"In this special Grist series, we’ll be looking at where synthetic nitrogen comes from and what our reliance on it is doing to our health and to the health of our waterways and climate. We’ll also be looking at ways in which synthetic nitrogen can be used more wisely—and, as much as possible, phased out."

"Twenty-two electric utility facilities with coal ash impoundments have written action plans to make them safer. But on Thursday, as the U.S. EPA made these plans public, the agency also released engineering assessments of 40 more coal ash impoundments showing they have the 'high' or 'significant' potential to cause loss of human life, environmental damage, or damage to infrastructure."

Researchers are hoping to find new medicines underwater in corals and sponges.

"A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Thursday introduced legislation aimed at slashing emissions of sulfur dioxide, mercury and nitrogen oxide from smokestacks including coal-fired power plants."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that ethanol and other renewable fuels must account for 8.25 percent of total gasoline and diesel sales in 2010 to meet Congress' mandate that nearly 13 billion gallons of renewable fuels be produced this year."

EPA is reopening its review of the possible health effects of the widespread herbicide atrazine. A new focus is on several studies linking the hormone-mimicking weedkiller to birth defects and other risks in newborns.

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday evening that it would not grant the American pika -- a tiny mammal whose mountainside habitat is being threatened by climate change -- protection under the Endangered Species Act."

"All along the Oregon coast over the last month, hundreds of brown pelicans have turned up dead, starving or begging for food. ...Researchers, at a loss to explain the casualties, are looking at unusual ocean currents and the depletion of fish stocks -- as well as warmer temperatures, toxic runoff and algae blooms -- as possible causes."

"Exactly what's in floor cleaner? What's stain remover made of? And what effects, if any, might they have on human health or the environment Environmental advocates want to know, and they asked a court Thursday to use a 1971 New York state law to force ... manufacturers ... to reveal just what makes up such household staples as Ajax, Ivory soap and Tide. The cleanser industry says that the legal case is unwarranted and that fears about health risks are misinformed."

"The Obama administration's top climate adviser strongly defended a cap on emissions a day after the president suggested Congress might move an energy bill without such a cap in place."