"Over the weekend, boats, helicopters and airplanes searched up and down the southern California coast, hoping to rescue an 80ft blue whale spotted entangled in a 200ft fishing line. Exact numbers are unknown, but the National Marine Fisheries Service reported an average of 11 entangled large whales per year from 2000 to 2012 along the US west coast."

"The world’s climate has reached a major turning point and is set to deliver record-breaking global temperatures in 2015 and 2016, according to a new report from the UK Met Office."

"Warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures around Hawaii this year will likely lead to the worst coral bleaching the islands have ever seen, scientists said Friday."

"Burning all the world’s deposits of coal, oil and natural gas would raise the temperature enough to melt the entire ice sheet covering Antarctica, driving the level of the sea up by more than 160 feet, scientists reported Friday."

"A Taiwanese longline vessel caught with 75kg of shark fins near Papua New Guinea was only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of operations driving a decline in tuna".

"Ever since it was launched from the temple-like headquarters of the National Geographic Society in Washington in 1888, National Geographic magazine has illuminated the world’s hidden places and revealed its natural wonders. On Wednesday, the iconic ­yellow-bordered magazine, beset by financial issues, entered its own uncharted territory. In an effort to stave off further decline, the magazine was effectively sold by its nonprofit parent organization to a for-profit venture whose principal shareholder is one of Rupert Murdoch’s global media companies."

"Putting cities on a course of smart growth – with expanded public transit, energy-saving buildings, and better waste management - could save as much as $22 trillion and avoid the equivalent in carbon pollution of India’s entire annual output of greenhouse gasses, according to leading economists."

"At first glance, the metals that give atom bombs their destructive fury might seem interchangeable: Uranium and plutonium are both more valuable than gold. Both captivate would-be atomic powers. And both fueled bombs that leveled Japanese cities — uranium at Hiroshima and plutonium at Nagasaki."

"Green groups criticise ‘ludicrous’ Minerals Council of Australia ad which claims coal creates ‘light and jobs’ and ‘can now reduce its emissions by up to 40%’ "