Focus the Nation, an ambitious organizing project, is coordinating teachers and students at more than 1,000 schools to find solutions to global warming.

The National Organics Standards Board decided to defer recommendations for organic status for fish citing concerns about controlling fish environment and food supply.

Glacial retreat, species depletion, extreme seasonal weather. These are real indicators that global warming is happening now and clear reasons why we should be setting standards to immediately slow these effects. While industrialized nations around the world are making commitments to reduce greenhouse gas, the United States, which is responsible for 25 percent of the world’s emissions, is lagging behind and lacks strict federal regulations.

The nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) last week announced its annual list of America’s best and worst beaches from an environmental and health safety perspective. Much to the group’s chagrin, pollution at the nation’s 3,500 ocean, lake and bay beaches resulted in 25,000 closing or swimming advisory days in 2006—a record number that represents a 28 percent increase from just the previous year.

Following on the heels of the nationwide climate rallies last April, environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben announced plans for fall follow-up events aimed at lobbying politicians to pass meaningful legislation to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases. On November 3, thousands of activists and concerned citizens are expected to gather at places across the country named after historic leaders to demand that Congress address four key priorities to stop global warming.