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"Without properly trained science journalists to serve as honest brokers ... the public is increasingly ill-equipped to sift through the cacophony of anti-scientific propaganda that pervades the public discourse and to identify the emerging threats to our health and our environment," Mann said. 

With two editors and seven reporters dedicated exclusively to environmental coverage, the Times has long been home to the single largest environment staff of any daily U.S. newspaper. Its coverage has become even more important in recent years, because many struggling papers have slashed their reporting staffs, often relying on the Times as inspiration for the stories they do cover.

Once the Times' environmental desk is dismantled, the nation's top five newspapers by readership—the Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal—will have about a dozen reporters and a handful of editors among them whose primary responsibility is to cover the environment. The New York Times has yet to reassign its reporters so a precise tally is not possible.

Reusing air conditioning condensation to water plants and clean. Repurposing advertising banners into fashionable tote bags. Recycling used cooking oil to power generators at a hospital. Today, McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD) celebrates these and dozens more examples of passion and innovation in the 2012 Global Best of Green report.

A United Nations Development Program Report of 2008 states that 83% of people who die due to impacts brought about by climate change disasters are women. Women and men are affected in different ways because of the different socio-cultural structure of their roles.

The 2009 State of Uganda Population Report focusing on 'addressing the effects of climate change on migration patterns and women' recognized that women in developing countries like Uganda produce 60% to 80% of food, and are also responsible for collecting firewood and water. This links women primarily to natural resources and if these resources like water are affected due to climate change then women are most likely to suffer. The Report states that 70% of the world's poor are women with most of them becoming the victims of climate change impacts.

More than 55,000 people from around the world and all walks of life are attending the summit. Some 130 world leaders are expected to participate in three-days of high-level talks opening June 20 that will result in a outcome document on sustainable development.

Rio+20 marks the 20th anniversary of the original UN Earth Summit in Rio, where countries agreed to a roadmap for environmental protection, economic growth, and social equity known as Agenda 21.

"The planet is running out of time - yet leaders are answering with weak words that don't even come close to the kind of commitments we need to ensure people everywhere have access to clean water, food, and energy," said Jim Leape, director general of WWF International.

Pavan Sukhdev, head of UNEP's Green Economy Initiative and lead author of the 2010 Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study, tells Scidev.Net that the commission's report will in part be aimed at businesses preparing to exploit the high seas with new technologies.

"There is no point in asking for change at a macro or sector level without also targeting change at the agent level. We have a serious agency problem. Corporations are 60% of GDP and 70% of global employment and left to themselves, 'Corporation 1920' type companies are unlikely to create the green economy. As the saying goes, turkeys don't vote for Christmas.

In the world of Corporation 2020, financial leverage would be limited by regulations that align corporate interests better with societal goals such as financial and economic stability. At present, this task is left largely to investors, with fund managers becoming the unlikely conscience-keepers of society. This is an unwise situation, to say the least.

the imposition of taxes on resource extraction, for businesses to be transparent about their impacts on society, and the creation of rules to make companies more accountable in the way they advertise products and services.

Some 39 chief executives of banks, investment funds and insurance firms Saturday pledged at a Rio+20 business forum Saturday to integrate the Earth's natural capital into loans and investments.

Twenty years after the first Earth Summit highlighted the importance of the natural environment, they unveiled a "Natural Capital Declaration" that commit their companies also to reporting or disclosing on the theme of natural capital and accounting for natural capital in accounting frameworks.

Reports quoting documents leaked ahead of the summit suggest that countries will be asked to sign up to 10 separate goals. These could include a deal on protecting oceans, the establishment of a powerful global agency for the environment, financial support to encourage sustainability for poorer nations and the appointment of an ecological high commissioner.

Realistically, the best that can be hoped for is that Rio +20 will be the start of a process that leads to some or all of these goals being met. Few expect hard and fast policies to be put in place after three days of discussion and the likelihood is that participants will sign up to a document committing themselves to further action in the future.

There are also numerous sticking points. Wealthy and poorer nations are likely to argue over sharing the burden of cutting carbon emissions. There have been concerns over the exclusion of references to basic human rights, such as access to water. Environmental monitoring methods are also expected to spark dissent.

"We therefore, recommend the following: (1) there must be transparent and effective national forest governance structures, (2) there must be Respect for the knowledge and rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, (3) there must be the full and effective participation of all relevant stakeholders, specifically affected local communities and (4) there must be Conservation of natural forests and biological diversity," the group amongst other things added.

The proposed deal was between the Liberian government and Carbon Harvesting Corporation (CHC). CHC sought a 400,000-hectare forest concession, or one fifth of Liberia's forests, from which to sell carbon credits. One news report explained that this deal could have bankrupted Liberia, which is still recovering from years of violent civil war.