Telegraph: Next year is forecast to be one of the five warmest on record. As Brtain shivered in frosty conditions, climate change scientists said 2009 will be a record breaker. The average global temperature for 2009 is expected to be more than 0.4C above the long term average, making next year warmer than this year and the hottest since 2005, the Met Office and University of East Anglia researchers said. Next year is expected to be in the top five warmest on record despite the …

Reuters: Turkey, dependent on Russia for 65 percent of its gas supply, should boost wind and solar energy investments as part of efforts to diversify energy resources, the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) chief economist said. Fatih Birol said the country was also dependent on Russia for power as half of Turkey’s electricity was produced from natural gas. "This dependence will increase further if Russia is preferred for nuclear (energy production). A variety of fuel is needed as an …

Miami Herald: The last, largest stands of ancient elkhorn coral survive in shallow waters off North Key Largo, where rough seas sometimes expose thick golden branches reaching toward the sunlit surface. Forty years ago, elkhorn grew in dense forests that would cover parking lots. Now, the biggest clump would barely fill one space. In another 40 years, elkhorn could disappear altogether — along with just about every other hard coral forming South Florida’s once-vibrant barrier …

Asian News International: Indian ornithologist has said that global warming and the rising temperatures have brought about an imbalance in the timing of the winter arrival of migratory birds and the food stock available to them. World over experts have been saying that rising temperatures could wipe out more than half of the earth’s species in the next few centuries, linking climate change to past mass extinctions. Unchecked climate change could force up to 72 per cent of bird species in some areas into …

Houston Chronicle: Texas could reduce its peak electric usage by more than 23 percent in the next seven years if utilities would invest more in efficiency programs, according to a study released recently by the Public Utility Commission. The efficiency efforts, which would funnel through existing programs administered by the electric transmission companies in the parts of Texas open to competition, would save consumers as much as $2 for every $1 invested, according to the study. ‘There is a …

Telegraph: Dozens of oaks, many of them as old as 150 years, have had to be cut down at Kew in the last few years because of a beetle infestation which leaves the inside of the trunk looking "like honeycomb". Outdoor vegetable patches have been under attack all year round from pests previously only found in greenhouses. Meanwhile new invaders, such as a fingernail-sized insect which attacks wisteria, have been spreading as a result of milder winters and a looser controls on plants coming …

Bloomberg: U.S. power companies may face billions of dollars a year in new costs after last week’s coal- sludge spill in east Tennessee if the accident results in regulating their wastes as toxic. The accident that unleashed a billion-gallon outpouring from a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant on Dec. 22 may revive efforts in Washington to tighten rules on so-called fly ash that’s laden with heavy metals, and other waste from coal- fired generators. The proposals stalled during the eight …

Associated Press: Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius dissolved a state energy group Wednesday, following months of criticism from even some members that its unwieldy size made it ineffective in influencing policy. Sebelius said the Kansas Energy Council had provided a "solid foundation" for others’ discussions and noted that four other task forces or committees are studying various issues. "This decision was made because the KEC was given a charge and has completed it," Sebelius spokeswoman Nicole …

ScienceDaily: To many people, bacteria and climate change are like chalk and cheese: the smallest creature versus one of the biggest phenomena on earth. Not really. Scientists with the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences and coworkers recently reported that small bugs deposited in ice and snow might tell how our climate has been changing. The discovery might bring about a new indicator for climate change, which is by nature different from all previous physical …

Reuters: One could say they are working on the green slime that could change the world. In an unassuming converted warehouse in Los Angeles, the 10 employees of OriginOil are working to perfect the way microscopic algae is grown and refined. They hope that within a few years the methods they use to make small batches of greenish-colored algae mixtures in the laboratory will be imitated in 2,500-gallon (9,460 liter) tanks around the world. And that the oil extracted from the algae will …