International

A BP deal with the biggest Russian oil company to develop Arctic Oil could have huge geopolitical and environmental repercussions.

"Shrinking ice and snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere is reflecting ever less sunshine back into space in a previously underestimated mechanism that could add to global warming, a study showed."

"Experts worry that the world is facing a looming food crisis, one that we are currently not well prepared to deal with."

"Last year tied for the warmest since data started in 1880, capping a decade of record high temperatures that shows mankind's greenhouse gas emissions are heating the planet, two U.S. agencies said."

"In industrialized nations, people expect their drinking water to be pathogen free, thanks to treatment facilities that filter and disinfect the water. However, after reviewing 26 studies from 18 countries, two scientists conclude that some amoeba species called free-living amoebas (FLA) consistently survive these treatments and quickly multiply in drinking-water distribution and storage systems. Given their potential to spread disease, these microbes are a human health risk that demands further study, the researchers say."

CIA intelligence analysts have focused more intensely in the past year on a threat to national security they find highly worrisome: geopolitical chaos caused by climate change. Speaking on background, they say the U.S. is frighteningly unprepared. The CIA analysts must stay anonymous, because the public is not supposed to know.

"Scientists are continuing to sound the alarm about some common chemicals, including the herbicide atrazine, and link them to changes in reproductive health and development. Endocrine disrupting toxic chemicals have been found to feminize male frogs and cause homosexual behavior." Now the question is how these substances may be affecting human development and behavior.

A large fraction of the honey eaten by North American consumers is produced in China, and contaminated with antibiotics and adulterants. An elaborate enterprise works to hide its Chinese origins.

The media frenzy started by the mass death of some red-winged blackbirds in Arkansas was based on ignorance. Such mass kills of wildlife occur all the time in nature and have natural causes, biologists say.

"A study predicts there will be havoc akin to a big-budget Hollywood disaster movie in the next 1,000 years even if people stop emitting all carbon dioxide into the atmosphere now."