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As the world weighs how to deal with warming, the idea of human manipulation of climate systems is gaining attention.  Yet beyond the environmental and technical questions looms a more practical issue: How could governments really commit to supervising geoengineering schemes for centuries?

"Scientists say that it is possible to produce a new class of plastics that will not degrade as quickly when recycled, according to a paper published in the journal Macromolecules."

"One in six mangrove species faces extinction as coastal ecosystems are being destroyed or damaged by development, aquaculture, logging, and climate change, according to a new study. On the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Central America, as many as 40 percent of mangrove species are threatened, the report said."

Nestlé officials last year said they would refuse to buy palm oil that was not sustainably harvested. Palm oil, which is used in an increasing number of products, from cosmetics to food, has grown into a $20-billion industry worldwide.

"However, with increasing development pressure, market-based incentives are needed to ensure that private forests remain as forests." WRI officials hope the new online resource will illustrate the history of these forests, and help landowners better understand how numerous forces are affecting the region.

Conservationists called the 13-nation agreement an important step in protecting the wild cats, whose numbers have plummeted in recent decades as human encroachment has eliminated more than nine-tenths of their habitat. Experts say there are fewer than 3,500 wild tigers today, compared to an estimated 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century. Hailing the agreement, Michael Baltzer, head of the WWF Tiger Initiative, said "There never has been a high-level government commitment to take forward tiger conservation."

"In a place like Indonesia, top-down government control simply isn't possible, and community-based management is the only real alternative."