Laboratory researchers are pursuing technologies for skipping the burning of coal altogether, and producing electricity directly from carbon via fuel cells.

"The White House budget update released on Tuesday still reflects a controversial Obama administration plan to combat global warming by auctioning all permits to emit greenhouse gases even though Congress has said it will give away a substantial portion to industry."

The recent Los Padres fire exemplifies a growing trend: Mexican drug cartels setting up shop in California wilderness and parkland.

"Illegal fishing is depleting the seas and robbing poor nations in Africa and Asia of resources, but a lack of global cooperation is undermining efforts to track rogue vessels, an environmental group said on Tuesday."

The city of Chesapeake, Va., will extend public water supply lines to residents around a golf course built on fly ash from a coal-burning utility. But the utility and city disagree on how much the utility will pay.

Until last August, the Swiss-made reusable aluminum bottles that were an eco-icon, were lined with an epoxy containing trace amounts of BPA, which the Canadian federal government considers a toxic substance.

"UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to visit a Norwegian island deep inside the Arctic Circle, near the North Pole, to see firsthand the effects of climate change, his spokeswoman said."

"Researchers found that two of the Tetons' biggest glaciers have lost more than 20 percent of their surface area since the late 1960s."

"The pesticide DDT almost wiped out the double-crested cormorant. Now, the bird is thriving, and it's blamed for devouring fish in lakes, rivers, and fish farms in many parts of the country. Karen Kelly reports on the struggle to share resources with this unpopular bird" -- on The Environment Report August 25, 2009.

A crabbing license is a cultural icon for Chesapeake Bay watermen, whose way of life is as threatened as the shellfish their ancestors harvested.

Chinese companies like Suntech are using government subsidies to leap ahead of the U.S. in the solar panel market.

Think electric cars are small and wussy? Go out on the drag strip and smell the burning rubber. "Mike Willmon's 1978 Ford Pinto can go from zero to 60 in about 3.5 seconds — just like the $1 million Ferrari Enzo." He built it himself.

"Paint with dangerously high lead levels is still being sold for household use worldwide, putting hundreds of millions of young children at risk of permanent brain damage," new research shows.

"An online encyclopedia aiming to describe every type of animal and plant on the planet has reached 170,000 entries and is helping research into aging, climate change and even the spread of insect pests."

"Drinking water containing a common herbicide could pose a greater public health risk than previously thought because regular municipal monitoring doesn't detect frequent spikes in the chemical's levels, according to a report released Monday by the Natural Resources Defense Council."