Natural Resources

"A coalition of nine land trusts says it will reach a five-year goal of protecting 50,000 acres in Western North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains."

"Navy Secretary Ray Mabus is set to present the Obama administration's coastal restoration plan in New Orleans. Perhaps no state is more anxious to see what's in the plan than Louisiana, which has lost hundreds of square miles of coastal land in the last century."

"Around 100 people have been arrested outside the White House while protesting against mountaintop removal mining, including NASA scientist James Hansen."

Egypt's 80 million people have always depended on the Nile River. Under a 1929 treaty, 80 percent of the river's flow is reserved for Egypt and Sudan, which were then ruled as a single country. Now the seven upstream countries (Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda) want to revise the treaty, calling it an unfair relic of colonialism.

"A new generation of prospectors is eager to explore the ocean floor. Will deep-sea digging damage one of the earth’s most valuable ecosystems?"

"The federal government should establish a trust fund to pay for coastal restoration  projects in states along the northern Gulf Coast, to be initially financed by penalties paid for violating federal laws, including 80 percent of any fines levied as a result of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, concludes a report released Tuesday by America's Energy Coast and its parent America's Wetland Foundation."

"COROLLA, N.C. -- On a stretch of barrier island without paved roads, some of the last wild horses in the eastern United States are seeing their world get smaller each year."

"Though B.C. has said the project could net $5-billion worth of economic activity, local natives say they'll give their lives to stop it."

"A federal judge has ordered Patriot Coal Corp. to spend millions of dollars to clean up selenium pollution at two surface coal mines in West Virginia. Environmental groups said it was the first time a court had demanded restrictions on selenium, a trace mineral commonly discharged from Appalachian surface mines, where the tops of mountains are blown away to expose coal."