Excerpt of press release from the Department of the Interior:

Salazar Underscores Importance of Healthy Outdoor Activity for Young People in Visit to Great Falls Park near Nation’s Capital

“An average young person today spends six hours a day in front of a computer or TV and less than four minutes playing outdoors,” Salazar said. “If our young people today are going to grow up to be healthy adults, we must encourage them to get outdoors. In particular, we need to introduce them to the beauty of our national parks and wildlife refuges, many of which are within easy traveling distance of urban areas.” …

For the rest of this article, see http://www.doi.gov/news/09_News_Releases/072309a.html

Excerpt from the New York Times:

Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: August 8, 2009

WASHINGTON — The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, military and intelligence analysts say.…

Read the rest at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/science/earth/09climate.html?scp=1&sq=military%20response%20global%20warming&st=cse

Excerpt from the New York Times:

Oil Industry Backs Protests of Emissions Bill

This was the first of a series of about 20 rallies planned for Southern and oil-producing states to organize resistance to proposed legislation that would set a limit on emissions of heat-trapping gases, requiring many companies to buy emission permits. Participants described the system as an energy tax that would undermine the economy of Houston, the nation’s energy capital. …

Read the whole article at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/business/energy-environment/19climate.html?scp=1&sq=texas%20oil%20rally&st=cse

Inspired by a stupid editorial in the New York Times:

The Earth Is Warming? Adjust the Thermostat
By JOHN TIERNEY
Published: August 10, 2009
…
Plan B. Do something about the weather. Originally called geoengineering, this approach used to be dismissed as science fiction fantasies: cooling the planet with sun-blocking particles or shades; tinkering with clouds to make them more reflective; removing vast quantities of carbon from the atmosphere.

Today this approach goes by the slightly less grandiose name of climate engineering, and it is looking more practical. Several recent reviews of these ideas conclude that cooling the planet would be technically feasible and economically affordable.
…

In case you want to waste your time: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/science/11tier.html?scp=3&sq=climate%20change%20particles%20august&st=cse

From the New York Times:

Mercury Found in Every Fish Tested, Scientists Say

When government scientists went looking for mercury contamination in fish in 291 streams around the nation, they found it in every fish they tested, the Interior Department said, even in isolated rural waterways. In a statement, the department said that some of the streams tested were affected by mining operations, which can be a source of mercury pollution, so the findings, by scientists at the United States Geological Survey, do not necessarily reflect contamination levels nationwide. But Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the findings underlined the need to act against mercury pollution. Emissions from coal-fired power plants are the largest source of mercury contamination in the United States. A quarter of the fish studied had mercury levels above safety levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency for people who eat the fish regularly, the Interior Department said.

That was the whole article. It’s here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/science/earth/20brfs-MERCURYFOUND_BRF.html?scp=1&sq=fish%20rivers%20mercury&st=cse