"Many experts think pig farming presents a serious and overlooked risk to public health. Proof of that assertion -- indirect but indisputable, in the opinion of virologists -- is the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza."

"VIENNA -- A draft agreement on providing Iran with fuel for a civilian nuclear research facility that could defuse tension over Iran's nuclear program has emerged from nearly three days of talks supported by the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA."

"The acclaimed documentary film 'Crude,' which details the 16-year struggle of indigenous peoples in Ecuador's Amazon to hold Chevron legally accountable for contamination of a huge rainforest area, opens in Washington, DC on Friday during intense scrutiny of a $27 billion liability lawsuit against the oil giant."

"India and China signed an agreement Wednesday to cooperate on ways to fight climate change and pledged to establish a group to exchange views concerning international negotiations on climate change."

"Supervolcanoes and cosmic impacts get all the terrible glory for causing mass extinctions, but a new theory suggests lowly algae may be the killer behind the world's great species annihilations."

"The United States and many other major pollutant-emitting countries have concluded that it is more useful to take incremental but important steps toward a global agreement rather than to try to jam through a treaty that is either too weak to address the problem or too onerous to be ratified and enforced."

"Groups argue over whether benefits of green technology outweigh the possible health effects associated with burning garbage."

Nigeria may start harnessing the natural gas flared off from its oil fields to produce electric power for the impoverished communities whose protests and violence have often hampered production.

"After years of volatility, oil prices have found a level that seems to satisfy producing nations, oil companies and major consumers. But in the wake of the economic crisis and the collapse in demand, a new reality has also set across the petroleum industry. Today’s price of around $70 a barrel is increasingly viewed as a new floor for the industry."

"Nuclear industry operators are pushing to extend the life of their plants to 60 or even 80 years. Running plants longer is one way to recoup their investment but it has safety implications."

"Ontario's environment ministry has given its blessing to a massive, controversial $550 million sewage line -- known as the "Big Pipe" -- that will open the door to billions of dollars worth of new development in the eastern GTA. However, years after construction started on the project in York Region, politicians are embroiled in in-fighting, as the remainder of the pipeline proposed to run through Pickering faces opposition from residents."

"Representatives of the world's biggest carbon polluters began two days of informal talks in London on Sunday to map out common ground 50 days before a key UN climate conference in Copenhagen."

"Cod is slipping closer to disappearing from key European fishing grounds, officials warned Friday, saying that only steep catch cuts will prevent the disappearance of a species prized for centuries for its flaky white flesh."

"Mexico has deployed its navy to several beaches in the Pacific Coast state of Oaxaca. Its mission isn't to fight the drug cartels or protect European tourists, but to guard the nesting grounds of an endangered sea turtle."

"The Arctic ice cap will vanish completely in summer months within 20-30 years, polar researchers said Thursday, sounding the alarm two months before a critical climate change summit in Copenhagen."