Environment

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“I think Americans understand why clean energy is important and what the role of government is in helping make sure ... that the country gets the benefits of it.” - Arno Harris, chairman of the Solar Energy Industries Association and CEO of Recurrent Energy. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

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Natal Lion Park in Camperdown, near Durban, South Africa, is a haven for lions and other animals native to Africa. The lion population in the wild is decreasing.

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A lioness walking through the tall grass in the Phinda Private Game Reserve, near Hluhluwe, South Africa. An ever-growing human population has moved into savannah lands to settle and develop the areas where lions roam. (Associated Press)

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This artist rendering released by NASA shows the twin spacecraft Ebb and Flow orbiting the moon. The duo found evidence that the moon’s interior is more battered than previously thought and the crust is thinner than expected. (Associated Press/NASA)

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Jazz Pianist Dave Brubeck shown playing at the Newport Jazz Festival August 23, 1981, Newport, RI. (AP Photo/Paul Mello)

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** File ** Tony Bennett performs with Dave Brubeck at George Wein's Carefusion Newport Jazz 55 in Newport, R.I. on Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009. (Associated Press)

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Filipinos cross a river in the flash-flood-hit village of Andap in the Compostela Valley in the southern Philippines on Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012. Typhoon Bopha, one of the strongest typhoons to hit the country this year, barreled across the nation's south on Tuesday, killing scores of people while triggering landslides and flooding and cutting off power in two entire provinces. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

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U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses the opening of the high-level segment of the annual U.N. climate talks involving environment ministers and climate officials from nearly 200 countries, in Doha, Qatar, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012. Ban has urged governments to speed up slow-moving talks to forge a joint response to global warming and warned that climate change was an "existential challenge for the whole human race." (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)

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This Oct. 30, 2012 file photo shows water reaching the street level of the flooded Battery Park Underpass in New York. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano, File)

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**FILE** Qatari women activists holding a banner reading "commit to climate justice 4 all" as they march with local and international activists march to demand urgent action to address climate change at the U.N. climate talks in Doha, Qatar, on Dec. 1, 2012. (Associated Press)

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In this Sept. 4, 2011 file photo shows the main plant facility at the Navajo Generating Station, from Lake Powell, in Page, Ariz. The United Nations climate chief is urging people not to look solely to their governments to make tough decisions to slow global warming, and instead to consider their own role in solving the problem. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

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Local and international activists march to demand urgent action to address climate change at the U.N. climate talks in Doha, Qatar, Saturday , Dec. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)

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Qatari Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani addresses the opening of the high-level segment of the annual U.N. climate talks involving environment ministers and climate officials from nearly 200 countries, in Doha, Qatar, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged governments to speed up slow-moving talks to forge a joint response to global warming and warned that climate change was a "crisis, a threat to us all, our economies, our security and the well-being of our children." (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)

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In this Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012 file photo, a man walks past destroyed homes on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, New York. Delegates from nearly 200 countries are meeting in the Qatari capital of Doha to discuss ways slowing climate change, including by cutting emissions of greenhouse gases that scientists say are warming the planet, melting ice caps, raising sea levels, and changing rainfall patterns with impacts on floods and droughts. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

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Residents walk back to their homes after Typhoon Bopha made landfall in Compostela Valley in southeastern Philippines Tuesday Dec. 4, 2012. Typhoon Bopha (local name Pablo), one of the strongest typhoons to hit the Philippines this year, barreled across the country's south on Tuesday, killing at least 40 people and forcing more than 50,000 to flee from inundated villages. (AP Photo/Karlos Manlupig)