BRAZIL: ‘Historic’ National Commitment to Wind Energy

A commitment signed by federal and state authorities in Brazil Thursday was described by the energy minister as a "historic step" towards promoting wind power.

MEXICO: Scientists and Communities Forge Eco-Alliances

Graciela González answers phone calls, organises meetings and gives interviews as part of her work to save a river from ecological disaster. Thousands of kilometres away, farmer Gonzalo Rodríguez helps take air samples in a region polluted by petrochemicals.

U.S.: Govt Report Calls for Swift Action to Avoid Climate Chaos

Fiercer heat waves and wildfires in the U.S. western states, bigger storm surges along the country’s coasts, and disruptions to energy, water and transportation systems are just some of the expected impacts of climate change, according to a new White House report that marks the first scientific statement from the Barack Obama administration acknowledging that the problem is already directly impacting U.S. citizens.

AGRICULTURE-AFRICA: Questioning Old Traditions

Inefficient production, bad infrastructure, poor access to markets, a lack of capital investment: the challenges facing smallholder farmers across Africa are many. A 'green revolution' which appears to be gaining ground in Africa seeks to change all this.

SCIENCE: Hybrid Chestnut Trees Hold Promise as Carbon Sponges

Reducing carbon levels in the atmosphere may be as simple as planting a new breed of hybridised chestnut trees, according to a new study by Purdue University Associate Professor Douglass Jacobs.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Big Carbon Players Jockey for Advantage

Political and business leaders may agree in principle that climate change is a serious threat, but there is a startling lack of consensus and a 'you-go-first' attitude on taking action, even amongst a small group of high-level decision makers disconnected from their cell phones here in the Arctic.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Science vs Politics at the Edge of the North Pole

Spectacular views of mountains and glaciers here in the world's most northerly permanent human settlement contrasted with business and political leaders' pessimism and concern about the enormous gap between the action on climate that science deems necessary and what politics considers realistic.

ENVIRONMENT: Mexico Yet to Cross Clean Energy Threshold

Despite its great potential for energy from the sun, wind and water, Mexico has not taken advantage of the Clean Development Mechanism laid out in the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

Q&A: "I Hope We Are Civilised When Climate Disaster Hits"

"When the first great climate disaster strikes, I hope we will all pull together just as if our nation were being invaded," says British scientist James Lovelock in this exclusive Tierramérica interview.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Twilight of the Fossil Fuel Era?

The world has turned a green corner toward a more sustainable future, with investments in clean energy outpacing fossil fuel power generation for the first time.

BIODIVERSITY: Scientists Build a Macroscope of Life on Earth

Imagine looking at a Google Maps-like satellite image of the Amazon forest and with a mouse click find out what lives in that bit of forest - what tree and plant species are there, what animals, birds and insects.

ENVIRONMENT: Damaged Ecosystems Not Lost Forever

Most polluted or damaged ecosystems worldwide could recover within a single lifetime if societies commit to their cleanup or restoration, according to researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

CHINA: Cashing In on ‘Earthquake Tourism’?

Cashing in on huge public interest in one of the deadliest earthquakes of recent history, China has officially endorsed ‘disaster tourism’ as a form of economic subsidy to devastated areas. Home debris and whole sections of partially wiped out cities and villages during last year’s massive earthquake in southwestern China will now be open to tourists, the state media announced this week.

HEALTH: Pigs Acted as Ideal Crucibles for New Hybrid Flu

On Mar. 28, one month before news of the swine flu outbreak headlined worldwide, a nine- year-old girl in Imperial County, California ran a fever of 104.3 degrees F.

ENVIRONMENT: Extraordinary Abundance of Life in Oceans Past

Imagine large pods of mighty blue whales and orcas darkening the waters off Cornwall, England, while closer to shore blue sharks and thresher sharks chase herds of harbour porpoise and dolphins.

BIODIVERSITY: Alien Species Eroding Ecosystems and Livelihoods

Continent-hopping alien species are worsening poverty and threaten the agriculture, forestry, fisheries and natural systems that underpin millions of livelihoods in developing countries, warn biodiversity experts.

SCIENCE: Questions Surround Mexican Genome Project

In Mexico scientists are seeking volunteers who are obese, diabetic or suffering from cancer or other diseases, in order to study their genes. The results will help fill in a genetic map of the Mexican population.

HEALTH: Flu Fuels Concerns about ‘Factory Farms’

While the swine flu virus does not appear to be as potentially devastating as first imagined, environmentalists and some public health activists argue that it should be considered a wake-up call to the public about the conditions in which much of our food is being produced.

ENVIRONMENT: Deep CO2 Cuts May Be Last Hope for Acid Oceans

Ocean acidification offers the clearest evidence of dangers of climate change. And yet the indisputable fact that burning fossil fuels is slowly turning the oceans into an acid bath has been largely ignored by industrialised countries and their climate treaty negotiators, concluded delegates from 76 countries at the World Oceans Conference in Manado, Indonesia.

AGRICULTURE-GHANA: Few Signs of Concern as GM Crops Advance

Ghanaians are daily consuming genetically modified (GM) products imported by various traders without much care. However, as the government prepares to allow the planting of GM crops locally in a bid to boost food production, one non-governmental organisation, Friends of the Earth (FoE) Ghana is sounding the alarm.

ENVIRONMENT: Scientists Shepherd Dwindling Right Whales

When a North Atlantic right whale swimming near Boston bellows at 3 a.m., a phone rings in a small town in upstate New York.