"Oil prices rose sharply on Thursday amid concerns that fighting in the Arabian Peninsula between a Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels in Yemen could disrupt supplies."

"Antarctica’s ice shelves are shrinking at an accelerating rate, one of the longest satellite records of ice thickness reveals. Researchers report online March 26 in Science that several West Antarctic ice shelves are now on pace to disappear completely within 100 years."

"More than a half-billion dollars of Japanese taxpayer money has been wasted in the struggle to contain and cleanup the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster, according to a government audit."

"Less than a week before the United Nations deadline for countries to file greenhouse-gas pledges necessary to keep a global climate change deal on track, it looks like most of the world is missing in action."

"A planet that is warming at extraordinary speed may require extraordinary new food crops. The latest great agricultural hope is beans that can thrive in temperatures that cripple most conventional beans. They're now growing in test plots of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, or CIAT, in Colombia."

"America's oil in storage just hit another record after rising for the 11th consecutive week."

"Vanuatu's government has launched a flash appeal to help thousands of people in urgent need of humanitarian aid in the wake of Cyclone Pam."

"Scientists are looking for -- and finding -- little bits of plastic in a lot of places lately: ice cores, deep sea sediments, coral reefs, crab gills, the digestive system of mussels, even German beer. Now, new research suggests they need not actually be searching for the man-made material to discover it."

"SENDAI, Japan – Death, injury, displacement and destruction following natural disasters could be reduced by 2030 under a new framework adopted by countries attending the 3rd UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, in Sendai."

A newly published study suggests climate change may be weakening the thermohaline circulation of the North Atlantic (responsible for the Gulf Stream). Scientists (and Hollywood screenwriters) have long feared that such a scenario could bring sudden climate shifts and unpleasant surprises.