"WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama promised on Monday to ensure that scientific research is insulated from partisan politics, as government-funded projects come under attack from Republicans in Congress."

"After six years of searching, an entomologist has concluded that three varieties of butterflies native to south Florida have become extinct, nearly doubling the number of North American butterflies known to be gone."

""These are unique butterflies to Florida. This is our biological treasure. Each unique species that we lose, we won't ever get that back again," Marc Minno, who conducted the survey for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, told Reuters on Monday.

"A federal jury didn't hear from prosecutors about toxic chemicals in the drinking water of south suburban Crestwood. Or about higher-than-normal cancer rates in the working-class village. But on Monday, the jury ensured that the only public official to stand trial in the tainted water scandal will be held accountable for a more than 20-year scheme to conceal the secret use of a Crestwood well — crimes uncovered by a 2009 Tribune investigation."

"SYDNEY — China is rapidly assuming a global leadership role on climate change alongside the United States, a new study said Monday, but it warned greenhouse gas emissions worldwide continue to rise strongly."

"On the brink of federal regulatory review, chemicals in deodorants, lotions and conditioners are showing up in Chicago’s air at levels that scientists call alarming. The airborne compounds – cyclic siloxanes – are traveling to places as far as the Arctic, and can be toxic to aquatic life. “These chemicals are just everywhere,” said Keri Hornbuckle, an engineering professor at the University of Iowa. "

"Scientists monitoring global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations report that, for the first time in human history, CO2 levels could soon rise above 400 parts per million for a sustained period of time in much of the Northern Hemisphere."

"The latest round of international climate change talks commenced [Monday] with the now perennial warning about the need for greater urgency from governments as they battle to curb global greenhouse gas emissions."

"CONWAY, SC -- Pollution from a pair of coal ash ponds at Santee Cooper’s retired Grainger electric generating plant here has sparked another lawsuit – this one filed by The Southern Environmental Law Center, which alleges the state-owned utility is violating the federal Clean Water Act."

"BP made a record pre-tax profit in the first quarter of double its $9bn for the same period in 2012, the company announced on Tuesday, as a Norwegian regulator rebuked the company for a 2012 oil spill in the North Sea."

"Environmental groups on Monday announced a new ad campaign that highlights ExxonMobil's massive oil spill in Arkansas last month. The ads will be concentrated in the Washington, D.C., Metro's Foggy Bottom station, which is used by many State Department employees commuting to work, as the agency considers whether to approve the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline."

"EU member states vote in favour of continent-wide suspension of neonicotinoid pesticides."

"WASHINGTON -- Eighteen years after a domestic terrorist murdered 168 people in Oklahoma City with an ammonia nitrate bomb, the federal government and the chemical industry are still jockeying over how to regulate a volatile and plentiful fertilizer that contributed to the devastating plant explosion in West.

At least five federal agencies enforce a patchwork of overlapping and sometimes conflicting regulation of chemical plants. The system is reliant on voluntary reporting by industry, and by nature is largely reactive to complaints or catastrophes.

"President Obama plans to nominate Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx to serve as transportation secretary, a White House official said Sunday."

"Budget cuts, expired grants and shifted priorities have decimated [Detroit's] response to child lead poisoning. Detroit has some of the highest child lead poisoning levels among all large U.S. cities."

"GENEVA -- At the start of a major conference to regulate chemical and hazardous waste safety, top officials voiced optimism Saturday that delegates will approve new international controls on several industrial compounds and agree to clamp down on some cross-border pollution."