The coldest ever December has rolled through Russia causing the evacuation of hundreds of people in Siberia, where temperature hit below -50C, and plunging Moscow into its coldest night in the season. Will Christmas lift the frosty spell? ­The cold weather that has Russia in its icy embrace has been causing all kinds of havoc. Flights and buses delayed and cancelled, many schools have been closed,... 

An explosion at a BP oil rig resulted in a devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. A US federal judge has approved a USD 7.8 billion settlement which sees the BP oil giant pay out USD 7.8 billion in compensation to people and businesses affected by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. US District Judge Carl Barbier gave his final verdict on Friday. The ruling covers nearly 100,000... 

A man walks past a fence covered with hoarfrost in central Moscow, on December 19, 2012. Nearly 200 people have died in Russia and across eastern Europe over the past week due to a cold snap which forecasters warn would last until Monday. In Russia, up to 56 people have been reported dead and 371 hospitalized as temperatures strike minus 20 degrees Celsius in Moscow. Weather forecasters said the “abnormal”... 

Russia is enduring its harshest winter in over 70 years, with temperatures plunging as low as -50 degrees Celsius. Dozens of people have already died, and almost 150 have been hospitalized. ­The country has not witnessed such a long cold spell since 1938, meteorologists said, with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees lower than the seasonal norm all over Russia. Across the country, 45 people have died due... 

A homeless woman drinks free tea in a tent set by the Ukrainian Emergency Ministry during a winter day in the industrial city of Donetsk, December 18, 2012. Ukraine’s freezing winter has taken the lives of 24 more people pushing the overall death toll to 61 in December after temperatures fall below minus 23 degrees Celsius. The cold snap, which included almost half a meter of snow, killed 43 people... 

Despite a flurry of grand initiatives, Doha 2012 has yielded few specifics – with Europe the only major carbon emitter prepared to set clear emissions targets. Its zeal is likely to hamper growth, while doing little to lower worldwide CO2 levels. ­The two-week UN climate change conference in the oil-funded opulence of Qatar had to be extended by a day to produce an agreement that is only as much... 

Moscow was literally paralyzed at night of November 30. The city and the region experienced two natural disasters in one night: a super heavy snowfall and an ice storm. The ice storm approached the Russian capital from the southwest. “The movement of these precipitations to the north and north-east of the capital is very slow. Temperatures will grow during the daytime. Snow will turn into rain,”... 

Russia seriously considers an opportunity to take up the role of a supplier of organic products within the scope of the World Trade Organization. Russian lawmakers are working on the bill to support the production of organic agricultural products. This law will help Russian farmers enter the EU market with organic products. As expected, the bill will be handed over to the Ministry of Agriculture of... 

A mountain pine beetle A beetle species has affected on the climate of British Colombia in Canada during past decade as caused recent warmer summers in the region. The destructive beetle, with the size of a grain of rice, by lowering the amount of water pumped into the air by plants has induced crucial alteration on local climate as forest fires. Researchers claim that due to decreasing summer evapo-transpiration,... 

An unexpected source of new, clean energy has been found: the Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell that can generate electricity from the natural interaction between living plant roots and soil bacteria. The technique already works on a small scale and will soon be applied in larger marshland areas throughout the world. On 23 November, researcher Marjolein Helder will defend her PhD research on generating electricity... 

Shipping could not find an island between Australia and New Caledonia which is listed by cartographers in atlases, maps and even Google Earth. A dream common to most explorers and discoverers throughout history has been to find unknown territories, but in Australia, a team of scientists have done just the opposite: they identified an island that does not exist. Known as Sandy Island, the land mass... 

A tourist spot in Mozambique The World Bank has warned that due to global warming a number of coastal countries in the world such as Bangladesh and Mozambique are to disappear over the next century. According to the report prepared by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Climate Analytics, the World Bank warned climate change, which is causing global warming and sea level rise... 

In scientific circles, the exact causes of climate change are heavily debated, but if you listened to the mainstream media you would be led to believe that they were all in agreement, and all believed that climate change was entirely man made and carbon based. Most of these mainstream sources also believe that a global carbon tax is a good solution, no surprise there. Recently information has come... 

The Moon is seen passing in front of the Sun during a solar eclipse in Auckland, New Zealand. A total solar eclipse was observed on Tuesday (13th) from 17:40 (GMT) in the state of Queensland, Australia. Clouds hampered the show, but even so, it was possible to observe the Sun completely covered by the Moon for a few minutes. The eclipse could be seen from the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park, 250 kilometers... 

Scientists have been analyzing different aspects of the collapse of the classic Maya civilization for years, offering theories such as social unrest, disease, warfare, drought and deforestation. A new study shows that climate change led to the end of the Classic Maya civilization, confirming an earlier drought hypothesis. The study, conducted by an international team of researchers, was published in...