International

"While some dams in the United States and Europe are being decommissioned, a dam-building boom is underway in developing countries. It is a shift from the 1990s, when amid concerns about environmental impacts and displaced people, multilateral lenders like the World Bank backed away from large hydroelectric power projects."

"The world still isn't close to preventing what leaders call a dangerous level of man-made warming, a new United Nations report says. That's despite some nations' recent pledges to cut back on carbon dioxide emissions."

"The number of polar bears in eastern Alaska and western Canada has declined by 40%, according to a scientific study that raises more questions about the impact of global warming on the creature that has become the symbol of some of its worst effects."

"Japan on Tuesday unveiled plans to resume whale hunting in the Southern Ocean despite an international court ruling that previous hunts were illegal, but said it would slash the quota for the so-called scientific whaling program."

"The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an updated alert last week stating that a variant of the BlackEnergy malware had infiltrated the SCADA systems that control critical infrastructure, including oil and gas pipelines, water distribution systems and the power grid."

"The final G20 communique includes a significant passage on climate change after "difficult discussions" among leaders on Sunday, and despite an impassioned defence of coal and fossil fuel industry by Prime Minister Tony Abbott."

"President Barack Obama on Friday pledged a $3 billion U.S. contribution to an international fund to help poor countries cope with the effects of climate change, putting the issue front and center of the G20 Leaders Summit in Australia."

"Illicit fishing goes on every day at an industrial scale. But large commercial fishers are about to get a new set of overseers: conservationists — and soon the general public—armed with space-based reconnaissance of the global fleet."

"Lightning strikes in the United States will likely increase by nearly 50 percent by the end of the century as the world gets warmer and wetter, a new study says."

The International Energy Agency Wednesday issued a report saying the world is still hooked on fossil fuels, and will have to cut carbon emissions further.