The year 2010 is almost certain to rank among the three warmest years since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850, with the possibility of topping the chart, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported today. The global combined sea surface and land surface air temperature for January–October is estimated at 0.55 degrees Celsius, plus or minus 0.11 degrees, (0.99 degrees Fahrenheit, plus or minus 0.20 degrees) above the...

A rise in global temperatures of four degree Celsius is likely to occur during the 21st century causing "devastating impacts" if greenhouse gas emissions continue rising at the current rate, according to a group of international scientists. In a special issue of the UK journal "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A" -- which coincides with the start of the United Nations climate talks in Cancun, Mexico -- scientists argue that...

The neo-colonial rush for global farmland has gone exponential since the food scare of 2007-2008. Last week's long-delayed report by the World Bank suggests that purchases in developing countries rose to 45m hectares in 2009, a ten-fold jump from levels of the last decade. Two thirds have been in Africa, where institutions offer weak defence. As is by now well-known, sovereign wealth funds from the Mid-East, as well as state-entities from China,...

IN A remote corner of Bahia state, in north-eastern Brazil, a vast new farm is springing out of the dry bush. Thirty years ago eucalyptus and pine were planted in this part of the cerrado (Brazil’s savannah). Native shrubs later reclaimed some of it. Now every field tells the story of a transformation. Some have been cut to a litter of tree stumps and scrub; on others, charcoal-makers have moved...

The world needs to act quickly to counter the erosion of species. The task is particularly important for India, one of the 12 mega-biodiversity centres.  May 22 marked the International Day for Biological Diversity. It commemorates the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that day in 1992. As of December 2009, exactly 192 countries and the European Commission were signatories to it. This year has been declared the...