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Views on how the fight over climate certainty has distracted from the reality of a building risk.

"US Climate Envoy Todd Stern downplays hopes for a binding legal treaty in 2010. Instead, look for "strong progress be made" and "pragmatic steps" to be taken this year."

"US Climate Envoy Todd Stern downplays hopes for a binding legal treaty in 2010. Instead, look for "strong progress be made" and "pragmatic steps" to be taken this year."

"Taiwan's government on Friday urged the public to stop burning incense sticks and ritual money in honour of the dead and opt instead for online worshipping to better protect the environment. The practice not only worsens the island's air pollution but could also cause fires, warned the cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration."

"Researchers 'dedicated if slightly disorganised', but basic science was fair, finds inquiry commissioned by university"

"We saw no evidence of any deliberate scientific malpractice in any of the work of the Climatic Research Unit and had it been there we believe that it is likely that we would have detected it. Rather we found a small group of dedicated if slightly disorganized researchers who were ill-prepared for being the focus of public attention. As with many small research groups their internal procedures were rather informal."

"One lesson is that anyone hoping to up-end decades of research pointing to a growing human influence on the climate by challenging a single batch of studies (in this case efforts to chart past temperatures using indirect clues like tree rings) is almost surely on a fool's errand. Another is that scientists, even when under relentless pressure, need to conduct their work scrupulously, carefully and openly and understand that transparency is inevitable in the digital era. A third is that scientists in highly specialized fields would do well to reach out for added statistical expertise when trying to test broader implications of their work."

Motivating people to make homes energy efficient by tapping into personal and emotional stories, increasing reputation through recognition as a "good citizen," and the broadcasting of environmental messages by a diverse group of people.

One thing you can say about the winter of 2010-'11, for what it's worth: the Arctic doesn't seem so remote anymore. You don't have to be a meteorologist to get the feeling that the polar atmosphere has sprung a leak -- that the freezing down here has something to do with the warming up there.

New research shows that the 2010 Amazon drought may have been even more devastating to the region's rainforests than the unusual 2005 drought, which was previously billed as a one-in-100 year event.

"Peak Oil being that high point on a bell curve where global petroleum extraction reaches maximum output and then starts to decline. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) production of conventional crude oil peaked in 2006, not that this stopped demand from increasing. The issues that stem from Peak Oil have to do with the crunch that will come when our demand exceeds remaining supply.]"

A lot depends on how 'peat' and 'natural forest' are defined and how rights are agreed upon. Strong lobbies from the forest and tree-crop plantation industry argue that the economy will be harmed if 'business as usual' is interrupted. According to news sources, definitions of 'natural forest' and 'peat' differ between drafts prepared by the Indonesian Government's emissions reduction taskforce and by the Ministry of Forestry. There are several key issues that need to be resolved.

The world's coral reefs are in danger of dying out in the next 20 years unless carbon emissions are cut drastically, warns a coalition of scientists led by Sir David Attenborough.

Sinar Mas Group, the notorious international palm oil pariah, recently made a remarkable announcement: The company's subsidiary, Golden Agri Resouces (GAR), intends to implement a forest conservation policy. Among other things, GAR's Forest Conservation Policy commits it to a goal of "no new development" on peat lands, High Conservation Value Forest areas or High Carbon Landscapes, respecting Indigenous and local communities, and achievement of RSPO certification for all its holdings by 2015.

The researchers developed a "stress test" for coral reefs, identifying the ones they think most likely to survive rising sea temperatures. Those reefs--"reefs of hope," they call them--that pass the test should become a priority for conservationists, say the researchers.

"[Forests] reduce the effects of floods, prevent soil erosion, regulate the water table and assure a high-quality water supply for people, industry and agriculture," said the Forestry Department Assistant Director General, Eduardo Rojas-Briales, with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "Forests are part of the natural infrastructure of any country and are essential to the water cycle."

"Mangroves are so efficient at keeping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere that when they are destroyed, they release as much as 10 percent of all emissions worldwide attributable to deforestation -- even though mangroves account for just 0.7 percent of the tropical forest area, researchers said."