Tornadoes have struck parts of Arkansas, injuring four people and destroying a handful of homes. Emergency Management spokeswoman Renee Preslar says three people suffered major injuries Wednesday in a tornado that destroyed a house near Pearson in northern Arkansas.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7055999.ece

The United Nations is to announce an independent review of errors made by its climate change advisory body in an attempt to restore its credibility. A team of the world’s leading scientists will investigate the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and ask why its supposedly rigorous procedures failed to detect at least three serious overstatements of the risk from global warming.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/08

For the first time since the dinosaurs disappeared, humans are driving animals and plants to extinction faster than new species can evolve, one of the world's experts on biodiversity has warned. Conservation experts have already signalled that the world is in the grip of the "sixth great extinction" of species, driven by the destruction of natural habitats, hunting, the spread of alien predators and disease, and climate change. However until recently it has been hoped that the rate at which new species were evolving could keep pace with the loss of diversity of life.

Link: http://www.thomhartmann.com/2010/03/08/why-are-we-the-only-stupid-industrialized-country-in-the-world/

The postal service this week announced it would be cutting as many as 30,000 jobs through attrition - using hiring freezes as workers retire or quit. According to American Postal Workers Union president William Burrus, cutting the U.S. Postal Service delivery to five days a week would be the beginning of the demise of the Post office.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7044936.ece

One of the rarest animals in the world has been found trapped in a farmer’s woodpile in snowbound northeastern China. The Siberian tiger cub is the first to be seen in its mountainous home in the 60 years since the Communists took power in China and the discovery of evidence that the endangered animal is reproducing in the wild has delighted experts. Only about 20 Siberian, or Amur, tigers, still roam wild in forests and mountains along the China-Russia border.

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2618855320100226?type=usDollarRpt

A record-breaking winter storm slammed New York and much of the U.S. Northeast on Friday, forcing businesses, schools and transportation systems to shut down as nearly two feet (60 cm) of snow fell in the city.

Link: http://rawstory.com/2010/02/iceberg-size-luxembourg-breaks-antarctica/

An iceberg the size of Luxembourg knocked loose from the Antarctic continent earlier this month could disrupt the ocean currents driving weather patterns around the globe, researchers said. While the impact would not be felt for decades or longer, a slowdown in the production of colder, dense water could result in less temperate winters in the north Atlantic, they said Thursday. The 2,550 square-kilometre (985 square-mile) block broke off on February 12 or 13 from the Mertz Glacier Tongue, a 160-kilometer spit of floating ice protruding into the Southern Ocean from East Antarctica due south of Melbourne, researchers said. Giant Antarctic iceberg could affect global ocean circulation Ice broken off from Mertz glacier is size of Luxembourg and may decrease oxygen supply for marine life in the area. The iceberg, measuring about 50 miles by 25, broke away from the Mertz glacier around 2,000 miles south of Australia after being rammed by another giant iceberg known as B-9B three weeks ago, satellite images reveal. The two icebergs, which both weigh more than 700m tons, are now drifting close together about 100 miles north of Antarctica.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/2/24/anti_nuclear_activists_mobilize_to_oppose

The news in Vermont follows Obama’s announcement last week of $8.3 billion in loan guarantees for the construction of the first new nuclear power plants in the United States in close to three decades. The loan guarantees will help the Atlanta-based Southern Company build two more nuclear reactors in Burke County, Georgia, near the city of Augusta. We speak to Nuclear Watch South coordinator Glenn Carroll, who has been leading efforts against the construction of the new plants. [includes rush transcript]

Link: http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/02/if-you-liked-bovine-growth-hormone-youll-love-beta-agonists/

While researchers and scientists investigate the cause of our diabetes, obesity, asthma and ADHD epidemics, they should ask why the FDA approved a livestock drug banned in 160 nations and responsible for hyperactivity, muscle breakdown and 10 percent mortality in pigs, according to angry farmers who phoned the manufacturer.

Link: http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/02/media-distortions-and-real-climate-scandals/

Since November last year, the public has been bombarded with the story of stolen emails from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, revealing a supposed “scandal” of scientific malpractice, stupidly and lazily named “climategate”. Further media frenzy erupted over an erroneous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change statement that 80 per cent of Himalayan glacier area would very likely be gone by 2035. Other climate-related storms in a teacup have been appearing in the corporate media almost on a daily basis. This nonsense is distracting attention from a mountain of evidence that human-induced climate change is accelerating and poses a deadly threat to civilisation

Link: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2826189.htm

Two years ago the Labor Party won a decisive election victory in part by riding a public mood demanding action on climate change after years of stonewalling. The new Government promised to spearhead world efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Today it's on the run, retreating from a surge of militant anti-climate activism that believes climate science is a left-wing plot aimed at promoting elites, wrecking the economy and screwing the little man. What happened?

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50412

To halt the planet's declining biodiversity and loss of critical natural resources, both the economy we live in and communication about science needs to be changed profoundly, says a prominent Dutch ecologist.

Link: http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=2866

NEW YORK, 16 Feb (IPS) - Fresh from a whirlwind tour of non-stop meetings at the World Economic Forum in Davos and a U.N .investor summit on climate risk attended by George Soros, Al Gore, and 500 of the world's most powerful institutional and private investors, Mindy Lubber has a full plate.

Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50324

CAIRO, Feb 15, 2010 (IPS) - A salty, crunchy salad herb known to gourmands as samphire could revolutionise agriculture in the Middle East by providing food, fodder and fuel without using a single drop of freshwater. Salicornia, a succulent plant that can grow in either fresh or salt water, has traditionally been seen as a source of food. However, with rising energy prices and increasing concern over global warming, the halophyte (salt- tolerant plant) is now prized for its other properties.