Besides her careers as a singer-songwriter and actress, Mandy Moore has quietly carved out another role as spokeswoman for global humanitarian efforts such as clean water and fighting malaria, taking her to remote villages in African countries and, this week, to the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York.

Amy Russell isn't expecting her walk across Connecticut to pose much of challenge.

She's just going 140 miles, starting Saturday in Granby and finishing next Friday in Greenwich.

Some of the world's most famous clothing brands, including Nike, Adidas Puma, and H&M are using suppliers that pour toxic chemicals into China's rivers, the environmental pressure group Greenpeace has claimed.

By Peter Foster, Beijing

Contaminated water can be cleaned much more effectively using a novel, cheap material, say researchers.

Dubbed "super sand", it could become a low-cost way to purify water in the developing world.

Friday was an important day for everyone, and I’m not speaking of religious circles. Friday was Earth Day 2011. And whether you think about it or not, or you care about it or not, I believe we are lucky to have people out there who do care enough to do what’s best for our planet. We need it to survive, after all.

Earth Day started in 1970, the idea of a then U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson. The massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, Calif. the year before spurred his enthusiasm for becoming an activist in the fight to clean up our water and air.

The majority of electricity production in the United States comes from the combustion of fossil fuel. However, the low price of electricity derived from fossil fuels such as coal do not reflect the complete cost.

What is the one natural substance that is MOST vital to life on Earth? Water. Without water, life is impossible for most creatures and plants. 

Clean water is essential to life, and as the Earth’s population grows, water is becoming more and more a limiting factor to human life. Concentrating populations in cities places additional demands on our ability to supply growing urban areas with adequate fresh, clean water. Water is becoming our most valuable resource, especially in urban areas.

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” is a common process used in the extraction of natural gas. This process is necessary to make the wells profitable by increasing yields. However, there is much controversy surrounding the process, which industry experts claim is safe. Oil and gas companies, along with companies that only provide fracking services such as Halliburton and Slumberger, claim the process is safe and there have never been any reported incidents of groundwater contamination during the approximately sixty years the process has been in use. The fracking fluid is made up mostly of water and sand, but also contains a small amount of chemicals, and that is the primary issue with the process.

There have been several incidents of groundwater contamination in Colorado, along with a few other states, but the contamination has never been officially linked to fracking. One argument on why these cases have never been linked to fracking is because companies are not required to disclose what chemicals they use in the process. Each company has its’ own proprietary recipe, and will not disclose secrets. However, there is no law requiring disclosure, so the companies are not breaking any laws. In fact, fracking was excluded from regulation under a 2005 Clean Water Act amendment put in place by the Bush Administration.

Annie Leonard Releases New Video on Story of Bottled Water for World Water Day

by Jaymi Heimbuch

By David Bois

World Water Day 2010: Everything You Need to Know