"Advocates for farmworkers, especially those who grow America's leafy greens and fresh vegetables, are pushing the government to do more to protect those workers from exposure to pesticides."

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper has moved his cabinet’s lone aboriginal minister into the sensitive portfolio of Environment as the government works to win crucial First Nations’ support for new pipelines and other resource-development projects."

"SAVAR, Bangladesh — On the worst days, the toxic stench wafting through the Genda Government Primary School is almost suffocating. Teachers struggle to concentrate, as if they were choking on air. Students often become lightheaded and dizzy. A few boys fainted in late April. Another retched in class."

"Blacks, Asians and Latinos are more likely to live in “urban heat islands” that are most at risk during extreme heat waves that are expected to worsen due to climate change, according to a new study."

"BALTIC, Ohio -- In parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania where horse-drawn buggies clip-clop at the pace of a bygone era, Amish communities are debating a new temptation — the large cash royalties that can come with the boom in oil and gas drilling."

"PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- Nineteen firefighters killed in a wildfire a week ago went home for the last time on Sunday, their bodies traveling in individual white hearses in a somber caravan for 125 miles through Arizona cities and towns."

"A federal judge in Washington D.C. has tossed out a new SEC rule requiring oil companies to disclose payments to foreign governments. The rule stemmed from the 2010 Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and had been trumpeted by human rights group as a means to reduce corruption in otherwise poor, oil-producing countries in Africa and the Middle East."

Land agents for fracking companies take advantage of the Amish when signing contracts for rights to drill -- because they know the Amish religion discourages lawsuits.

"On the coastal plain of eastern North Carolina, families in certain rural communities daily must deal with the piercing, acrid odor of hog manure—reminiscent of rotten eggs and ammonia—wafting from nearby industrial hog farms. On bad days, the odor invades homes, and people are often forced to cover their mouths and noses when stepping outside. Sometimes, residents say, a fine mist of manure sprinkles nearby homes, cars, and even laundry left on the line to dry."

"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A federal bankruptcy judge in St. Louis ruled Wednesday that Patriot Coal can cut health benefits for retired coal miners and their spouses as part of a plan for the company to emerge from bankruptcy."

"Former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson has been hired by Apple as vice president of environmental initiatives."

"FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. --  A uranium mining company seeking a mineral lease on state land in northwestern Arizona could have a hard time transporting the ore off-site because of the Navajo Nation's objections to an industry that left a legacy of death and disease among tribal members."

"Hydraulic fracturing on Indian land may become more difficult under new rules proposed by the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management."

"At least 800,000 people across the United States live near hundreds of sites that store large amounts of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate, which investigators are blaming as the source of last month's deadly blast at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, a Reuters analysis shows."

Drought, loss of water rights, and debt are among the factors causing farmers in India's Maharashtra state to commit suicide.