FUJI SPEEDWAY, Japan, Oct 9, 2008 (AFP) - Formula One teams have signalled their readiness to embrace eco-technology and other environmental initiatives being championed by the sport's governing body.

FUJI SPEEDWAY, Japan, Oct 9, 2008 (AFP) - Formula One teams and drivers have signalled their readiness to embrace eco-technology and other environmental initiatives being championed by the sport's governing body.

CORDOBA, Spain, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - EU measures to cut CO2 emissions must be changed given the global financial crisis as nations cannot now afford higher energy, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday during a visit to Spain.

BARCELONA, Spain, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Indigenous leaders in five Amazonian nations, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia on Wednesday demanded a larger say on how best to manage tropical forests to fight climate change.

BARCELONA, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Indigenous leaders in five Amazonian nations, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia on Wednesday demanded a larger say on how best to manage tropical forests to fight climate change.

BARCELONA, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - An elusive consensus on the best way to reduce forest carbon emissions took shape Wednesday with the release of a joint statement by forestry companies, green organisations and indigenous peoples.

BARCELONA, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Half to three-quarters of major Antarctic penguin colonies could be damaged or wiped out if global temperatures are allowed to climb by more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), according to a report released Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - The US Supreme Court began hearing arguments Wednesday into whether national security trumps the well-being of whales off the coast of California.

WARSAW, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Poland is calling for a more gradual introduction of EU measures to slash CO2 emissions by 2020, a government spokesman said Tuesday.

The country, which joined the EU in 2004, supports the measures but would prefer to see them implemented more slowly to protect its economy, Environment Ministry spokesman Michal Milewski told AFP.

BARCELONA, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - From tiny tree frogs to gorillas, wild animals already facing extinction due to habitat loss, pollution and hunting must now cope with the added threat of virulent disease, conservation scientists said Tuesday.

WARSAW, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Poland is calling for a more gradual introduction of EU measures to slash CO2 emissions, a government spokesman said Tuesday.

'We are not blocking the EU plan, in fact we fully support it,' Polish Environment Ministry spokesman Michal Milewski told AFP.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Thirty-one penguins stranded on the balmy Brazilian coast were loaded to a ship Tuesday in the first step of a journey to return them south to their natural habitat in Patagonia.

BARCELONA, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - Half the world's mammals are declining in population and more than a third probably face extinction, said an update Monday of the 'Red List,' the most respected inventory of biodiversity.

BARCELONA, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - Half the world's mammals are declining in population and more than a third probably face extinction, said an update Monday of the 'Red List,' the most respected inventory of biodiversity.

BARCELONA, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - Hundreds of animals have been added to the 2008 'Red List' of species threatened with extinction, according to a new edition of the authoritative index released Monday.

And hundreds of others have moved up the scale of endangerment toward the ultimate category from which there is no return: 'extinct.'

MADRID, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - Greenpeace activists boarded a cargo ship carrying Colombian coal at a port in northern Spain on Monday in protest at Spain's reliance on the highly polluting energy source.

PARIS, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - European carmakers are seeking 40 billion euros (54 billion dollars) in aid to develop green technologies, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) said Monday.

BARCELONA, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - A new tool for measuring biodiversity suggests that a quarter of all animal and plant species may be at risk of extinction, a top scientist said Monday.

Up to now, scientists have only been able to assess the survival status of a relative handful of species due to the sheer variety of life forms inhabiting the planet.

CAPE TOWN, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - Africa's rich abundance of life seems inexhaustible, but growing pressure on animals and plants could lead to greater poverty, more wars and migration to other continents, experts warned.

BARCELONA, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - The world must act quickly if it is to brake an unprecedented die off of the Earth's animal and plant life that could have dire consequences for humans as well, top conservationists warned on Sunday.

BRUSSELS, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - European Union plans to tackle climate change reach a crucial phase on Tuesday with votes in the EU parliament, amid fears among green groups that pressure from industry is watering the proposals down.

PARIS, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - Earth's animal and plant species are vanishing at unprecedented rates, evidence that the planet is facing a tsunami of mass extinction, experts gathering for a global conservation conference next week have warned.

PARIS, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - Carmarkers rolled out a slew of electric models at the Paris motor show Friday, with a view to filling dealer showrooms by 2012 when new European legislation on curbing emissions kicks in.

MOSCOW, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - Russian environmental groups launched Friday legal action against an oil and gas project led by US energy giant Exxon for threatening critically endangered whales in Russia's far east.

OTTAWA, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper came under fire for his record on fighting global warming in a political debate televised Wednesday ahead of elections on October 14.

KATAGUA, Nigeria, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - As a rickety garbage truck rattled to a halt and discharged its contents Francis Adigwe, an unemployed textile engineer turned scavenger, rushed over and emerged with his find of the day, a piece of metal he estimated will bring in more than two dollars.

PARIS, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - The crown-of-thorns starfish, a notorious threat to coral in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, comprises four species, not one, biologists reported on Tuesday.

The spiny predator, known by its Latin name of Acanthaster planci, has been a worsening peril to reefs for at least three decades, latching onto coral polyps and digesting them.

LIMASSOL, Cyprus, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - In Cyprus, where the reservoirs are almost dry and the taps often cease to flow, another liquid may also become scarce. Parched by a chronic drought, the island's wine industry, among the oldest in the world, is under threat.

ATHENS, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - A Greek wildlife group has issued an appeal to farmers and livestock breeders after one of the country's protected brown bears was found shot dead this week, the second fatality in a month.

CAPE TOWN, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - Africa's first-ever solar-powered car race is underway in South Africa to raise awareness about alternative energy and promote science and technology, organisers said Wednesday.

NIAMEY, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - It is poor, dry and has more sunshine than it knows what to do with. But despite years of experience with solar power, Niger continues to use cow dung and wood for fuel.

ANKARA, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - Turkey hopes to complete construction of an undersea water pipeline to northern Cyprus by June 2009 to help it battle droughts, Anatolia news agency reported Tuesday.

PARIS, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - The crown-of-thorns starfish, a notorious threat to coral in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, comprises four species, not one, biologists reported on Tuesday.

The spiny predator, known by its Latin name of Acanthaster planci, has been a worsening peril to reefs for at least three decades, latching onto coral polyps and digesting them.

NAIROBI, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - Elisabeth's 13 children were born by candlelight. Her daughter, who has just become a mother for the first time, was more 'fortunate'.

MADRID, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - Spain's nuclear safety agency issued an alert Monday after a case of equipment containing low-level radioactive material was stolen from a road works site, the second such incident this year.

Beijing will implement new traffic control measures aimed at clearing
the Chinese capital's notoriously smoggy skies and chronic transport
congestion, the city government said on Sunday