"MIAMI -- Tropical Storm Debby whipped Florida with bands of drenching rain Monday while its center was nearly stationary in the Gulf of Mexico. Its slow progress meant the most pressing threat from the storm was flooding, not wind.

"COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. --The total number of homes destroyed by a two-week old wildfire in northern Colorado was raised to 248 on Sunday as residents of a subdivision near Fort Collins learned that 57 more homes in their neighborhood had been lost, authorities said."

"Global leaders ended a U.N. development summit on Friday with what was widely considered a lackluster agreement, leaving many attendees convinced that individuals and companies, rather than governments, must lead efforts to improve the environment."

"WASHINGTON -- The EPA says it does not fly drones over the heartland to spy on farmers. It does, however, use manned aircraft to enforce anti-pollution laws. And that's a practice that a group of farm-state lawmakers want to stop."

"MONTPELIER, Vt. -- While skeptics can go on denying climate change, gardeners know better. In our little patch of this globally warmed world, a century or more of accumulated growing wisdom is being thrown out the greenhouse door with bathwater and baby."

"CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Forest Service officials insist firefighting won't be hindered by new rules meant to prevent millions of gallons of retardant dropped onto scorched landscapes each year from poisoning streams and killing fish and plants."

"On the final day of the UN sustainable development summit in Rio, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged governments to eliminate hunger from the world."

"When Silent Spring was published in 1962, author Rachel Carson was subjected to vicious personal assaults that had nothing do with the science or the merits of pesticide use. Those attacks find a troubling parallel today in the campaigns against climate scientists who point to evidence of a rapidly warming world."