Issues & Trends

	Heat, Flood or Icy Cold, Extreme Weather Rages Worldwide WORCESTER, England — Britons may remember 2012 as the year the weather spun off its rails in a chaotic concoction of drought, deluge and flooding, but the unpredictability of it all turns out to have been all too predictable: Around the world, extreme has become the new commonplace.
	The CSP Storage Technology Race Heats Up Is SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith right about BrightSource’s steam-to-salts storage?
	NREL/DOE Launch New Alternative Transportation Web Tools Ways to reduce fleet petroleum use debut alongside a Web site makeover.
	The Next Pandemic: Why It Will Come from Wildlife Emerging diseases are in the news again. Scary viruses are making themselves noticed and felt.
	RENEWABLES INTERACTIVE MAP The topic of ‘energy’ has gradually moved over the last decades to the very top of the international political agenda. Renewable energy, in particular, has received high attention as a potential ‘win-win’ option in both the environment and development arenas.
	Chance of saving most coral reefs is dwindling -study 70 pct of corals will suffer degradation by 2030 To protect half of reefs, temperature rise must be under 1.5C The chance to save the world's coral reefs from damage caused by climate change is dwindling as man-made greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, scientists said in a study released on Sunday.
	India’s energy demand projected to surge NEW DELHI — Like China two decades ago and the United States in 1950, India stands on the cusp of transformational economic and social change, a jumping-off point at which the demand for electricity is about to explode.
	Arctic ice melting at 'amazing' speed, scientists find Scientists in the Arctic are warning that this summer's record-breaking melt is part of an accelerating trend with profound implications. Norwegian researchers report that the sea ice is becoming significantly thinner and more vulnerable.
	Climate Panel Cites Near Certainty on Warming An international panel of scientists has found with near certainty that human activity is the cause of most of the temperature increases of recent decades, and warns that sea levels could conceivably rise by more than three feet by the end of the century if emissions continue at a runaway pace.
	Renewables-based Desalination: A Solution to MENA's Water Crisis "You never miss the water till the well runs dry" is an old idiom that is becoming a harsh reality for the Middle East and North Africa region and globally. Water scarcity is now this century's imminent greatest problem, a clear and present danger.