"The National Park Service is banning the sale of plastic water bottles within Grand Canyon National Park, more than a year after the move was announced and then put on hold after Coca-Cola -- which bottles water under the Dasani brand -- raised concerns about the plan."

"An obstacle to greening L.A.'s energy portfolio is the Department of Water & Power's contract with a Utah plant, which requires the city to buy coal power until 2027. The gritty fuel is now stoking controversy over energy policy, environmental damage and how much consumers should pay to kick the habit."

"PLACERVILLE, Calif. - California's Gold Rush was more than a century-and-a-half ago, but its Wild West spirit lives on in a dispute between government agencies and a landowner in the Sierra Nevada foothills that some officials describe as one of the most egregious cases of illegal mining they have ever encountered."

"By 2030, The Global Middle Class Is Expected To Grow By Two-Thirds. That’S 3 Billion More Shoppers. They'll All Want Access To Goods, Including Water, Wheat, Coffee and Oil. Is There Enough for Everybody? Can Business Satisfy Demand and Avoid Hitting 'Peak Everything?'"

Bloomberg News had the story February 7, 2012.

"Federal authorities are planning to scale back a Bush-era push to open 2 million acres of public lands in the Rocky Mountain region for commercial oil-shale development — with support from Colorado agricultural, municipal and recreation industry leaders."

"Ivanpah Valley, Calif. -- Construction cranes rise like storks 40 stories above the Mojave Desert. In their midst, the 'power tower' emerges, wrapped in scaffolding and looking like a multistage rocket."

"A coalition of environmentalists, outdoor enthusiasts and wildlife advocates have filed a federal lawsuit to block a project by the artist Christo that would drape fabric canopies along a long stretch of the Arkansas River in Colorado."

"Canada’s Nunavut Territory is the largest undisturbed wilderness in the Northern Hemisphere. It also contains large deposits of uranium, generating intense interest from mining companies and raising concerns that a mining boom could harm the caribou at the center of Inuit life."

"UNITED NATIONS -- This summer's sustainable development conference in Brazil, known as Rio+20, is emerging as an overt attempt by U.N. officials to shift away from the divisive politics of climate change to a broader debate on the green economy and how to bring it to developing nations."

"The Southern Environmental Law Center, a Virginia-based nonprofit legal advocacy group, has released its 2012 list of the Top 10 endangered places in the Southeast, environmentally speaking. While the list changes from year to year, certain places like the Chesapeake Bay remain a top concern — and issues like pollution from coal-fired power plants and the protection of public lands and old-growth forests are recurring themes. While the list only considers six states, the issues raised by each site resonate nationally, and even globally."

"A team of Louisiana scientists is laying the groundwork for creating a new carbon storage industry that could both reduce the effects of global warming and rebuild wetlands along the state’s coastline. Sarah Mack, founder of New Orleans-based Tierra Resources, and Louisiana State University wetlands scientists John W. Day and Robert Lane have come up with a method for measuring the molecules of carbon removed from the atmosphere by the soils and plants that are created with coastal restoration projects."

"Even with California's volatile weather, where exceptions are the rule, the season has been the driest in 30 years. Without snow, hotels offer rock climbing and archery to frustrated skiers."

Artificially created wetlands may not really compensate well enough for the loss of natural wetlands they replace.

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"To many, it’s a familiar scenario: a strip mall suddenly pops up in what was once a desolate quagmire or boggy boondock.

"On a bus tour, California Coastal Commission members strive to find out what's keeping the public from some of the state's most desirable beaches. One thing they didn't see: 20 pathways that were set aside on paper but have yet to be built."

"The farm bill is a favorite target of budget-cutters and those looking to reduce the size of government, particularly because about 80% of it encompasses food stamps and nutritional programs. However, it also contains some of the most successful conservation programs in our nation’s history, and those are now threatened with the ax, including the popular 1985 Conservation Reserve Program."