Car manufacturers in Europe were given a severe warning from the European Commission yesterday that they face stringent new laws if they fail to live up to their commitments to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

I’m haunted by the scene described in today’s Reuters article about an explosion at an oil pipeline in Diwaniya, Iraq. It seems that a pool of oil had formed around leaks in a disused pipeline and local people had waded into the pool to siphon off petrol when suddenly the oil exploded into flames. [...]

A year after Katrina wrecked New Orleans, President Bush is touring the still devastated area. As his administration continues to receive a storm of abuse over its handling of the aftermath, a different storm is raging within the world’s scientific community. Are hurricanes becoming more vicious or more frequent?

The corrosion crisis within the oil industry continues to spread. Now Shell has been criticised by the shareholder action group, the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR) over its corroded gas pipes in Ireland.

New research has found that Andean glaciers are melting so fast that some are expected to disappear within 15-25 years, denying major cities water supplies and putting populations and food supplies at risk in Colombia, Peru, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina and Bolivia.
Some glaciers in Colombia are now less than 20% of the mass recorded in [...]