On Our Radar: Shell Begins Preparatory Drilling Off Alaska A Royal Dutch Shell vessel sends a drill bit into the ocean floor in the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic, beginning preliminary work on an exploratory well 70 miles off the northwestern coast of Alaska. The Interior Department approved the preparatory move but has not yet certified Shell's oil spill response barge. The Yangtze River in China turns a startling red near Chongqing, southwestern China's largest industrial center, and at some other points. While prominent climate change scientists in the United States endure incessant Freedom of Information Act requests and hate mail from skeptics, their counterparts abroad say they have been relatively free of harassment. InsideClimate News Russia's state-controlled gas corporation signs an accord with the government of Japan to proceed with construction of a $13 billion natural gas terminal in Vladivostok that would advance the Russian government's ambitions to expand its business and trade ties in the Far East. Solar installations jumped 116 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier as utilities completed big projects to meet state mandates for renewable energy, a new industry report says.