"The year: 1990. The venue: Palais des Nations, Geneva. The star: Margaret Thatcher, conservative icon in the final month of her prime ministership. The topic: global warming. Thatcher went to the Second World Climate Conference to heap praise on the then-infant Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and to sound, again, the alarm over global warming."

"On one covert video, farm workers illegally burn the ankles of Tennessee walking horses with chemicals. Another captures workers in Wyoming punching and kicking pigs and flinging piglets into the air. And at one of the country’s largest egg suppliers, a video shows hens caged alongside rotting bird corpses, while workers burn and snap off the beaks of young chicks."

"The Canadian government has barred scientists from entering the Experimental Lakes Area in Ontario starting on 1 April and has begun dismantling some of its buildings. As funding for the internationally admired freshwater research station dried up this week, scientists with on-going projects at the facility were left wondering about the future of their research."

"With the warming U.S. Arctic region poised for greater oil and mining development, the White House needs to develop a national strategy that can take environmental decisions on a larger scale, a report issued Thursday concluded."

President Obama's declared initiatives on environment and climate are going forth in an intense swirl of conflict in electoral and legislative politics. Money is involved.

"Global warming isn't just an issue for Democrats, according to a report released yesterday by George Mason and Yale universities. Sixty-two percent of self-identified Republicans and GOP-leaning independents said in a national survey that the United States should or probably should take action to address climate change despite uncertainties, the report says."

Rumors that the conservative billionaire Koch brothers could be poised to buy the Tribune Company raise questions about how that might affect Tribune news outlets' coverage of environment and energy issues, in which the Kochs have a substantial stake.

"Growing environmental objections to exporting coal from Washington state and Oregon have begun to endanger the coal industry’s hope to restore its flagging fortunes by shipping much more of the embattled fossil fuel to China and India."

"The Obama administration is inching ahead with a plan that would allow wastewater from fracking to be shipped on barges, fueling a debate whether it is safer than other transportation modes or risks polluting drinking water."

"The so-called 'Monsanto Protection Act,' a controversial provision protecting the biotech giant from litigation, has found an unusual critic in the tea party."

"A coalition of environmental groups wants air-quality officials to determine if the refining of heavy Canadian crude has an effect on local health and safety."

"GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- The last partner has dropped out of a proposal to ship coal from Montana and Wyoming to Asia through Oregon's Port of Coos Bay, port officials announced Monday."

"MAYFLOWER, Ark. -- An ExxonMobil pipeline carrying tar sands oil from Canada broke open in Arkansas on Friday, spilling thousands of gallons of black diluted bitumen into residential streets outside Little Rock and forcing the evacuation of 22 homes."

"The Washington State Department of Ecology has known since the 1990s that its water-pollution limits have meant some Washingtonians regularly consume dangerous amounts of toxic chemicals in fish from local waterways."

"The Environmental Protection Agency will move ahead Friday with a rule requiring cleaner gasoline and lower-pollution vehicles nationwide, amounting to one of President Obama’s most significant air pollution initiatives, according to people briefed on the decision."