SOUTH ASIA: Glacial Data Crucial to Combating Climate Change

People living in the Himalayan region are increasingly confronted by rising temperatures and glaciers melting at an unprecedented rate, threatening their very survival. This much the world already knows.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Scientists Turn to Inuit for Clues

The Inuit people who live in and around the Arctic are among the worst victims of global warming, and scientists are now turning to their experience and indigenous knowledge to understand the staggering effects of climate change.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Europe Makes Shy Commitments

"Decision-makers should stop thinking in realpolitik terms and acknowledge that we are out of time,’’ says Magda Stoczkiewicz, director of Friends of the Earth (FoE) in Europe.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Coastal Carbon Sinks in Dire Need of Protection

What would it be like if the air we breathe was 30 percent more acidic? The oceans are already 30 percent more acidic, and on their way to becoming 120 percent more acidic in 50 years at the current rates of carbon dioxide emissions.

Q&A: “We’re Here to Insert Some Reality into an Unreal Situation”

Bill McKibben is a U.S. writer, environmentalist and the founder of 350.org, an international climate campaign. His first book, "The End of Nature", was published in 1989 and is regarded as the first book written for a general audience about climate change.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Willingly or Not, We Must Prepare for Geoengineering

So what do we do if COP15 does not bring adequate emission reduction targets or if the targets are not implemented by countries? What if we are faced with an ecological crisis in the next 15-20 years?

Q&A: ‘Nuclear Energy Is Not a Solution to Climate Change’

As the threat of nuclear weapons looms large over the very existence of life on earth, Dr Sue Wareham, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons’ (ICAN) Australian board member, is calling for a speedy abolition of these weapons and the rejection of nuclear power as a solution to climate change.

ENERGY-MEXICO: Big Plans for Ethanol from Algae

The Mexican company BioFields will begin production in 2014 of an algae-based biofuel at a site 300 kilometres from its border with the United States, which is likely to be its biggest customer.

CUBA: World Class Pharma that Puts People First

Cuban biotechnology and pharmaceutical products are already among the country's major exports, and the industry is on course to continue developing while maintaining a firm focus on making a real difference to the health of all Cubans and of people in the numerous countries where Cuba provides medical assistance.

U.S.: Katrina Lawsuit Raises Broader Questions About Levee Safety

Since a federal judge ruled earlier this month that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was responsible for the devastating 2005 levee breach at the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina, some legal scholars believe that millions – or even billions - could be owed to additional Hurricane Katrina victims.

CLIMATE CHANGE: “No Politics in the Melting of the Ice Sheet”

As climate scientists defend their work from sceptics in the aftermath of researchers' emails being stolen over the weekend, a new report hopes to provide an update on science's latest climate-related findings.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Latin America’s Perpetual Fever

"To use a soccer metaphor, which Brazilian politicians like so much, the Kyoto Protocol was the 10-minute warm-up before the real game begins," said scientist Carlos Nobre in reference to global climate change treaties.

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Danish Example

Whether a new internationally binding treaty to reduce greenhouse gases and forestall climate change will be signed next month remains to be seen. What is clear though, is that if there is a place in the world that deserves to be the stage where this treaty ought to be signed, it is the Danish capital of Copenhagen.

BIODIVERSITY: Plants Finally Get DNA Barcodes

Advances made in genetic profiling could be used to fight illegal timber trading, provide authentication of herbal medicines and map entire food chains, according to experts at a conference of the Mexican Academy of Sciences.

CLIMATE CHANGE-THAILAND: Bangkok: A Future Filled with Floods

Thailand’s capital, dubbed the ‘City of Angels’ and the ‘Venice of the East’, is threatened by long-term flood inundation as rising sea waters triggered by global weather change and monsoonal rains combine.

ENERGY: Clean, Green Goo to Power Engines

Stephen Mayfield, the recently appointed director of the University of California at San Diego's Algae Biotechnology lab, is taking on a Texas-sized challenge - giving birth to a nascent alternative energy industry.

Q&A: “What is Important is to Give Equal Opportunity” – Part 2

Although women have long made major contributions to science, their efforts have often been overlooked. For the past 12 years, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has teamed up with cosmetics giant L'Oréal to highlight the achievements of female scientists.

GENDER: Women in Science Face Discrimination in India – Part 1

Just 10 of the 443 Indian scientists who received the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) award in the last 50 years were women.

ENVIRONMENT: Save Half the Planet, or Lose It All

At least half the planet must be protected if humanity is to survive the next century, declared conservationists at the conclusion of 9th World Wilderness Congress on Friday, Nov. 13.

ENERGY-DENMARK: Samso Island, Beyond Fantasy

On the Danish island of Samsø, a model of energy self-sufficiency, even cow's milk helps reduce emissions of climate changing gases.

MEXICO: DNA Tool to Trace Missing Kids

Andrea C. was eight years old when two unidentified women took her from her home in a neighbourhood on the north side of the Mexican capital, in September 2005. Four years later, she is still missing.