CLIMATE CHANGE

A sophisticated satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) has mapped Earth's gravity with unprecedented precision, helping scientists have clearer understanding of the variation in the gravitational force in different parts of the planet and how this may affect crucial events like an earthquake.

The world turned off its lights on March 26 for an hour from 8.30 p.m. local time as a show of support for tougher action to confront climate change.

Lights being turned off in homes, businesses and public buildings in Fiji and New Zealand at 8:30 PM local time marked the commencement of Earth Hour 2011, with widespread endorsement of the message that the world and its environment need commitments for action going “beyond the hour”.

As the world joins in the fight against climate change today, during the Earth Hour 2011, US-based Australian model and global ambassador of 2011 Earth Hour Miranda Kerr reaches out to her Myspace audiences through a unique program called Hijack.

While countries around the world wait for clock to strike 8.30 p.m. tonight, here's an Earth Hour 2011 official video showing the world during the past years' Earth Hour campaign.

At 8:30 PM on Saturday 26th March 2011, lights will switch off around the globe for Earth Hour and people will commit to actions that go beyond the hour.

Solar greenhouses, which have played a vital role in China's agricultural scene for years, may solve issues such as global energy crisis and climate change, according to a new report.

In response to the deepening crisis at Japan’s troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, China has decided to suspend its atomic energy program for the time being by postponing approvals for new power stations.

Data from NASA satellites shows both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are melting faster, and making them a bigger contributor to sea level rise.

China is planning trial efforts for an energy cap-and-trade scheme, applying market forces to its goals to reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas pollution, the government said on Saturday.

China's plan for the next five years will put a hard target on overall energy use, capping consumption at 4 billion tonnes of coal equivalent (TCE) by 2015, Xinhua news agency quoted the country's former energy chief Zhang Guobao as saying on Friday.

A new World Bank strategy for Africa unveiled on Wednesday focuses on creating jobs and making economies more competitive, while also tackling problems of climate change, disease, food shortages and conflict.

China, the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, wants rich nations to vow bigger cuts to emissions as part of a new international deal on fighting global warming, Beijing's top climate negotiator said on Tuesday.

Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures have invested $42 million in a San Francisco-based start up WeatherBill, a provider of insurance to farmers against weather-related damages.

China faces acute environmental and resource strains that threaten to choke growth unless the world's second-biggest economy cleans up, the nation's environment minister said in an unusually blunt warning.

Full Text: Indian finance minister's budget speech

Australia's government launched a third attempt on Thursday to make carbon polluters pay for their emissions, unveiling plans for a fixed-price scheme from 2012 and vowing not to surrender this time in the face of fierce opposition.

NASA has postponed the launch of Glory spacecraft by at least 24 hours, citing technical issues. The next launch attempt has been rescheduled for 5:09 a.m. EST, Thursday, NASA said.

'Climategate' - the unauthorized release in late 2009 of stolen e-mails - undermined many weathercasters’ confidence in the conclusions of climate science, at least temporarily, says a new study.

Full text of G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Communiqué, from the G20 France 2011 website.

Results from The Carbon Salary Survey 2010 reveal that overall, remuneration for professionals working in the field were significantly higher during the year than what had been reported in 2009.