Lawmakers center of climate debate. Montana's congressional delegation appears to be at the center of the debate over global climate change. [News Source]

Minister urges parties to unite on climate issue. Environment Minister John Baird urged all the federal parties Sunday to put partisanship aside to get moving on the environment file in the wake of the global climate-change report. [News Source]

Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez takes up energy conservation. President Hugo Chavez is increasingly talking up environmental causes and urging the world to cut back on oil use to fight global warming. [News Source]

Trouble in the air over a question of life and death. We can eat organic. We can exercise. We can floss between our teeth. But we cannot do much about the air we breathe. [News Source]

Mercury used in teeth poses tricky problem for lawmakers. A proposed ban on mercury-containing tooth filings may prove tricky for lawmakers, who are hearing from some dentists that the material is necessary to cheaply and durably fix some teeth. [News Source]

Valley lobbies for air cleanup funds. A newly launched effort to clean the Valley's air will face an early test in Sacramento this year when regulators begin to dole out $1 billion in air quality bond money. [News Source]

Mobile lab to scope out air hazards. Determined to pinpoint what kind of pollution is swirling in the air around the region's ports, a crew of scientists will begin cruising Southern California streets and freeways in a one-of-a-kind mobile research lab. [News Source]

Water, air quality improving but still exceed standards.

More than a quarter of water samples from swimming spots in Southland rivers last summer exceeded health guidelines – which was actually an improvement on the previous year, Environment Southland reported.

[News Source]

Turkey besieged by spreading pollution. An overwhelming majority of Turkey's 81 provinces are plagued by pressing environmental problems and pollution has become the most urgent issue, Environment Ministry data has revealed. [News Source]

Healthy environment means healthy generations. More than 33 percent of diseases in children under age 5 are caused by environmental exposure, the World Health Organization reported last year. [News Source]

Power from waste proposed for Jerusalem. Jerusalem Development Corp. and Sweden's Environmental Engineering are proposing incinerating waste to produce power. [News Source]