"From droughts to pests, disease, wildfire, and extreme weather, the agency spotlights food and agriculture at COP21."

"As world leaders gather in Paris this week to negotiate a new global climate agreement, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is sounding the alarm about the enormous challenges ahead for the food we eat.

"The dean of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism published a letter on Tuesday strongly disputing accusations by Exxon Mobil that journalists from the school had produced inaccurate and misleading articles about the company’s knowledge of the risks of climate change."

"Brazil filed a lawsuit on Monday against two of the world's largest mining companies for 20 billion Brazilian reais ($5.2 billion) to clean up what it says was its worst environmental disaster, caused by the collapse of a tailings dam."

"ExxonMobil is hurling ethics accusations against a team of Columbia University journalists whose reporting helped stoke calls for probes into whether the company deliberately misled the public about climate change."

"Twice a year, bald eagles from as far north as Canada and as far south as Florida flock by the thousands to a stretch of the Rappahannock River in Virginia for an all-you-can-eat buffet. They perch in trees atop pale cliffs rising along this river to the Chesapeake Bay and dive bomb the waters for shad, catfish, stripers and even waterfowl."

"Construction work on a controversial canal that would link the Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean via an overland route across Nicaragua and through Central America’s largest lake has been postponed until late 2016, says the company behind the project."

"Visiting Malaysia in November, Obama said he would raise concerns about government transparency and press freedom in his meeting with Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is embroiled in a financial scandal. At a town hall meeting, Obama spoke up for the press being 'able to report on what is happening in current affairs,' and for 'transparency and accountability.' Back home, though, Obama isn’t practicing what he preaches."

"Japan has announced it will resume whaling in the Antarctic early next year after a break of more than a year."

"A solid majority of Americans say the United States should join an international treaty to limit the impact of global warming, but on this and other climate-related questions, opinion divides sharply along partisan lines, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll."

"The Environmental Protection Agency released its much-delayed biofuel mandate on Monday, raising the amounts of biofuel that refiners are required to blend into conventional vehicle fuel from levels proposed in May."