International

An 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck Japan, shutting down major systems, killing at least 40, and causing a tsunami. Nuclear plants were shut down on an emergency basis after the cooling system at one plant failed. Tsunami warnings were issued through much of the Pacific, including Hawaii and parts of the U.S. West Coast and South America. Potential impact of tsunami on Hawaii within minutes of 8 am EST as hotels evacuate vertically.

"Protests over timber corruption that has made a billionaire of the chief minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak and enriched his family at the expense of the state's indigenous and other citizens have spilled over to the streets of San Francisco, Seattle, Ottawa and London." Now there are charges of a political murder on US soil.

"The vast ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are melting faster than previously estimated and that melting is accelerating, according to a new report that verifies 18 years of melting via two independent techniques."

"The mysterious collapse of honey-bee colonies is becoming a global phenomenon, scientists working for the United Nations have revealed."

The extent of Arctic sea ice cover reached a record low this winter, tying the record low mark set in the winter of 2005, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Scientists consider the decline of sea ice to be a sign of manmade global warming.

"In a New York courtroom today, oil giant Chevron Corp. won a halt to enforcement of an $18 billion judgment for oil pollution of the Ecuadorian Amazon imposed by a court in Ecuador."

Besides being a keystone of the ocean ecosystem, coral reefs are of huge commercial value. But they are seriously threatened by floods, runoff, rising ocean temperatures and acidity which are all symptoms of our fossil-fuel economy.

Global warming is causing dramatic changes in the Arctic Ocean. The earlier melting of annual ice is causing the regular spring blooms of plankton to peak up to 50 days earlier -- possibly disrupting the entire ecosystem of fish, shellfish, birds, and marine mammals that depend on the plankton.

"Corn-based ethanol is the renewable fuel environmentalists love to hate. But as turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa has sent oil prices soaring, U.S.-made ethanol is making a comeback."

"A plan by almost 200 countries to step up efforts to fight climate change is set to miss a March deadline for starting work on a green fund to help developing nations, delegates said on Wednesday."