The combination of tree-killing droughts, dense forests, and continued sprawl of residential areas into forests has captured the attention of insurance companies.

With audiences paying more attention to the often-unusual weather these days, a new tool offered by NOAA may be of interest.

The latest update of scientific consensus on climate change - to be released Friday, Feb. 2, 2007, is said to present "smoking gun" evidence that global warming is happening now and that human emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) are causing it.

Steps necessary to improve security at tens of thousands of US drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater facilities have become a little more definitive with the release Dec. 14, 2006, of a draft set of voluntary guidelines. (

When assessing an environmental issue, it may be useful and appropriate to evaluate its links with human deaths and illnesses.

Business/finance stories are spilling over onto the environment beat, and vice versa, as the potential impacts of climate change become more tangible and costly.

A split-party government is likely to bring more controversy, more conflict, and more news.

The Gulf waters off of Louisiana aren't the only US area burdened by a "dead zone." There are similar, smaller areas with short- or long-term oxygen depletion off the shores of 20 states, as well as Canada and Mexico.

A committee commissioned by the National Academies has found that the public's role in government decision-making processes on environmental matters is invaluable, when properly handled.