"What a difference a year makes. In late 2010, solar panel makers were sold out, Germany was gobbling up record numbers of the clean energy systems, and new markets were steadily growing."

"Climate change's laundry list of impacts — melting glaciers and rising sea levels, shifts in timing for bird migration and flower budding, a poleward shift of species — just got a new addition: shrinking species."

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"In 2008, both the Democratic and Republican candidates for president, Barack Obama and John McCain, warned about man-made global warming and supported legislation to curb emissions. After he was elected, President Obama promised 'a new chapter in America's leadership on climate change,' and arrived cavalry-like at the 2009 United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen to broker a global pact.

But two years later, now that nearly every other nation accepts climate change as a pressing problem, America has turned agnostic on the issue."

"COPPER BASIN, Tenn. — A decade ago, the Ocoee River was dead — devoid of any insect or fish life that normally signals clean water."

"IOWA CITY -- Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has cast himself as the outsider, the pizza magnate with real-world experience who will bring fresh ideas to the nation's capital. But Cain's economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity."

"LONDON — Anadarko Petroleum Co. has agreed to pay $4 billion to BP PLC as part of a settlement related to last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill."

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"BARROW, Alaska — The ancient whale hunt here is not so ancient anymore. 'Ah, the traditional loader,'one man mumbled irreverently. 'Ah, the traditional forklift.'"

The Keystone XL pipeline that would bring petroleum from Canada's tar sands to US terminals in Houston is proving a political headache for President Obama. It pits many of his erstwhile allies -- such as unions and environmentalists -- against each other.

"House Republicans pushed through legislation Friday that gives the states the power to regulate coal ash from power plants as if it were municipal garbage, pre-empting pending federal regulations that could be much tougher."