The U.N. met its Millennium Development Goal to halve the number of people without safe drinking water.

President Obama is giving a press conference this afternoon — the first in months. It’s supposed to be about mortgage relief, but odds are someone will ask him about gas prices, too.

Twenty percent of ground pollution in the U.S. can be traced to emissions from Asia that have traveled over the Pacific Ocean.

Bill McKibben is changing minds over at the Huffington Post: Of the readers who’ve read his argument against Keystone XL and Ezra Levant’s argument for the pipeline, 9 percent have gone over to McKibben’s side.

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.

2011 — officially the year with the costliest disasters ever.

McDonald’s is actually going to advertise those apple slices kids are supposed to be eating instead of fries. (Of course, their spokescritter in the ads will be a goat, an animal who will LITERALLY EAT ANYTHING. So basically: “Eat apples, they’re better than old boots.” Convincing.)