International

"With climate change transforming the Arctic, biologists are scrambling to understand the impact on gray whales and other creatures living in the region."

Delegates at a meeting in Doha, Qatar, of the parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) neared the March 25 close of the 13-day meeting. They rejected proposals to regulate trade in three shark species, but accepted regulation of a fourth shark species. They held off sales of stockpiled elephant ivory for another three years. They rejected  ban on trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna and polar bears.

"Cruise companies are balking at a proposal to create a low-emissions buffer zone around the United States and Canada, saying it sets arbitrary boundaries based on faulty science that overstates the health benefits."

"Human beings are flushing millions of tonnes of solid waste into rivers and oceans every day, poisoning marine life and spreading diseases that kill millions of children annually, the U.N. said on Monday."

"Global warming has neither stopped nor slowed in the past decade, according to a draft analysis of temperature data by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies."

Bad water kills more people than wars or earthquakes, UN officials declared, as they prepared to celebrate World Water Week next week.

"MOSCOW -- When the Soviet Union introduced its Alfa class submarine -- at the time, the world’s fastest -- the subs were the bane of American sailors. Now, the reactors that powered those submarines are being marketed as the next innovation in green power."

"Delegates at a United Nations conference on endangered species in Doha, Qatar, soundly defeated American-supported proposals on Thursday to ban international trade in bluefin tuna and to protect polar bears."

"U.S. troops heading to Iraq and Afghanistan will soon be trained to confront a new enemy, the trade in products made from endangered animals."