"BANGKOK -- Organised crime trade worth billions of dollars is responsible for 50 to 90 percent of illegal logging in parts of the Amazon basin, Central Africa and Southeast Asia, with implications for deforestation, climate change and the well-being of indigenous people, said a report released Thursday."
"Approval of foods from genetically modified animals is unjustifiably slow, scientists say; some are looking abroad."
"Thousands of U.S. children with dangerous amounts of lead in their blood may go unassisted this year because local health departments can't afford to monitor them, a survey of major cities by USA TODAY shows."
"U.S. farmers are using more hazardous pesticides to fight weeds and insects due largely to heavy adoption of genetically modified crop technologies that are sparking a rise of 'superweeds' and hard-to-kill insects, according to a newly released study."
"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it is having difficulty implementing expansive new rules to improve food safety, nearly two years after President Barack Obama signed the standards into law, because of a lack of funding."
"The Obama administration has wound up its controversial investigation of a government polar bear researcher without finding any evidence of scientific wrongdoing, campaign groups said late Friday."
"Barry Commoner, a founder of modern ecology and one of its most provocative thinkers and mobilizers in making environmentalism a people’s political cause, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 95 and lived in Brooklyn Heights."
"WASHINGTON -- Companies wishing to market their products as 'eco-friendly' or good for the environment had better have data to back up the claims, the Federal Trade Commission warned Monday, laying out guidelines for so-called green marketing."
"SALT LAKE CITY -- Environmentalists are celebrating the Monday decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to let stand the federal 'roadless rule' that leaves protections in place for 45 million acres of national forest lands, including those in Utah."
From his research and travels to report "Beyond Seven Billion," a landmark five-part series published in the Los Angeles Times, reporter Kenneth R. Weiss will share his stories about the impact of population growth on natural resources, food supply, and conflict in Afghanistan, India, Kenya, China, and the Philippines — and the challenges of covering this complex topic. Sponsored by the Environmental Change and Security Program, the SEJ, the Africa Program, and the Asia Program in Washington, DC. Can't attend in person? The archived webcast will be available approximately one week after the posted meeting time.
