CNN: The following is an excerpt from "What Matters," the latest book by "Day in the Life" series creator David Elliot Cohen. For more information, see whatmattersonline.com In the Ogoniland village of Kpean, an oil wellhead that was leaking for weeks turns into a raging inferno. Addiction exposes the deepest forms of physical and psychological dependency. It is typically considered a personal affliction or an individual failing. But the deadly solicitations of any addictive …

Gazette: Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier says Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s intention to engage U.S. president-elect Barack Obama on climate change is "a good step forward." The prime minister said Thursday that he hopes to engage Obama in a deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming. Watt-Cloutier expressed skepticism that anything substantial will come out of Harper’s pledge to make the United States a full partner in dealing with environmental …

Jakarta Post: One of the pledges made by Barack Obama during his campaign is that he will end the "tyranny of oil". He made the promise during a certain period of the campaign when the oil price became nightmarish as it continued to climb, sparking a sharp increase in the prices of all commodities and raising production costs in all industries. The oil price was then considered public enemy No. 1, not only in the United States but also in many other parts of the world, including …

Bloomberg: The prospect of a global recession will allow governments to set lower emission targets, an investor in carbon credits said. The U.S. and European Union can afford to set tougher limits on emissions because slower economic activity will cut greenhouse gas output and lower emission permit prices, said James Cameron, executive vice chairman of Climate Change Capital, a London fund manager with more than $1 billion to invest in credits. “Governments should notice how relatively …

Indo-Asian News Service: The Chinese government rejected suggestions that it could use $1.9tn of foreign exchange reserves to pay for cleaner forms of energy to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions rather than asking developed countries to pay for and provide much of it. Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of China’s main economic planning body, told reporters the government is already spending huge amounts to try to cut emissions, but the country is still developing and needs funds and expertise from richer …

Associated Press: Western conservationists want the U.S. Forest Service to reconsider a decision they say opens up tens of thousands of acres to oil and gas development in a northern New Mexico forest. The Santa Fe National Forest amended its land and resource management plan in August to give forest officials more guidelines for dealing with oil and gas exploration and development on forest land that borders the San Juan Basin, one of the largest natural gas fields in the nation. Forest …

Physorg: Corals, lobsters, clams and many other ocean creatures - including some at the bottom of the food chain - may be unable to withstand the increasing acidity of the oceans brought on by growing global-warming pollution, according to a report Tuesday from the advocacy group Oceana. Based on scientific findings of the past several years, Oceana’s report "Acid Test" examines the far-reaching consequences of the accumulation of heat-trapping gases, particularly carbon dioxide, in the …

Financial Times: A group of large financial institutional investors will on Tuesday call on rich countries to cut their emissions by up to 95 per cent by 2050, in the sector’s strongest demand yet on climate change. The group of more than 130 investors, with a combined $7,000bn under management, includes Calpers, Calsters, several other US public sector pension funds, and several UK public sector pension funds. The group also includes Blackrock Investment Management, Deutsche Asset Management, HSBC …

EurekAlert: A rapid, climate change-induced northern migration of invasive marine is one of many research results announced Tues. Nov. 11 during opening day presentations at the First World Conference on Marine Biodiversity, Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, in Valencia. Investigators report that invasive species of marine macroalgae spread at 50 km per decade, a distance far greater than that covered by invasive terrestrial plants. The difference may be due to the rapid dispersion of …

Financial Times: The Indian Ocean state of the Maldives will start to divert cash from its largest industry, tourism, to buy land in case rising sea levels submerge the country’s low-lying coral islands, spokespeople for the president-elect, Mohamed Nasheed, said on Monday. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, the vice-president-elect, said the "worst-case scenario due to sea level rise would be that some or even all of our islands would become uninhabitable and we would have to look for alternative places …