Public

The George River herd of caribou in Labrador has fallen about 90 percent in population size from a peak some 20 years ago.

"Southern California laid miles of pipe and tunneled through mountains to import water. But it also built a storm drain system to quickly get rid of rainfall. The contradiction played out again this week."

"Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) this week blocked a package of public lands bills pushed by Democratic leadership after the removal of his own proposal to promote a land exchange in Arizona to allow a new copper mine."

"Ignoring calls from environmentalists to revisit the status of the polar bear, the Obama administration outlined yesterday its legal reasoning for why it should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act."

"The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and oil refineries next year in an attempt to curb global warming."

"The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it will seize authority from Texas to regulate major emitters of greenhouse gases because Gov. Rick Perry and state regulators refused to implement the rules."

"The Obama administration has restored U.S. land managers' powers to curb development on vast tracts of America's back country, undoing what conservation groups called a 'no more wilderness' policy put in place under President George W. Bush."

News accounts often present a false balance between the central estimate of 5 or 6 degrees Fahrenheit global warming (for doubled carbon dioxide) and much lower estimates put forth by fossil-industry-funded "skeptics" at the fringes of legitimate science. In fact, the skeptics' take should be balanced by the real worst-case estimate from mainstream science: 18 or 20 degrees of warming.

Alarm bells are being set off by a new study of the families of California farm workers exposed to pesticides. It finds much higher levels of pervasive developmental disorder among children of mothers exposed to higher levels of neurotoxicant organophosphate pesticides.

After initially being blocked by naysaying Republicans, Congress cleared a $4.2-billion aid package for workers and survivors sickened by the fallout from the 9/11 collapse of the World Trade Center.