Ken Salazar, President Obama's Secretary of the interior, has given the go-ahead for the US Government to begin leasing four large areas off the mid-atlantic coast to energy companies to build offshore wind farms.

At the 17th U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in South Africa, leaders from around the world came to a broad last-minute compromise, but details were scarce.

Is Valentine's Day full of hidden evil? We take a look at the issues behind flowers, chocolates and diamonds and find out how to buy ethically this Valentine's Day.

It just got a whole lot easier for Americans to find out which power plants and industrial sites are releasing the most emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency recently released its greenhouse gas database, and included some great tools for tracking polluters. While it doesn't include any requirements to reduce those emissions, it could be a first step in that direction by simply making clear who is releasing it and how much is being released. After the Toxics Release Inventory was created in the 80's, companies - under pressure from the public - began cutting even before mandatory reductions were phased in. After all, no one wants to be called out for farting at the party, so to speak.

The full list:
http://motherjones.com/slideshows/2012/01/worst-emissions-pollutors/scherer-plant-juliette-georgia

It's time for moms to roar! Join Julianne and the Moms Clean Air Force: http://www.momscleanairforce.org/roar

Actress and mother Julianne Moore released a new video calling on parents to join the fight against toxic air pollution. In the video, which endorses a nonpartisan grassroots group called the Moms Clean Air Force, Moore appears along with the heroine of her popular children's books, Freckleface Strawberry.

Moms are becoming a powerful force in American politics. They are telling Washington that they will not allow their children's health to be compromised by dirty fossil fuel power plants, the single largest source of pollution in the U.S. The Moms Clean Air Force is a growing community of tens of thousands of moms— from all across the political spectrum and all across the country—uniting to make their voices heard to protect their children's health. "Clean air should be above politics," Moore said. "The discussion about regulations to protect our air has gotten so polarized that we have forgotten an important thing: We all breathe the same air. And all our children suffer because of pollution. We don't have to choose between a healthy economy and a healthy environment. We can have both. We can have what's best for all our children."

President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act into law in 1970 with overwhelming support from Democrats and Republicans; however, the law is now under dangerous political attack. The new mercury and air toxics standards signed in December, after 21 years of planning, are already under political attack, with some politicians in Congress and lobbyists for the utility and coal industries calling to annul it or defund the Environmental Protection Agency.

Responding to this threat, Moms Clean Air Force is bringing parents together in support of a simple idea: That every child has the right to breathe clean air.

It may come as a surprise that environmentalists are increasingly turning to wood as a renewable, alternative energy source. Find out why it's environmentally-friendly and how it could reduce your household energy bill in this week's show.

Watch Zombie Highways: What about the environment? on PBS. See more from Blueprint America.

Blueprint America correspondent Rick Karr in a web report from Alabama on the environmental impact of building highways, and the growth they can create.

The constant use of plastic bottles is really harmful to the environment and can be pretty easily reduced. here are some ways to stop using plastic bottles so much.