"In a matter of years or decades, researchers believe, animals and plants already are adapting to life in a warmer world. Some species will be unable to change quickly enough and will go extinct, but others will evolve, as natural selection enables them to carry on in an altered environment."

"Psychological barriers like uncertainty, mistrust and denial keep most Americans from acting to fight climate change, a task force of the American Psychological Association said on Wednesday."

"The Bush administration acted illegally when it opened millions of acres (hectares) of U.S. national forests to road-building and logging, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday. The U.S. Appeals Court for the Ninth Circuit effectively reinstated a 2001 rule that bars development in recognized 'roadless' areas of national forests, except in Idaho and the Tongass National Forest in Alaska."

"A judge says Juan Dominguez conspired with Nicaraguan workers, allegedly left sterile by exposure to DBCP on banana plantations, to file claims against Dole Food and Dow Chemical."

Both environmentalists and the chemical industry say they want Congress to overhaul the key law aimed at protecting Americans from toxic chemicals in the products they use.

"With the fight over health care reform absorbing all the bandwidth on Capitol Hill, Democrats fear a major climate change bill may be left on the cutting-room floor this year."

"Mexico aims to put a detailed offer to cut the growth of its own greenhouse gas emissions on the negotiating table at global climate change talks in Copenhagen this year, a senior environmental policymaker said."

"A total of 12 forged letters -- all appearing to come from local groups unhappy with a climate-change bill -- were sent to three congressional offices this summer by a Washington lobbying firm, according to the pro-coal group for which the firm was working."

"The Nevada lawmaker has a long history of opposing attempts to reform an antiquated federal mining law."

"One of the world's most common insect repellents [DEET] acts on the central nervous system in the same way as some insecticides and nerve gases, according to a study released on Wednesday."

"The current recession has caused the price of oil to drop -- most think temporarily. James Woolsey was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency -- the CIA -- during the Clinton Administration. ... Woolsey has been arguing that, no matter what the price, dependence on oil is a national security problem that we need to solve."

Lobbyists for the real estate industry convinced House leaders to remove from the recently passed climate bill a provision that would have indicated how much energy older houses use.

A new study finds that rural residents who drink water from private wells are much more likely to have Parkinson's disease, bolstering theories that farm pesticides may be partly to blame.

"LOS ANGELES -- Marine scientists from California are venturing this week to the middle of the North Pacific for a study of plastic debris accumulating across hundreds of miles (km) of open sea dubbed the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch.'"

"More than twice as many D.C. children as previously reported by federal and local health officials had high levels of lead in their blood amid the city's drinking water crisis, according to congressional investigators, throwing into doubt assurances by those officials that the lead in tap water did not seriously harm city children."