Economic Recession a Blip on Oil Consumption’s Upward Climb

World Consumed 87.4 Million Barrels Per Day in 2010

Bill Scanlon

Providing clean, renewable energy to the 1.4 billion people who are living without electricity is the No. 1 priority of the United Nations, the secretary general of the U.N. said during a visit Aug. 24 to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

JUSTIN GILLIS

For two decades, the world’s governments have failed to meet their own commitment to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas.

Damian Carrington

Changes in the global climate that cut food production triggered one-fifth of civil conflicts between 1950 and 2004

Damian Carrington

Wil Longbottom

• Trip of a lifetime would take the best part of three weeks through picturesque Alaska and Siberia
• Russia set to complete extension of rail network to tip of Siberia by 2030

Sarah Marsh

On World humanitarian day we look at countries who give aid and those that are in need

World humanitarian day celebrates people who help others - the aid workers who risk their lives to support people in great need.

Madeleine Bunting

It's like a hangover after a big party. For over a decade microfinance has boomed as donors' have poured millions into the sector – now there is a sober reckoning. David Roodman picked up on it on Tuesday in his blog on the Centre for Global Development site, calling it the "new realism".

alertnet // Laurie Goering

LONDON (AlertNet) – Efforts to feed an extra 2 billion people by mid-century could lead to widespread destruction of forests, wetlands and other natural systems that protect and regulate the world’s water, researchers warn.

Jonathan Amos

Scientists have produced what they say is the first complete map of how the ice moves across Antarctica.