"Carbon emissions cuts pledged at U.N. climate talks would put the world on 'an unsustainable pathway' toward average global warming 50 percent higher than industrial countries want, a confidential U.N. draft document showed Thursday."

"COPENHAGEN -- President Obama told leaders of 193 nations here Friday that their collective will to address climate change "hangs in the balance" and urged both developed and developing countries to accept a climate change agreement he acknowledged was far from perfect."

"The Environmental Protection Agency is violating laws requiring public input by working behind closed doors to draft regulations for a proposed uranium mine in northern Colorado, activists said, citing agency documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act."

"In a speech to more than 100 heads of state, the president outlines the elements of accord: commitments to limit emissions, a way of monitoring those pledges and aid to help poor nations adapt."

"After striking out the last three times, the U.S. Forest Service is embarking on another rewrite of the basic planning rule that balances logging against fish and wildlife and clean water in national forests."

"Around the world, whenever airborne particles increase, so do deaths from heart and lung diseases. Now new evidence is emerging that some particles may be more dangerous than others. A growing body of research – much of it in New York City – suggests that breathing nickel and other metals may put acute stress on the lungs and heart, resulting in illnesses and deaths at particulate levels below national standards."

"In 2005 the U.S. Bureau of Land Management offered up thousands of acres of federal land in Colorado to drilling. Because the land was in the heart of an area that supplies drinking water to 55,000 people in the western part of the state, the plan drew stong opposition from local communities."

"Negotiators at the United Nations climate summit scrambled Wednesday to bridge multibillion-dollar disagreements as President Barack Obama and other world leaders prepared to descend on the Danish capital Friday." ... "US Secretary of State of State Hillary Clinton Thursday proposed that major economies including the US come up with $100 billion a year over the next decade for developing nations, in an eleventh-hour effort to break an impasse." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Copenhagen with new offers of conditional aid, but it was unclear whether this would be enough to break the logjam.

"China is preparing to build three times as many nuclear power plants in the coming decade as the rest of the world combined, a breakneck pace with the potential to help slow global warming."

"The White House is promoting a $5 billion increase in tax breaks for clean energy manufacturing in hopes of contributing to job growth and expanded use of renewable energy."

The effluent stream of an East Chicago, Indiana, wastewater treatment plant is clean enough to fool salmon into spawning there.

"The 35-year-old federal law regulating tap water is so out of date that the water Americans drink can pose what scientists say are serious health risks — and still be legal."

"COPENHAGEN -- Mayors of some of the world's largest cities flexed their muscle at the United Nations climate talks Wednesday, warning that 'billions of people' are prepared to cut emissions far beyond whatever agreement world leaders may ink this week."

"In a little more than a year, a regional push to cap greenhouse gases has raised millions for Maryland energy programs, with supporters calling it a model for easing climate change on a national or even global scale."

"In New Mexico, a tribal attempt to protect Mount Taylor sparks a battle over ancient claims to the land."