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February 17, 2013 An environmental researcher argues the heavy phosphorus footprint of meat is good reason to eat less meat, given that phosphorus is a finite resource and critical for food security. But not everyone thinks we should be worried.

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February 16, 2013 Gov. Jay Inslee gets the call that between 150 and 300 gallons of toxic sludge are leaking from a single-shelled tank every year. There are dozens of these tanks holding waste that have outlived their life spans.

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February 15, 2013 In New Jersey, thousands of discarded Christmas trees have dodged the wood chipper and hit the beach instead. They're being used to jump-start new dunes, but scientists warn that these man-made dunes could be less sturdy than dunes that form naturally.

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February 15, 2013 The notion that being a little overweight could help people in old age is being challenged. Some of the studies in support of the so-called obesity paradox excluded people who lived in institutions, like nursing homes, or were too sick to participate, a critic says.

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February 14, 2013 After years of being burned by Roundup, weeds like palmer amaranth, marestail and giant ragweed have evolved resistance to the herbicide. To fight them, scientists are now looking to a concept that seems straight out of sci-fi.

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February 13, 2013 NPR "did not present a complete or balanced view" of its program, the MSC writes in a statement.

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February 12, 2013 A new smartphone app allows users to document falling precipitation in their location. The mPING app aims to help weather officials program radar to determine exactly what's falling near you. For example, is it hail or mixed rain?

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February 12, 2013 Consumers are increasingly being marketed seafood with labels that are supposed to certify that it's good for the environment. We asked about consumers' seafood eating habits and whether they prefer to buy "sustainably caught" fish.

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February 12, 2013 Some U.S. meat producers add an obscure chemical called ractopamine to the feed that they give to their pigs, cattle or turkeys. But Russian safety officials haven't approved it, and they've stopped U.S. meat imports – worth a half-billion-dollars a year – until those imports are ractopamine-free.

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February 12, 2013 Most fisheries certified by the MSC system have conditions that spell out how they have to change their operations to comply with MSC standards. But they can still be labeled "certified sustainable seafood" even though they have years to comply.

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February 11, 2013 Manure from pig farms doesn't just contain residues of antibiotics used in livestock. It also carries high concentrations of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a new study of Chinese pig farms finds. And researchers say "it's a global problem."

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February 11, 2013 Industry demand for the "sustainable seafood" label, issued by the Marine Stewardship Council, is increasing. But some environmentalists fear fisheries are being certified despite evidence showing that the fish population is in trouble — or when there's not enough information to know the impact on the oceans.

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February 10, 2013 Every few million years or so, the Earth burps up a super volcano that can erupt continuously for thousands of years. A scientist who's mapping the planet's interior has an idea about what causes these super volcanoes and when we might expect another one.

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