Across the nation’s breadbasket, many farmers are out of time waiting for cooling rains to salvage crops blistered by one of the hottest and driest summers on record. But up in the frigid arctic, another battle with nature is playing out; the race against ice. It’s part of a $4 billion gamble by Shell Oil to drill in the pristine but harsh waters off the Arctic wildlife refuge, a dangerous bet that pits our thirst for dirty fossil fuels against an increasingly vulnerable and changing biogem world. This summer, Shell has been struggling to get final federal approval to begin exploratory drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. After...
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