"China said on Tuesday it will cut its export quotas for rare earth minerals by more than 11 percent in the first half of 2011, further shrinking supplies of metals needed to make a range of high-tech products."

"Environmentalists claim the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has overestimated by more than 20 times the value of recycling coal burning wastes."

"LAKE TEXOMA -- In a cove on this massive lake on the Texas-Oklahoma border, it doesn't take long to find zebra mussels."

"When you were trying to figure out what to buy for the environmentalist on your holiday list, fur probably didn't cross your mind. But some ecologists and fashion enthusiasts are trying to rekindle a market for fur made from nutria -- rodents that are destroying Louisiana's wetlands."

"Japan postponed plans for a national emissions trading scheme on Tuesday, bowing to powerful business groups that warned of job losses as they compete against overseas rivals facing fewer emissions regulations."

"Russian boys exposed to unusually high levels of environmental pollutants are smaller than their peers, a new study reports."
 

"Federal authorities are urging schools across the U.S. to replace the electrical components in older light fixtures to reduce the threat of contamination from potentially cancer-causing chemicals."

"Data obtained by The Associated Press indicates that just a small percentage of the leveled Appalachian mountain landscape has been transformed into new developments such as businesses, prisons, golf courses and subdivisions."

"The struggle over huge livestock farms continues to roil in Missouri and Kansas, and no wonder -- a new report shows the two states in the middle of the growing concentration of factory farming."

The first big snowstorm of the year traditionally is celebrated by climate-change deniers. But the World Meteorological Organization says 2010 is on track to be one of the three warmest years on record. Indeed, according to some scientists, the snowstorm and global warming may be related.