"Residents of a small community in Vermont were blindsided last month by news that one official in their water department quietly lowered fluoride levels nearly four years ago, giving rise to worries about their children’s dental health and transparent government — and highlighting the enduring misinformation around water fluoridation."

"After almost a decade of talks, the nations of the world committed Friday to drastically lower emissions of planet-warming gases from the world’s airplanes by 2050, a milestone in efforts to ease the climate effects of a fast-growing sector."

"Mold in homes is a costly crisis that often accompanies hurricanes and flooding, and climate change is amplifying the rain that feeds outbreaks."

"The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says it has spent $290 million on a drug to treat radiation sickness in the event of a nuclear emergency."

"Human-caused global warming has made severe droughts like the ones this summer in Europe, North America and China at least 20 times as likely to occur as they would have been more than a century ago, scientists said Wednesday. It’s the latest evidence of how climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels is imperiling food, water and electricity supplies around the world."

"Hibernating bears stay healthy despite being very fat and sedentary. New research is focusing on what humans can learn from them."

"Fat bear week starts today, that glorious autumn tradition when anyone with an internet connection can vote for the plumpest brown bear in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. Last year, more than 800,000 people weighed in during Fat Bear Week, crowning Otis, an enormous, dimpled ursine, Fat Bear champion for the fourth time.

"Wildlife agencies in the U.S. are finding elevated levels of a class of toxic chemicals in game animals such as deer — and that’s prompting health advisories in some places where hunting and fishing are ways of life and key pieces of the economy."

"A circuit court judge on Tuesday dismissed charges against former state and Flint officials for their roles in the water crisis that gripped the city beginning in 2014. The result had been a likely outcome after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in June that state prosecutors incorrectly used a one-man grand jury to issue indictments last year."

"The test that the federal government has used to determine what waters and wetlands are protected under the Clean Water Act seems poised to be scrapped by the US Supreme Court, natural resources lawyers said."

"Online retailing delivers a public health problem. When Truck Season Became All-Year-Round."