"In Ecuador’s Amazon region, above the banks of the swirling Aguarico River, Luis Chamba grows cacao - the basis of chocolate and cocoa butter - on his family’s tiny finca."

"MUSTAFABAD, India — Khushboo Kushwaha has a few years before she will have to squat in front of a filthy, smoking open stove three times a day to cook meals for her family, as her older sister and cousins do now.

Khushboo is 11, and the girls in her home usually take up cooking duties as teenagers. But the smoke that billows from the wood and dried dung they burn, stinging the older girls’ eyes and throats, already affects her.

"Hydroelectric dams grace bank notes in developing countries, from Mozambique to Laos, Kyrgyzstan to Sri Lanka, a place of honor reflecting their reputation as harbingers of prosperity."

"To be a climate change skeptic in Paris this week means facing heavy odds."

"The cold hard numbers of science haven't spurred the world to curb runaway global warming. So as climate negotiators struggle in Paris, some scientists who appealed to the rational brain are enlisting what many would consider a higher power: the majesty of faith."

"As world leaders grapple with how to cut global emissions of carbon dioxide, diplomats in Paris are recording progress in combating other pollutants that scientists believe are contributing powerfully to rising temperatures."

Major parts of the coastal United States are in the same boat as vulnerable, low-lying nations and islands when it comes to climate-driven sea level rise and extreme weather, says Thomas Lovejoy, a noted ecologist.

"As representatives of nearly 200 countries gathered in Paris to discuss ways of reducing emissions from fossil fuels, many pointed to what they consider a simple and obvious way to change behavior: Stop widespread subsidies that encourage the use of fossil fuels."

"OPEC has abandoned all pretense of acting as a cartel. It’s now every member for itself. At a chaotic meeting Friday in Vienna that was expected to last four hours but extended to nearly seven, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries tossed aside the idea of limiting production to control prices."

"The international climate change negotiations entering their second and final week encompass a vast and complicated array of political, economic and legal questions. But at bottom, the talks boil down to two issues: trust and money."