"The Department of Interior issued a new draft policy on scientific integrity on Tuesday, a long overdue addition to the agency's manual outlining the rules and regulations for employees when it comes to ensuring that their decisions are based on sound science."
"California lawmakers have rejected a bill seeking to ban plastic shopping bags, after a contentious debate over whether the state was going too far in trying to regulate personal choice."
"They say the ballot initiative to suspend the state's climate change law would hurt low-income communities already suffering the most from pollution."
"The company that runs the trans-Alaska pipeline remains under federal investigation and is in the middle of major changes after an internal probe this summer raised serious concerns about how it handled a major pipeline leak and emergency shutdown in May."
"KABUL, Afghanistan — Blood tests have confirmed that a mysterious series of cases of mass sickness at girls’ schools across the country over the last two years were caused by a powerful poison gas, an Afghan official said Tuesday."
"India's supreme court has reopened the Bhopal toxic gas leak case in response to a government petition seeking harsher punishment for officials from Union Carbide, the chemical company responsible."
The Columbia Journalism Review's blog The Observatory, edited by Curtis Brainard (pictured at left), critiques environment, science, and medical coverage, as well as politics.
"An Albemarle County [Va.] Circuit Court judge has set aside a subpoena issued by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to the University of Virginia seeking documents related to the work of climate scientist and former university professor Michael Mann."
"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 'needs to fundamentally reform its management structure and strengthen its procedures,' finds a report issued today by the InterAcademy Council, an Amsterdam-based organization of the world's science academies."
"After years of declining sockeye numbers and a struggling fishing industry, the Pacific Salmon Commission last week said it now expects 25 million sockeye will return to the Fraser River this year -- more than double its earlier forecast and the best run since 1913."
Advertisement 
