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Russia's Lake Baikal, the oldest and deepest freshwater lake in the world, has been the focus of environmental protection efforts. Now the reopening of a dirty Soviet-era paper mill is restarting old battles.

"Ontario’s high-profile electronic waste disposal program is failing to recycle millions of computers and televisions it promised to keep out of landfill."

"Icelike crystals encrusting a 100-ton steel-and-concrete box meant to contain oil gushing from a broken well deep in the Gulf of Mexico forced crews Saturday to back off the long-shot plan, while more than 100 miles away, blobs of tar washed up at an Alabama beach full of swimmers."

"Academics from across the country are rallying against a subpoena issued by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II seeking documents related to the work of a former University of Virginia climate scientist, even as the university says it is preparing to comply with Cuccinelli's request."

Since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, the Obama administration's Minerals Management Service approved 26 new offshore drilling projects in the Gulf with the same environmental exempitons, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

"U.S. EPA's proposed regulation of coal ash as a hazardous waste was changed at the White House to give equal standing to an alternative favored by the coal industry and coal-burning electric utilities."

"A La Nina weather phenomenon, the lesser-known cousin of the more famous El Nino weather anomaly, will most likely develop in the second half of 2010, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center said Thursday."

"South Africa's minister of tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk is front-runner to replace Yvo de Boer as UN climate chief, sources familiar with the selection process told Reuters on Thursday."

"Japan's Atomic Energy Agency says it has restarted a controversial nuclear reactor, more than 14 years after its operations were suspended."

Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) sounds like he still hopes to launch and pass a climate bill this year. But the question of what the bill would look like -- much less where the votes will come from -- remains largely unanswered.