Southern Route Through Northwest Passage Opens

For the second year running, the formerly mythical "Northwest Passage" has opened in the far north of Canadian waters.

(image and story at NASA's Earth Observatory newsroom)

Also in this weeks dispatches: images of Lake Faguibine in Mali drying up, locusts in West Africa, pyramids in Egypt, and drought in Oklahoma and Texas.

With regard to the Northwest passage, unfortunately the warning bells this event merits are drowned out by the "black gold" rush into previously unreachable areas.