International

"Canada confirmed on Wednesday that it would not support an extended Kyoto Protocol after 2012, joining Japan and Russia in rejecting a new round of the climate emissions pact."

"U.S. EPA raised significant concerns today with the environmental effects of a controversial $7 billion pipeline proposal, emboldening the plan's critics and upping the ante for political clashes over Canadian oil sands crude that risk derailing the project for good."

"The spectrum of actions marking the UN's annual World Oceans Day ranges from the celebratory to the cautionary as ocean health is assaulted by challenges that include climate change, oil spills, pollution and overfishing."

"The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is out with a new report this week on the world food outlook."

"An unusual solar flare observed by a NASA space observatory on Tuesday could cause some disruptions to satellite communications and power on Earth over the next day or so, officials said."

"The Fukushima meltdown showed how some nuclear plants are vulnerable to cooling-system failures. That might be of interest to Al Qaeda, which considered attacking US nuclear facilities after 9/11, a new study says."

"Greenpeace accuses Mattel of using paper from Indonesian rain forests to package Barbie dolls. Activists hang a large banner on Mattel's headquarters in El Segundo. Police arrest 10 protesters."

"Delegates from 183 countries got down to business at a United Nations preparatory climate change conference in Bonn today. For the next 11 days they will work towards a draft agreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions that can serve as the basis of negotiations at the annual UN Climate Summit set to start November 28 in Durban, South Africa."

"Oil prices fell to near $98 a barrel Wednesday amid signs OPEC may raise its crude production quotas at a meeting in Vienna."

Paul Epstein started his career as a physician caring for the poor in Mozambique and Boston. In a new book, the Associate director of Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and Global Environment connects the dots between climate change and its global impacts. They range from cholera outbreaks in Africa and plankton blooms in the Caribbean ... to parasites devastating East Coast oysters.