No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth. Never mind what you've heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us. It certainly looked that way last week as the atmospheric bomb that was Cyclone Larry--a Category 4 storm with wind bursts that reached 125 m.p.h.--exploded through northeastern Australia. It ...

The European Union has agreed a conditional deal on how to help developing nations combat the effects of climate change.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has long been known worldwide for its engineering programs, and a symposium at MIT this week will draw scientists from around the globe to focus on a hot facet of the field -- climate engineering.Creating an artificial cloud cover, or modifying clouds to reflect light back into space, is one of them. But probably the more popular climate engineering technology now involves pumping sulfates into the atmosphere to block the sun's rays and cool temperatures, ...

From seabeds to mountaintops, people around the world were staging a day of demonstrations Saturday to call for urgent action on climate change.The number of 350 ppm originally came from a NASA research team headed by American climate scientist James Hansen, which surveyed both real-time climate observations and emerging paleo-climatic data in January 2008, according to 350.org. It concluded that atmosphere containing carbon dioxide above 350 ppm couldn't support life on earth as we know it, the group said. "It's ...

More than 500 kilos of cocaine have been found hidden near the engine room of an oil tanker in the Spanish port of Tarragona, Spain's Guardia Civil said in a statement Saturday. The meeting, chaired by President Mohamed Nasheed, took place around a table about 16 feet (5 meters) underwater, according to the president's Web site. Bubbles ascended from the face masks the president and the Cabinet wore, and fish swam around them. At the meeting, the Cabinet ...

Did President Obama land a Nobel peace prize at such an early stage of his presidency simply because he's not George W. Bush? Diplomatic circles are certainly not dismissing such a notion and a "surprised and humbled" Obama has himself agreed that the award (for which nominations had to be submitted only two weeks after his inauguration) can hardly have been a recognition of anything he has yet accomplished. It is a prize for aspiration rather than achievement. One of ...

Some call him the River Maker, others the Rainman of Rajasthan. His real name is Rajendra Singh. His nicknames come from his self-imposed mission to solve his state's water problems, one raindrop at a time. "Today with global warming and climate change so many things are going on. Yes, this is the global problem. This is the modern problem. The solution is indigenous water conservation," Singh says. Singh lives and works in Rajasthan, one of the driest states in India. ...

Another earthquake struck near the Samoan islands, an area already devastated by earthquake and tsunami damage. The 5.5-magnitude earthquake struck at 6:13 p.m. Wednesday evening (1:13 a.m. Thursday ET), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake's epicenter was 10 km (6 miles) deep in the Pacific Ocean about 121 miles (194 km) from the city of Apia, Samoa. The quake did not trigger a tsunami warning, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. This comes after a 8.0-magnitude earthquake ...

A series of photographic exhibitions have been organized in Europe and North America this autumn to highlight a campaign by Britain's Prince Charles to combat tropical deforestation. The photographs were taken by world-renowned environment photographer Daniel Beltra who was this year's winner of the Prince's Rainforest Project Award at the Sony World Photography Awards earlier this year. The images graphically depict the effects of climate change on the rainforests in the South America, Africa and Indonesia. Beltra compiled ...

An Indian army officer, a naval commando and two top militant commanders were among eight people killed in two extended gunfights in Indian-administered Kashmir, a senior police officer said Wednesday. "Our nation is prepared to warmly shake all those hands which are honestly extended to us," he told the United Nations General Assembly. "We welcome real and human exchanges and stand ready to actively engage in fundamental global reforms." He called for a "return to monotheism and ...