John Vidal

Huge increase in large-scale mining is being fuelled by the rising price of metals and oil, as search for minerals centres on Africa

Jonathan Watts

Global Partnership for Oceans, comprising governments, NGOs, scientists and businesses, is a boost for overfished, polluted and warming oceans

David Lindsay

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (CNN) -- An estimated 3 billion people -- nearly half the world's population -- still use an open fire as their primary source of energy for cooking and heating.

But there's a problem: the smoke.

Ann Goodman

How might urban climate change affect business? What can business -- and cities -- do about it? And how might each help the other prepare for a potential threat to what's clearly a mutually beneficial relationship?

BAN KI-MOON

As a child growing up during the Korean War, I studied by candlelight. Electric conveniences such as refrigerators and fans were largely unknown. Yet within my lifetime, that reality changed utterly. Easy access to energy opened abundant new possibilities for my family and my nation.

Global temperatures have warmed significantly since 1880, the beginning of what scientists call the "modern record." At this time, the coverage provided by weather stations allowed for essentially global temperature data. As greenhouse gas emissions from energy production, industry and vehicles have increased, temperatures have climbed, most notably since the late 1970s. In this animation of temperature data from 1880-2011, reds indicate temperatures higher than the average during a baseline period of 1951-1980, while blues indicate lower temperatures than the baseline average.

The Keeling Curve

The Metrics for Measuring the Ecological Footprint of Humans on Planet Earth

World Population Projected to 2050 for Developing and Developed Countries

Unemployment Rates in Countries Around the World