The synthetic compound dinitrotoluene, contaminating military sites, industrial settings, and other areas, is used primarily to make polyurethane products found in goods such as bedding and furniture, as well as in explosives, ammunition, dyes, and air bags.

The Federation of American Scientists has posted these reports online: "Fossil Fuel Resources: Terminology, Reporting, and Summary" and "Unconventional Gas Shales: Development, Technology, and Policy Issues."

The nation's first set of voluntary criteria for planning, design, construction, and maintenance of landscapes.was announced Nov. 6, 2009.

This new tool is broken out by space type (e.g., kitchen, bathroom, garage, yard), and covers a wide range of indoor and outdoor energy, toxicity, consumption, and environmental impact issues — even topics such as finding a greener mortgage.

Carbon dioxide emission volumes, trends, and sources vary substantially by state, according to a report released Nov. 12, 2009, by the advocacy group Environment America.

Results of sampling the tissue of fish caught in freshwater lakes throughout the US reveal widespread contamination by pollutants such as mercury and PCBs.

Most of the 580-plus coal-ash impoundments and landfills in the U.S. would make a good local environmental story, and the information available on them is growing.

An international team has pulled together what it says is the first global assessment of tree deaths linked with drought and heat stress. They cite 88 cases since 1970 on six continents.

Advocacy group Environment America based its conclusions on 2007 US EPA Toxics Release Inventory data, while overcoming some of the errors and limitations embedded in TRI.

Dogging the resulting developments of a new EPA policy could lead to many stories that focus on both the specific cases and the underlying principle of cumulative assessments of pollutants.