International

Japan has successfully extracted natural gas from methane hydrates ("fire ice") 1,000 feet below the seabed.

"Within weeks of setting off a geiger counter and scrubbing three layers of skin off his hands and arms, former Navy quartermaster Maurice Enis recalled being pressured to sign away U.S. government liability for any future health problems."

"WASHINGTON -- The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air jumped dramatically in 2012, making it very unlikely that global warming can be limited to another 2 degrees as many global leaders have hoped, new federal figures show."

"Five species of sharks and two types of manta rays won new safeguards Monday, as delegates to a global wildlife summit voted to limit the trade of species that have been overharvested for decades."

"March is Women's History Month, and HuffPost Green is honoring female environmentalists that have helped defend the planet."

"'Even on a good day, I get discouraged thinking about the election of a new pope,' laments Maureen Fiedler, a nun and blogger at the progressive Catholic newspaper National Catholic Reporter. 'They all look like a Vatican version of the tea party movement.'"

"Thousands of anti-nuclear protesters have gathered across Japan. The rallies come on the eve of the two-year anniversary of an earthquake and tsunami that caused the Fukushima disaster."

"BANGKOK -- Efforts to curb the sale of ivory and rhino horns were voted down on Thursday at an international wildlife summit in Bangkok."

A new reconstruction of the global temperature over the past 11,000 years only confirms the unprecedented warming shown in the "hockey stick" graph which has become the target of anti-science climate deniers.

"BANGKOK, Thailand -- Governments have refused to ban trade in polar bear pelts, paws and teeth from Canada, amid what one observer called “controversial and frosty scenes” at the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Bangkok [Thursday]."