"US officials have been fighting to stop a $7.5 billion gas pipeline that would transport natural gas between Iran and Pakistan."

"A dark realm far beneath the Earth's surface is a surprisingly rich home for tiny worms and 'zombie microbes' that may hold clues to the origins of life, scientists said on Monday."

"The threat of extinction is growing for African forest elephants, according to a study released at the Cites summit in Bangkok."

"Offshore wind turbines are vulnerable to sudden and catastrophic destruction in moderately stormy seas, according to new research."

"The effects of climate change on the food supply exacerbated the underlying tensions that have led to ongoing Middle East instability."

"Environmentalists have a hope. If they can block the Keystone XL pipeline, they can keep Canada from developing more of its dirty tar sands oil. It takes a lot of energy to get it out of the ground and turn it into gasoline, so it has a bigger greenhouse gas footprint than conventional oil. But the State Department report, which was released Friday, says Keystone won't have much of an impact on the development of that oil from Alberta."

"Even if foes of the Keystone XL pipeline block it, companies seeking to get Canada’s oil sands to U.S. and world markets could travel the old-fashioned way: by rail."

"Protection measures have failed to stop around 100 million sharks being fished every year and a third of all shark species are now threatened with extinction, conservationists say."

"The decline of wild bees and other pollinators may be an even more alarming threat to crop yields than the loss of honeybees, a worldwide study suggests, revealing the irreplaceable contribution of wild insects to global food production."

"WASHINGTON — After a series of costly and embarrassing accidents in its efforts to drill exploratory wells off the north coast of Alaska last year, Royal Dutch Shell announced on Wednesday that it would not return to the Arctic in 2013."

"The giant Pacific leatherback turtle, known for its arduous 6,000-mile ocean trek from the U.S. West Coast to breeding grounds in Indonesia, could go extinct within 20 years as its population continues to plummet, scientists say."

"People in the area worst affected by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident two years ago have a higher risk of developing certain cancers, the World Health Organization said on Thursday."

"A US court has declared the conservation group Sea Shepherd to be 'pirates' and ordered it to stop its aggressive actions against Japanese whalers."

"LONDON -- The cause of much of the recent extreme weather across the world is climate change triggered by human activities, scientists say. The paper suggests that man-made climate change is repeatedly disturbing the patterns of airflow around the northern hemisphere."

A new study, still tentative, suggests that climate change will have much worse effects on global food production and supply than experts have previously estimated.