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President Obama told representatives of 90 countries yesterday that taking steps to safeguard the world's oceans is crucial in a warming world. Speaking at the third annual Our Ocean conference, hosted this year by the State Department in Washington, D.C., Obama urged action to relieve stress on the world's oceans as they cope with climate change.

Economic and population growth on top of climate change could lead to serious water shortages across a broad swath of Asia by the year 2050, a newly published study by MIT scientists has found.

Ecolab CEO says, water must be priced now. Water stress is already creating economic challenges.

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) 

InterContinental Hotels Group has set a goal to reduce water use in water-stressed areas by 12 percent globally by 2017, compared to a 2012 baseline.

A growing number of organizations from Google to the federal government are incorporating homages to nature into their office blueprints, not just to earn more green building certification points but to reduce employee stress, improve cognitive function and encourage creativity.

The rate of increase in China's water withdrawals has significantly slowed, from 5.1 billion cubic meters per year in 2001-2010, to 1.6 billion cubic meters per year from 2010-2015.

Obesity, mental health problems, air and noise pollution, heat stress and social exclusion - these are just some of the health and social challenges Europeans face today. But according to a new report released by Friends of the Earth in conjunction with the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), increased exposure to nature and green space could help improve both physical and mental health.

Greenpeace) finds that the 8,359 existing coal power plants in operation across the world consume enough freshwater to meet the basic water needs of 1 billion people - and about 25% of proposed coal power plants are planned in water-stressed regions. The report also proposes 3 policy changes to reduce water use in the global coal industry.

New research points to more bad news for the state of China's water supply, as its booming economy continues to heap pressure on natural resources, according to scientists.