"Last month was the warmest March on record across half of the United States with summer-like temperatures providing some welcome news to the country's farmers and clothing retailers, a weather expert said."

"TOKYO — The damage to one of three stricken reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant could be worse than previously thought, a recent internal investigation has shown, raising new concerns over the plant’s stability and complicating the post-disaster cleanup."

"Why did the atmosphere contain so little carbon dioxide (CO2) during the last Ice Age 20,000 years ago? Why did it rise when the Earth's climate became warmer? Processes in the ocean are responsible for this, says a new study based on newly developed isotope measurements. This study has now been published in the scientific journal 'Science' by scientists from the Universities of Bern and Grenoble and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association."

"Nautilus Minerals of Australia has a license from Papua New Guinea to mine a site the size of 21 football fields for its rich deposits. The minerals are found there in very high concentrations, because a natural hot spring on the seafloor has been laying them down for thousands of years."

"SYDNEY, Australia -- Earth Hour 2012 organizers are jubilant today after a satisfyingly successful global event on March 31. Lights went out at 8:30 pm local time as Earth Hour circled the world through a record 150 countries and territories, with 6,494 towns and cities participating."

"WASHINGTON -- The leaders of the United States, Mexico, and Canada [Monday] pledged to develop 'continental energy, including electricity generation and interconnection' across national borders and welcomed 'increasing North American energy trade.'"

"North Dakota farmer Justin Zahradka will plant wheat this spring on 40 acres that has been off-limits for two decades, protected by a government conservation program that is shrinking as high crop prices make farmland more valuable."

The Food and Drug Administration is supposed to make its regulatory decisions on the basis of science and for the health and well-being of the public. But the White House often intervenes, trying to influence FDA decisions to achieve political goals. Often the White House pressure comes in response to fear of demagogic attacks from the GOP. So it was with movie popcorn.

Gardiner Harris reports for the New York Times April 2, 2012. [37]