Public

Wal-Mart is throwing its hat into the crowded ring of green-labeling schemes for merchandise -- and hoping to crowd out other certifiers of sustainability.

"Honeybees may not be the first thing that come to mind when you think of Brooklyn. Yet ... a growing number of urbanites who keep bees in cities across the country. Their motivations vary."

Florida has become the first state in the country to set regulations for the purity of honey -- prohibiting chemicals or additives, including corn syrup sweeteners, in products marked as honey.

"The U.S. Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a legal decision between the Interior Department and Anadarko Petroleum Corp (APC.N) that, if allowed to stand, could cost the government billions of dollars in lost oil royalties from energy companies."

"The Senate confirmed on Wednesday retired astronaut Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden as administrator of NASA, just in time for the space agency's 40th anniversary celebrations of man's first steps on the moon."

Discarded electronic devices from the U.S. and other affluent countries go to poor nations for "recycling." In Ghana and elsewhere, 11-year-olds may breathe smoke from burning plastic and smash hard drives with rocks to get at the metals they contain.

"A dramatic warming of the planet 55 million years ago cannot be solely explained by a surge in carbon dioxide levels, a study shows, highlighting gaps in scientists' understanding of impacts from rapid climate change." One implication is that the current warming episode could prove worse than now predicted, as models may not fully account for feedback mechanisms that amplify warming.

"BEIJING -- Top U.S. officials on Wednesday left open the possibility that China might not have to accept a hard cap on its greenhouse gas emissions under a new global climate change treaty."

"The Corps is proposing to eliminate the use of its streamlined permit process -- in this case Nationwide Permit 21, or NWP 21 -- for the approval of surface coal mining in Appalachia."