"Climate scientists have turned to the United States and Australian navies to deploy robotic measuring devices in the Indian Ocean where pirates have made the area too dangerous for researchers."

As stocks of many fish species in the oceans are reduced or depleted by overfishing, aquaculture is increasing rapidly worldwide as a way of filling the gap. But that growth has been accompanies by serious environmental costs.

"China on Thursday issued a second batch of quotas for exports of rare earths this year -- virtually making up for previous cuts -- after its commerce minister met with his EU counterpart to discuss this and other thorny issues between the two trading partners."

"Japan intends to send its whaling fleet back to the Antarctic this year, a senior official has told BBC News."

"Beef from cows from Fukushima Prefecture contaminated with radioactive cesium was sold to restaurants and shoppers in at least five prefectures, according to Tokyo metropolitan government officials."

"A one-of-a-kind pod of about 200 'resident' eastern Pacific grey whales, which spends every summer feeding near Vancouver Island while the 20,000 other members of the species continue their epic annual migration between Mexico and Alaska, could hold the key to the evolutionary history of the majestic mammal -- and to its future in the age of climate change -- according to a new study."
 

"Pregnant women who smoke are much more likely to deliver babies with missing or deformed limbs, clubfoot, cleft palate and gastrointestinal problems than nonsmokers, finds the first study to identify the specific birth defects most associated with smoking."

"The La Nina weather anomaly blamed for one of the worst droughts in the southern United States could revive this autumn, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center forecast on Thursday."

"Small fish living in a region of the Pacific Ocean where floating trash collects in a huge, slowly swirling bowl eat as much as 24,000 tons of plastic waste each year, scientists have found."

"The lives of half a million children in the Horn of Africa are at risk, international aid agencies said on Friday, as the worst drought in decades forces thousands of people to flee their homes each day."