"A one-of-a-kind pod of about 200 'resident' eastern Pacific grey whales, which spends every summer feeding near Vancouver Island while the 20,000 other members of the species continue their epic annual migration between Mexico and Alaska, could hold the key to the evolutionary history of the majestic mammal -- and to its future in the age of climate change -- according to a new study."
"Authorities will keep up pressure on BP Plc to ensure it fully compensates victims of last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio said on Monday after the company indicated it wants to limit future claims."
"A gas company that legally doused a patch of West Virginia forest with salty wastewater from a drilling operation killed ground vegetation within days and more than half the trees within two years, a new report from the U.S. Forest Service says."
"For over 75 years, Blau Oyster Co. has relied on Washington state's cool clean waters to grow the plump oysters that are as prized in the Northwest as salmon and orcas. But too much pollution from animal and human waste has been washing into Samish Bay in north Puget Sound, prohibiting shellfish harvests 38 days already this year."
"Consumers who switched from polycarbonate-plastic water bottles to metal ones in hopes of avoiding the risk that bisphenol A will leach into their beverages aren’t necessarily any better off, a new study finds."
People whose blood contains more of the chemicals (BPA and phthalates) found in household plastics are likelier to have impaired thyroid function, a new large-scale study confirms.
"Pregnant women who smoke are much more likely to deliver babies with missing or deformed limbs, clubfoot, cleft palate and gastrointestinal problems than nonsmokers, finds the first study to identify the specific birth defects most associated with smoking."
"COLQUITT, Ga. — The heat and the drought are so bad in this southwest corner of Georgia that hogs can barely eat. Corn, a lucrative crop with a notorious thirst, is burning up in fields. Cotton plants are too weak to punch through soil so dry it might as well be pavement."
"'The science is clear -- our planet is warming. That warming is caused by carbon pollution, by human activity, and we need to cut carbon pollution,' said Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Sunday, announcing Australia's first price on carbon emissions."
"The House adjourned at 9:24 p.m. [Monday] after debating several more amendments to the 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Act, and is expected to hold votes on these on Tuesday in the process of wrapping up the bill." The Tuesday votes are likely to illuminate the stark differences between Republicans and Democrats on energy and environmental policies, but House-passed riders may have dim hopes in the Senate.
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