"The fate of a mysterious hummingbird — and that of the indigenous population that shares its territory — hangs by a thread."

"Organizations worried about climate change have long drawn comparisons between the petroleum and tobacco industries, arguing that each has minimized public health damages of its products to operate unchecked."

"As state attorneys general of N.Y. and Mass. bristle at Rep. Lamar Smith's subpeonas, the legal stakes get higher as the process becomes even more political."

"The Union of Concerned Scientists will continue to object to House Republicans' requests for documents and communications on climate change, the nonprofit group's president said."

"GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. -- In 1891, a search party found the body of Robert Hamilton floating in the Snake River and lit a fire atop Signal Mountain to alert others in Jackson Hole. Today, the mountaintop is sending out new signals -- cellphone service -- across the sage- and pine-covered valley."

"The stink from Vietnam’s fish kill scandal — which left some 70 tons of dead fish scattered across the beaches of four of the country’s provinces and fishermen out of work — is symptomatic of something greater than worries about food security and the environment: access to information and the ability to distribute it."

President Barack Obama signed reforms to the Freedom of Information Act into law Thursday, just in time for the 50th birthday of the nation's landmark open government law on July Fourth. The bill capped years of work by ovocates in Washington.

"Every place has its own sound. A small group of scientists is hard at work recording the natural sounds of national parks all across the U.S. — more than 70 soundscapes so far."