"CHEYENNE - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday for the first time that fracking - a controversial method of improving the productivity of oil and gas wells - may be to blame for causing groundwater pollution."

"Air concentrations of the brominated chemicals doubled every 13 months in recent years in Cleveland and Chicago."

"America smashed the record for billion-dollar weather disasters this year with a deadly dozen – and counting."

"The Food and Drug Administration must come up with a decision by March 31 on whether to ban a chemical that’s widely used in plastics and the metal linings of food containers, according to a court settlement reached Wednesday between the agency and the Natural Re­sources Defense Council."

"At a hearing in Washington yesterday, lawmakers pressed product safety and health regulators about their three-year investigation into contaminated drywall, expressing frustration with their progress on all fronts."

"Brazil says the rate of deforestation in its Amazon region has fallen to the lowest level for 23 years."

"An exhaustive new report meant to address public fears about possible links between breast cancer and the environment finds evidence strong enough to make only a few firm recommendations, most already well known and none with a large proven benefit."

"BEIJING — Armed with a device that looks like an old transistor radio, some Beijing residents are recording pollution levels and posting them online. It’s an act that borders on subversion. The government keeps secret all data on the fine particles that shroud China’s capital in a health-threatening smog most days. But as they grow more prosperous, Chinese are demanding the right to know what the government does not tell them: just how polluted their city is."