International

"The Arctic Ocean reached the most frozen it's going to get this year on 13 March. Now the melt season begins, predicts the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The seasonal stats were gloomy. The max sea ice area of 2013 was was 5.84 million square miles (15.13 million square kilometers). That's the sixth lowest extent on record and a whopping 283,000 square miles (733,000 square kilometers) below the 1979 to 2000 average maximum."

"Energy subsidies cost governments from the U.S. to Egypt $1.9 trillion, discourage private investment and help wealthy consumers more than the poor, according to a study by International Monetary Fund staff."

For a while, the Naga Viper was the hottest pepper in the world. Today, breeding peppers for hotness is an area of military research.

"Environmentalists and beekeepers are calling on the government to ban some of the country's most widely used insect-killing chemicals."

"A controversial offshore wind project off the coast of Aberdeen has been approved by the Scottish government. The 11-turbine European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre is bitterly opposed by US businessman Donald Trump, who has complained that it will the spoil the view from his nearby golf course."

Products so toxic they are banned in the United States -- lead paint is just one example -- are still being legally exported by U.S. corporations to other countries, where they may harm unsuspecting customers.

"AMSTERDAM -- The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is lodging a second complaint with the Netherlands Public Prosecutor’s Office for serious fraud and environmental crime against the captain and crew of the Nisshin Maru, the Japanese whaling fleet’s factory ship."

Conventional wisdom says the U.S. needs to rely on coal, oil, and gas as fuels indefinitely. But techological advances in renewables and efficiency are suggesting this industry-sponsored mantra is wrong. And other countries are proving it.

"MELBOURNE, Australia -- Sea Shepherd Australia this morning welcomed to Melbourne its three ships and 110 crewmembers after their campaign defending whales in the Southern Ocean against Japanese 'research' whalers."

"VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis issued a powerful call for the protection of the environment and of society’s most vulnerable during his formal installation Mass at the Vatican, while qualifying his papal power as a 'service' to the church and to humanity."