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Australian regulators are clamping down on egg and pork producers who deliberately misuse terms such as "free range" to describe animals that actually spend much of their lives indoors. "When claims such as 'free range' or 'bred free range' are misused, consumers may be misled into paying more for a product feature that doesn't exist," said Rod Sims of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission. "Competitors are also harmed as legitimate free-range producers unfairly lose their competitive advantage." 

ug Power will develop hydrogen fuel cell range extenders for 20 FedEx Express electric delivery trucks.

LA-based Skysource/Skywater Alliance took first prize. Its range of deployable machines pull moisture from the air, condense it and then filter it into fresh water, with outputs ranging from 30 gal (113 L) to 300 gal (1,135 L) per day.

National Geographic is dedicating its television programming to climate change topics for an entire week beginning October 30, in 171 countries and 45 languages. The programming will include the second season premiere of climate change series "Years of Living Dangerously," which explores a range of climate change topics through the eyes of celebrity correspondents. In addition, National Geographic's week of programming will feature Leonardo DiCaprio's new climate change documentary "Before the Flood."

Hotels are making dramatic progress in sustainability as they realize its compatibility with luxury and cost savings, global consultant Ashlan Cousteau says. Trends range from organic cocktails to in-room monitoring of water and electricity use.

According to the Cheetah Conservation Fund, before 1900, the cheetah population numbered over 100,000 and its range included the majority of Africa through the Middle East and into Asia. Since then, however, the animal has gone extinct in more than 20 countries, with a mere 7,100 animals remaining globally

A Brazilian Senate Commission is quickly, and surreptitiously, moving forward a constitutional amendment (PEC 65) that would end the need for environmental assessment approvals for public works projects in Brazil ranging from Amazon dams to roads and canals, and oil infrastructure.

Warming ocean waters are bleaching the world's corals to an unprecedented degree and could destroy huge swaths of coral reefs in areas ranging from Australia to Africa. "This is a huge, looming planetary crisis, and we are sticking our heads in the sand about it," says Justin Marshall of the University of Queensland in Australia.

President Barack Obama will have a wide-ranging legacy of environmental action, said Gina McCarthy, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. As for the relationship between EPA and Congress, she said, "It's always been a struggle, but it's always been that Republicans and Democrats care about the health of their kids."

A brown cloud of pollution now frequently shrouds much of northern India. It's a growing health and environmental problem, and scientists are working to understand its many causes, which range from burning agricultural waste to auto emissions.

Pacific Northwest shellfish producers are the first harbingers of a trend that may have wide ranging implications for the broader fishing industry: ocean acidification. By proactively seeking out adaptation solutions early on, the Northwest shellfish industry is attempting a self-rescue that may provide important lessons as other commercial species begin feeling the impacts of increasing acidification.

Some amateur ranchers use free-ranging cattle as part of land management, and they are finding they can make money by selling grass-fed beef. TomKat Ranch aims to emulate the migratory patterns followed by wild herd animals, allowing land time to recover between grazings. "Ranches can be working landscapes if people understand how animals and land work together," says Wendy Millet, a ranch director who once worked at the Nature Conservancy.

The poor air quality on Dec. 6 also caused the Shanghai government to issue the highest level of public health warning as the Chinese city's pollution index ranged between 23 times and 31 times the recommended levels.

Internal carbon prices used range from $6-60 per metric ton, according to the report. In their 2013 CDP filings, the Walt Disney Company notes a price of $10-20, Google $14 and Xcel Energy $20. Other companies included in the report include: Wal-mart Stores Inc, Delta Airlines, Microsoft and PG&E Corporation.

The proposed Pebble Mine in southwestern Alaska is a project of almost unfathomable scale. The Pebble Limited Partnership intends to excavate a thick layer of ore - nearly a mile deep in places - containing an estimated 81 billion pounds of copper, 5.6 billion pounds of molybdenum, and 107 million ounces of gold. The mine would cover 28 square miles and require the construction of the world's largest earthen dam - 700 feet high and several miles long - to hold back a 10-square-mile containment pond filled with up to 2.5 billion tons of sulfide-laden mine waste. All this would be built not only in an active seismic region, but also in one of the most unspoiled and breathtaking places on the planet - the headwaters of Bristol Bay, home to the world's most productive salmon fishery. Composed of tundra plain, mountain ranges, hundreds of rivers, and thousands of lakes, the greater Bristol Bay region encompasses five national parks and wildlife refuges, and one of the largest state parks in the U.S.

Hyundai and Kia pledged to triple the production of more fuel-efficient cars by 2020. The plan involves increasing the number of fuel-efficient models to at least 22, up from 7 today.

Panera Bread will transition to 100% cage-free eggs over the next five years, the company said Thursday. Panera will also stop sourcing pork from pigs raised with gestation crates and roasted turkey from birds raised with antibiotics, and boost the amount of beef that comes from grass-fed, free-range sources by the end of this year

The Paris climate accord heralds a new era for the global economy, with a wide range of investors and industries now likely to seek ways to avoid carbon risks and adopt less carbon-intensive ways of doing business, experts say. Secretary of State John Kerry says the deal will be a net job creator and sends a powerful message to the marketplace. Nancy Pfund, managing partner of DBL Partners, agrees. "It's very hard to go backward from something like this. People are boarding this train, and it's time to hop on if you want to have a thriving, 21st-century economy," she says. 

Apple frequently uses debt rather than its flush cash coffers to finance corporate initiatives, such as stock repurchase programs - it makes sense to do so for tax reasons. But, the company's latest appeal to the public debt markets includes another "first" for Apple and the tech industry at large: Apple is issuing $1.5 billion in green bonds to pay for a wide range of environmental initiatives.

Warming ocean waters are bleaching the world's corals to an unprecedented degree and could destroy huge swaths of coral reefs in areas ranging from Australia to Africa. "This is a huge, looming planetary crisis, and we are sticking our heads in the sand about it," says Justin Marshall of the University of Queensland in Australia.