An estimated 32 million acres (13 million hectares) of forest are lost to loggers, farmers and fires every year, according to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization. Most of it is in the Amazon, in Southeast Asia and in West Africa.Trees, and especially the diverse vegetation of tropical rainforests, soak up and store carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming. Decaying or burning trees releases carbon into the air. Scientists estimate that deforestation accounts for up to 20 percent of the carbon added by man to the atmosphere.

 Noah Friedman-Rudovsky for The New York Times

Speaking before an audience of politicians, energy gurus and concerned citizens at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas last night, former president Bill Clinton laid out an ambitious set of what he considers national and global priorities for the deployment of clean energy technologies. “We need some way to capture the public’s imagination and demonstrate that we all ought to get in this boat and row,” he said.

An online portal is accepting comments on the Department of Interior's proposed overhaul of the Endangered Species Act, which could do away with scientific reviews of construction and development projects.