British scientists attended last week’s American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Seattle with an agenda: They want the Bush administration to reconsider its rejection of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

A presidential panel next month will urge Congress and the White House to separate the commercial fishing industry from deliberations to set limits on fishing harvests in American and international waters.

Insurance giant Swiss Re warned on Wednesday that the costs of natural disasters, aggravated by global warming, threaten to spiral out of control, forcing the human race into a catastrophe of its own making.

Citing forest fire prevention priorities, the U.S. Forest Service has proposed logging in California’s Sequoia National Monument, home to some of the world’s tallest and oldest trees, as well as the Pacific fisher, the California spotted owl, and many other threatened species dependent on ancient forest habitat.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife proposed last week that Puget Sound’s orcas be added to the state’s list of endangered species, citing a dramatic decline in resident whales.

Next month the National Audubon Society board will be answering to a new constituency – their own disgruntled members.

The Environmental Protection Agency last week proposed adding another 11 sites to its Superfund program for cleaning up the nation's worst toxic waste contamination. Environmental groups, however, were not ready to pat the administration on the back, charging instead that more should have been done.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has failed to provide adequate protection to minorities and low-income families who are disproportionately affected by pollution, according to a report released last week by EPA's Inspector General (IG).

Toyota announced last Tuesday that Ford would use some of its hybrid engine technology, in a pact that underlines the Japanese auto giant's strong lead in eco-friendly gasoline-electric systems.