World at Risk - Year 12 Edexcel Geography

The wooden hearts of two cedar trees hold a 1200-year-old cosmic mystery - evidence of an unexplained event that rocked our planet in the 8th century. Cosmic rays are subatomic particles that tear through space. When they reach Earth they react with the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, producing new particles.

Blue skies would fade to hazy white if geoengineers inject light-scattering aerosols into the upper atmosphere to offset global warming. Critics have already warned that this might happen, but now the effect has been quantified. Releasing sulphate aerosols high in the atmosphere should in theory reduce global temperatures by reflecting a small percentage of the incoming sunlight away from the Earth.

The study found that subsidising geothermal technology initially would help to bring down costs rapidly as UK sites were developed The UK could meet a fifth of its power needs - the equivalent of nine nuclear power stations - by exploiting geothermal power, a new report into the technology has found.

Spritzing a sunscreen ingredient into the stratosphere could help counteract the effects of global warming, according to scientists behind an ambitious new geoengineering project. The plan involves using high-altitude balloons to disperse millions of tons of titanium dioxide-a nontoxic chemical found in sunscreen as well as in paints, inks, and even food.

Australia's meteorological service says its climate models indicate that the El Niño ocean-warming phenomenon may return later this year, replacing the stubborn La Niña that has altered global weather patterns for the past two years. El Niño brings its own set of weather disruptions, typically including drought from Australia to Indonesia and potent winter storms to the western United States.

The sun is moving through the Milky Way slower than previously thought, according to new data from a NASA spacecraft. From its orbit around Earth, the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) satellite measured the speeds of interstellar particles entering at the fringes of our solar system, 9 billion miles (14.5 billion kilometers) from the sun.

What is carbon capture and storage? The technology is designed to prevent the carbon dioxide exhaust from the burning of coal and gas from entering the atmosphere and driving further climate change. It does this by either stripping the CO2 from the smokestacks of conventional power stations, or by burning the fuel in special ways to produce exhausts of pure CO2.

Tens of thousands evacuated as extreme rain events swamp central China More than a million people have been affected in central China's Hunan province, as storms dumped 200+mm of rain in less than 24 hours. Floods have claimed at least a dozen lives, leaving many others injured, damaging or destroying thousands of homes, and forcing...

Nasa researchers measured surprising levels of the potent greenhouse gas methane coming from cracks in Arctic sea ice and areas of partial sea ice cover

Scientists have flown through the heart of a turbulent weather system in a bid to understand the causes of heavy rainfall.

Twenty years on from the Rio Earth summit, the environment of the planet is getting worse not better, according to a report from WWF. Swelling population, mass migration to cities, increasing energy use and soaring carbon dioxide emissions mean humanity is putting a greater squeeze on the planet's resources then ever before.

Measurements from the 1960s to the early 1990s, backed up by a wide range of data and a number of independent studies, showed there were substantial declines in the amount of the sun's energy reaching the Earth's surface. This reduction is known as "global dimming". The observed "dimming" has strong regional differences across the globe.

Scientists have identified thousands of sites in the Arctic where methane that has been stored for many millennia is bubbling into the atmosphere. The methane has been trapped by ice, but is able to escape as the ice melts. Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, the researchers say this ancient gas could have a significant impact on climate change.

Omot Ochan was sitting in a remnant of forest on an old waterbuck skin and eating maize from a calabash gourd. He was lean and tall, wearing only a pair of combat pants. Behind him was a straw hut, where bare-breasted women and barefoot children cooked fish on an open fire.

Over the last few years, I became aware of this hidden revolution taking place around the world: the buying up of vast swaths of land by foreign entities from beneath its occupiers. Soaring grain prices in 2007/2008 led to countries such as Saudi Arabia and South Korea worrying about their national food security and buying up overseas land.

The United States has just undergone the hottest 12-month period ever recorded, according to the environment agency NOAA. While the Pacific Northwest and northern parts of California were actually much cooler than normal over the past year, a vast stretch of the Midwest and East were acutely warm and dry.

A moving new exhibition of photographs at Somerset House shows the human impact of flooding around the world over the past five years and provides an insight into how climate change may already be disrupting lives and livelihoods.

U2 and Bono's long-held commitment to "save the planet" has been questioned after it emerged they have a combined carbon footprint big enough to fly the band the distance from the Earth to Mars.

The rich countries caused the problem, but it is the world's poor who suffer. The Durban climate talks must right this wrong