"Metro Detroit’s poor and minority populations face greater health and environmental challenges than most communities because of their proximity to industrial pollution - an “environmental injustice” and “human rights abuse,” Sierra Club Detroit officials said today as they released a report on the state of Detroit’s environment."

"James E. Hansen, the climate scientist who issued the clearest warning of the 20th century about the dangers of global warming, will retire from NASA this week, giving himself more freedom to pursue political and legal efforts to limit greenhouse gases."

"AKWESASNE — A $20 million settlement may remedy nearly 60 years of environmental pollution to the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation."

"The level of diversity, both in leadership and staff, of groups such as the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Sierra Club and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation [, many say,] is more like that of the Republican Party they so often criticize for its positions on the environment than that of the multiethnic Democratic Party they have thrown their support behind."

"The number of people living in extreme poverty could increase by up to 3 billion by 2050 unless urgent action is taken to tackle environmental challenges, a major UN report warned on Thursday."

"Thousands of anti-nuclear protesters have gathered across Japan. The rallies come on the eve of the two-year anniversary of an earthquake and tsunami that caused the Fukushima disaster."

"March is Women's History Month, and HuffPost Green is honoring female environmentalists that have helped defend the planet."

"After nearly two decades of pollution problems and financial woes, a tire incinerator in one of Illinois' poorest communities will close permanently as part of a legal settlement announced Monday by federal authorities."

"Native Americans on an oil-rich North Dakota reservation have been cheated out of more than $1 billion by schemes to buy drilling rights for lowball prices, a flurry of recent lawsuits assert. And, the suits claim, the federal government facilitated the alleged swindle by failing in its legal obligation to ensure the tribes got a fair deal."

"Cancer death rates among African American men declined faster than those of white men in the last decade, even though overall survival rates for black men and women remained the lowest of all racial groups for most types of cancer, according to a recent report."

"The Fish and Wildlife Service has recommended against a proposed land exchange that would allow a 20-mile road through the heart of Alaska's pristine Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, pleasing environmentalists who bitterly opposed it but angering state leaders who say the road is a public safety priority for nearby residents."

"Appalachian coal producers worry about new environmental laws as poverty and pollution rise in some mining regions."

"Superstorm Sandy was a dramatic preview of what cities on the Eastern Seaboard might expect as climate change intensifies, but 12 small, indigenous communities on Alaska's coast provide the most extreme example of how global warming can wreak havoc."

"We’ve come a long way since the days when kids played in clouds of DDT, gas stations sold leaded gasoline, and smoking near youngsters was commonplace."

"No part of the U.S. will escape the harsh consequences of climate change, which has already begun to cause trouble from Alaska to Florida, and from Maine to Hawaii, and which will worsen as the century goes on. But according to a report released January 28, the nation’s coastlines -- Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific and Great Lakes -- are likely to get the worst of it."