"The Prius hybrid automobile is popular for its fuel efficiency, but its electric motor and battery guzzle rare earth metals, a little-known class of elements .... That makes Toyota's market-leading gasoline-electric hybrid car and other similar vehicles vulnerable to a supply crunch predicted by experts as China, the world's dominant rare earths producer, limits exports while global demand swells."

"A Global Framework for Climate Services that would provide climate forecasting the way that weather forecasting services do is in the works."

"Humans may have to reset the Earth's natural thermostat and develop new technologies like reflecting sunlight back into space if climate talks fail, Britain's top science academy said on Tuesday."

"A group of 91 countries have agreed on a treaty that will block ships involved in illegal fishing from entering signatory ports and thus help prevent the fish going to market, the UN said on Tuesday."

The Democratic Party of Japan, which won that nation's elections Sunday, is poised to slash Japan's greenhouse emissions by up to 25 percent, which could have an impact on climate treaty negotiations.

"A $774 billion plan to power Europe with Sahara sunlight is gaining momentum, even as critics see high risks in a large corporate project using young technology in north African countries with weak rule of law."

"How much longer will the 'Oil Age' last?"

"Government scientists who study the depletion of Earth’s protective ozone layer are pointing to a previously unheralded culprit: nitrous oxide."

"Archaeologists who study early hunter-gatherer societies are discovering that even the simplest cultures altered their environments, whether they meant to or not."

One key chemical tool used to control mosquito-spread malaria in the developing world -- DDT -- has harmful environmental consequences. Now a new article in the journal Nature tells of research on chemicals that may promise to be effective mosquito repellants by blocking the insects' ability to detect carbon dioxide.