"The province of Quebec is responsible for 75 percent of the maple syrup produced in the ENTIRE WORLD. So it’s no surprise that they keep a strategic maple syrup reserve -- hot weather ruins the volume and taste of the syrup crop, and pancake fiends can get ugly, so it pays to have backup. Which is all very good planning, until more than a quarter of the syrup nest egg disappears."

"Organizers of the Kansas State Fair can restrict the display of an animal rights group's video that shows animal slaughter at its annual agricultural event, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday."

The rising price of ivory -- based on demand from nations like China -- is causing an unprecedented spate of elephant poaching in Africa.

"BAGHDAD -- Iraq's Oil Ministry says crude oil exports have averaged 2.565 million barrels a day in August, the highest level in more than three decades."

"More than 20,000 high-temperature records have been broken so far this year in the United States. And the heat is especially bad in cities, which are heating up about twice as fast as the rest of the planet."

"A new management plan for the Giant Sequoia National Monument further limits logging in and near groves of the world's largest trees, but would still allow it in nearly a quarter of the monument."

"The U.S. Justice Department is ramping up its rhetoric against BP PLC for the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, describing in new court papers examples of what it calls 'gross negligence and willful misconduct.'"

"With the worst drought in half a century withering corn across the Midwest, agricultural experts on Tuesday urged international action to prevent the global spike in food prices from causing global hunger."

Science is at the heart of some key policy issues dividing Republicans and Democrats. Presidential candidates Obama and Romney may never square off in person on TV over scientific issues like climate. But through "Science Debate 2012," they are addressing them in writing online. Is that good enough?