People & Population

"Javier Sepulveda watches the cockroaches skitter across the floor of his Harlem apartment with a mixture of anger and angst. For him they are more than just a nauseating nuisance: They’re one of the main reasons his 12-year-old daughter, Melissa, sometimes struggles to breathe with the scary sensation that she’s suffocating."

"TACLOBAN, Philippines -- The typhoon that recently barreled through the Philippines has left in its wake one of the most profound resettlement crises in decades, with the number of newly homeless far exceeding the capacity of aid groups and the government to respond."

"SENDAI, Japan -- Seiji Sasa hits the train station in this northern Japanese city before dawn most mornings to prowl for homeless men. He isn't a social worker. He's a recruiter. The men in Sendai Station are potential laborers that Sasa can dispatch to contractors in Japan's nuclear disaster zone for a bounty of $100 a head."

"It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been 25 years since a cattle rancher ordered his son to shoot Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper and unionist who had become an effective international campaigner for sustainable use of the Amazon rain forest."

"Interior Secretary Sally Jewell won’t allow a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska."

"ST CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio -- Farmers in the close-knit Amish community who eschew electricity and most technology, are among landowners capitalizing on a new financial trend in the United States energy boom - selling decades of future oil and natural gas royalties for an immediate pile of cash."

An alliance of Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest have joined forces to push states there for water quality standards that protect populations who eat more fish from toxic effects.