ice in Antarctica. The vast, dark Lake Vostok hasn't seen light in an estimated 20 million years, and while scientists are pumped about new life forms they might find, plenty are worried about contaminating the pristine ecosystem with drilling fluids and bacteria. What could go wrong? Washington Post

BP plea bargain: The Gulf Coast's "Trial of the Century," pitting federal and state goverments against BP, is likely to end before it begins. Legal experts predict that the company is likely to settle -- for both criminal and civil violations -- in the $20 to $25 billion range. New Orleans Times-Picayune

NOT another Solyndra: Beacon Power, an energy storage company experimenting with flywheel technology, has been sold to a private equity firm. Which is more important than it sounds. The company had declared bankruptcy in October, less than a year after accepting a $43 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. With the sale, the DOE -- and taxpayers -- will be off the hook for the loan much sooner. Earth2Tech

Paging Monty Burns: Bill Gates and a handful of other extremely wealthy donors are throwing financial support behind geoengineering, the concept of artificially blocking sunlight -- and heat -- from reaching the Earth's surface in order to counteract global warming. What could go wrong? (Feels like we've said that before.) The Guardian

One less climate leader: Mohamed Nasheed, president of the sea level rise-threatened Maldives and one of the few heads of state who gave climate change the highest priority in his government (he held his first cabinet meeting underwater as a publicity stunt), has stepped down. Al Jazeera

Saving Flipper: Why have more than 100 dolphins washed up on Cape Cod beaches during the past three weeks? Marine experts don't know. But the scramble is on to rescue as many of the stranded mammals as possible, and a volunteer force at least 300 strong has mobilzed. New York Times