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Independent: There was a significant increase in UK greenhouse gases in 2010 for the first time in several years, Government figures confirmed yesterday. Emissions of the basket of carbon dioxide (CO2) and five other greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto protocol, the international climate-change treaty, were more than 3 per cent higher that year than in 2009, according to final data released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Emissions of CO2 itself, the principal greenhouse gas, were almost...

Inter Press Service: More than a decade ago, solar electricity changed the lives of several mountain communities in Cuba. Now this and other renewable power sources are emerging as the best options available to develop sustainable energy across the island. "If the world's clean energy potential exceeds our consumption needs, why do we insist on using the polluting kind?" asked Luis Bérriz, head of the Cuban Society for the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources and Respect for the Environment (CUBASOLAR), a non- governmental...

Reuters: Trace amounts of a radioactive element found in fish near the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant have now been found in bass in an opposite corner of the state, apparently clearing the plant of any tie to the contamination, a state health official said. Initial testing took place after Entergy Corp.'s Vermont Yankee, located in the southeastern town of Vernon, reported in 2010 that radioactive material had leaked into nearby groundwater. Low levels of Strontium-90, an isotope produced by nuclear...

LiveScience: It seems the general public just can't make up its mind about the existence of man-made climate change. Rather than steadily increasing or decreasing over the last decade, the U.S. public's concern over our warming planet has jumped up and down, according to Gallup polls. But what exactly is driving this seesawing of opinions on climate change? The level of public concern about this global issue is mostly influenced by the mobilization efforts of political leaders and advocacy groups, new research...

Climate Central: As it does every month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released U.S. weather stats for the month just ended, and the results will come as a huge shock -- if you've been hiding in a subterranean cave, at least. For the rest of us, it's not even a bit surprising that January, 2012 is the fourth warmest January since modern recordkeeping began in the late 1800's. Here in Princeton, where Climate Central has its headquarters, daffodils are poking up out of the ground...

Politco: Rick Santorum told Colorado Springs supporters Tuesday that Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich would be ineffective challengers to President Barack Obama in the general election because of their views on cap and trade. "Let's go to cap and trade. Governor Romney proudly announced that they were the first state, Massachusetts, to put a cap on CO2 emissions in the state of Massachusetts," Santorum told more than 100 supporters here. Santorum also dinged Gingrich for filming a climate change ad with...

Reuters: A plan to fast-track the stalled the Keystone XL pipeline was passed by a key committee in the House of Representatives, as Republicans made yet another attempt to spur approval of the project that has become a major issue in the 2012 elections. The bill would wrest decision-making on the pipeline from the Obama administration and hand it to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which would be compelled to quickly issue approval permits on the Canada-to-Texas project. But the plan would...

Inter Press Service: Spain's new conservative government has announced changes in environmental policy that are a significant step backwards for environmental protection in the country, provoking an immediate, harsh reaction from the opposition and civil society. Mario Rodríguez, head of the Spanish chapter of the environmental NGO Greenpeace, told IPS that the only fit response to the government's announcement is "citizens' protests to demand that the achievements for the defence of the environment over the past...

Inter Press Service: As half of Mexico endures one of the most severe droughts in its history, cloud seeding appears to be a promising way to bring desperately needed rain, although it remains a source of controversy. While some promote the benefits of cloud seeding, others insist that there is no solid evidence of its effectiveness, in addition to the fact that the potential effects on the air, water and soil of the chemicals used have not been sufficiently studied. "The methodology is not proven; the investment...

Mongabay: On February 4th, the Peruvian government and a small indigenous group created a new Amazon reserve, dubbed the Maijuna Reserve. Located in northeastern Peru, the 390,000 hectare (970,000 acres) reserve is larger than California's Yosemite National Park and over three times the size of Hong Kong. Connected to the watersheds of Napo and Putumayo rivers, Maijuna reserve will not only protect primary rainforest in the Loreto Region, but also the culture of the Maijuna people who live in the area with...

SciDev.Net: The current trend of increasing ocean acidification, which threatens fisheries around the world, is driven mainly by man-made changes and is higher even than that seen at the end of the last ice age, some 11,000 year ago, a study has said. Much of the carbon released by human activity ends up in the oceans, increasing their acidity and reducing the growth of corals and molluscs, which in turn may affect fisheries and aquaculture. Fisheries in the Pacific and the Caribbean may suffer the most...

Salon: If we could see the world with a particularly illuminating set of spectacles, one of its most prominent features at the moment would be a giant carbon bubble, whose bursting someday will make the housing bubble of 2007 look like a lark. As yet - as we shall see - it’s unfortunately largely invisible to us. In compensation, though, we have some truly beautiful images made possible by new technology. Last month, for instance, NASA updated the most iconic photograph in our civilization’s gallery:...

Reuters: BP ratcheted up the rhetoric around multi-billion dollar claims from the Gulf oil spill by warning it would "vigorously" contest lawsuits over one of the world's worst environmental disasters. While reiterating BP's "bias for settling" at hearings scheduled later this month, CEO Bob Dudley said he would only do so "on fair and reasonable terms." As he unveiled higher fourth quarter profit on Tuesday and a rise in the dividend, which he said showed BP was putting the spill behind it, Dudley...

New York Times: New York regulators have received more than 60,000 public comments on the state’s plan to allow hydrofracking, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s top environmental official said on Tuesday at a hearing. Joe Martens, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, spoke at a joint legislative hearing on the Cuomo administration’s proposed 2012-13 budget for his agency. (As I report in Tuesday’s paper, the governor’s budget allocates no money for ushering in the drilling over the next year.)...

Press Association: The UK's greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2010, the first increase since 2003, figures confirmed today. The final estimates for 2010 showed that greenhouse gas output rose by more than 3%, largely due to an increase in gas use for heating homes in the face of cold weather at the beginning and the end of the year. Emissions from the residential sector rose by almost 15% from 2009, the statistics from the Department of Energy and Climate Change showed. The rise in emissions was also driven...

Inter Press Service: To meet the challenges of the 21st century, including climate change, feeding the world and eliminating poverty, we need to free ourselves from the "thought traps" that prevent us from seeing the world as it truly is and narrow our vision of how to respond. At same time, we need to eliminate "privately-held government", says Frances Moore Lappé, author of "EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want" published by Nation Books. Lappé has written 18 books, including the very influential...

Guardian: Seen from the air, the coral ring that separates the deep blue of the ocean from the lighter water of the lagoon lends Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls a sense of normality. But the picture changes dramatically as you come closer. Parts of the islands are covered in concrete and the vegetation usually found in the Tuamoto archipelago has given way to aito trees, a form of she-oak. "At home on Tuamoto we depend on the island for our livelihood but here it is dead," says an indignant Tuamotuan. France...

Washington Post: Russian scientists have drilled into the vast, dark and never-before-touched Lake Vostok 2.2 miles below the surface of Antarctica, the state-run Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported Monday. "Yesterday, our scientists stopped drilling at the depth of 3,768 meters and reached the surface of the subglacial lake,' the news agency quoted a source as saying. The team had "finally managed to pierce' the ice sheet into Vostok, the source said. The report could not be verified Monday, but numerous...

Business Journal: The California Department of Public Health has released a study finding that heat events, flooding and wildfires --events associated with anticipated future climate change -- will impact Fresno County's minorities the greatest. Fresno and Los Angeles counties were examined for the study. The study also found areas with a predominantly minority population were more susceptible to heat stress because of a number of factors such as limited vegetation, open space, access to transportation to visit...

Hindu: Bangalore, which was once known for its salubrious climate, is getting hotter by the day because of the rise in global and local pollution levels, according to J. Srinivasan, Chairman of the Divecha Centre for Climate Change, and Professor at the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Attributing the phenomenon to rise in carbon dioxide level in the city, he said excessive consumption of fossil fuels like petrol and diesel has resulted in carbon emission...