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As evidence mounts that excessive use of light is harming wildlife and adversely affecting human health, new initiatives in France and elsewhere are seeking to turn down the lights that flood an ever-growing part of the planet

mounts that excessive use of light is harming wildlife and adversely affecting human health, new initiatives in France and elsewhere are seeking to turn down the lights that flood an ever-growing part of the planet.

Carnival Corporation will spend $180 million to install scrubbers designed to reduce sulfur emissions on 32 ships. In return for installing the technology, the EPA will exempt the ships from its low-sulfur fuel mandate.

on average, each of us in the U.S. uses 25 tons of raw materials every year to produce our stuff and our energy. That is the weight of about 20 cars. By comparison, the average Chinese person uses 12 tons and the average Indian only 4 tons of raw materials per year.

The White House has announced a new plan to reduce America's methane emissions, which are thought to account for up to 14% of the country's total greenhouse emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency will monitor methane emissions from the fossil-fuel sector, and the Interior Department will develop a plan to capture and sell methane emitted by coal mines on federal land. The effort will depend on "cost-effective, voluntary actions and common-sense standards," said Dan Utech, special assistant to the president for energy and climate change

Climate change is already taking a serious toll on the planet, leading to heat waves, water shortages, melting ice caps, dying coral reefs and the extinction or migration of fish stocks, according to a report from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Decisions made -- or left unmade -- by policymakers in the immediate future will shape global society for the rest of the century, the panel's report warns. "Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change," said Rajendra K. Pachauri, the panel's chairman

Atmospheric carbon levels have reached 402 parts per million, the highest level in about 800,000 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. "Humans have caused carbon dioxide concentrations to rise 120 ppm since preindustrial times, with over 90% of that in the past century alone," said James Butler, director of NOAA's Global Monitoring Division

President Barack Obama today announced a major expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, rendering large areas of the central Pacific off-limits to fishing and energy exploration. The move will expand the marine sanctuary to more than 780,000 square miles.

Climate change is already hitting America hard, according to a new study, leading to water shortages in dry regions, heavy rains in wet regions, more frequent and severe heat waves, worse wildfires, and forests die-offs. "Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present," the National Climate Assessment warns

Mountaintop-removal mining is changing water chemistry and harming fish stocks in the Appalachians, federal researchers say. "We're seeing significant reductions in the number of fish species and total abundance of fish downstream from mining operations," says biologist Nathaniel Hitt.

The map shows the world's carbon emissions from 1997 to 2010, say the scientists who made it. The data came from satellite measurements and reported emissions rates from factories and power plants, among other sources.

President Barack Obama is pushing American companies to abandon the use of a chemical coolant called R-134a in refrigerators, air conditioning systems and other industrial applications. R-134a is in a class of chemicals that can be up to 10,000 times as powerful a greenhouse gas per ounce as carbon dioxide.

China pledged to reduce its CO2 emissions by 60-65% per unit of GDP by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. The country also pledged to procure 20% of its electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.

By the end of the century, scientists say, megafires-conflagrations that chew up at least 100,000 acres of land-will become the norm. Which makes them of critical interest to researchers. These infernos, once rare, are growing to sizes that U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell describes as "unimaginable" two decades ago. Five alone have consumed more than five million acres in central Alaska since June. Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado also experienced their worst wildfires in the past seven years.

Rising temperatures are increasing the number of "megafires" in the forests of the western U.S., experts say. Tackling and preventing such fires could require a significant shift in firefighting and forest conservation strategies. "These stresses are going to become more widespread," warned Craig Allen, a U.S. Geological Service forest ecologist. National Geographic News (free registration) (8/9) 

MGM Resorts has saved 2 billion gallons of water since embarking on current conservation efforts in 2008, sustainability chief Chris Brophy told the Nevada Drought Forum last week. Among the company's projects: water recycling technology to reduce waste at the Bellagio fountain show and at Cirque du Soleil's indoor water show. 

As ever more species face extinction, we lose the vital ecosystem services they provide, such as honeybee crop pollination. For its continued existence, mankind is reliant upon an untold plethora of species that maintain the status quo. As they disappear, that existence becomes increasingly fragile.

Continuing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change could cause Nepal's Everest region to lose 99% of its glaciers by the end of the century, researchers say. "The numbers are quite frightening," said Joseph Shea, a glacier hydrologist at Nepal's International Center for Integrated Mountain Development

European climate policies are creating new demand for biomass, which power plants now have an incentive to burn instead of coal. That's leading to dramatically increased logging along the eastern coast of the U.S., even as researchers question the eco-friendliness of biomass-based power generation

In the battle to limit the risks of climate change, it has been clear for decades that focusing on the world's immense tropical forests - saving the ones that are left, and perhaps letting new ones grow - is the single most promising near-term strategy.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calls for a dramatic shift from fossil fuels, aiming to influence world leaders to take concrete steps.