Mouths hang open in disbelief at the amount of fish consumed last year.Photo: Sharon MollerusROME -- Fish consumption reached record levels in 2010 and world stocks need to be urgently rebuilt, experts at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report Monday. "The contribution of fish to global diets has reached a record of almost 17 kilograms [37 pounds] per person [per year] on average, supplying over 3 billion people with at least 15 percent of their average animal protein intake," the FAO's report said. The "State of the World's Fisheries and Aquaculture" report, published at the …

Wines going greener? We'll toast to that.BORDEAUX, France -- Two historical Bordeaux wine estates have gone green, breaking a long resistance to organic viticulture amongst the region's elite producers. "Still in 2011, there are people who do not trust in the fact that it is possible to grow organic in Bordeaux," said Jean Michel Comme, manager of the 200-acre Chateau Pontet Canet in Pauillac. "As soon as the total estate was organic and biodynamic, we aimed for a certification as a way to prove that we were sincere in our project." "This is a return to viticulture in the right …

Ban Ki-moon.LONDON -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is shifting his focus away from involvement in international climate change talks and toward new areas in the fight against global warming. Ban is to redirect his efforts from trying to push forward the international climate change negotiations to a broader agenda of promoting clean energy and sustainable development, U.N. officials told The Guardian. After his deep involvement with the failed Copenhagen summit in 2009, Ban realized world leaders were not going to strike a sweeping agreement on global warming in the next few years, the officials said. "It is very evident that …

Bingo, man.Photo: John Ott WASHINGTON -- Senators plan to introduce in the coming weeks new legislation aiming to prevent another disastrous oil spill like last year's massive gusher in the Gulf of Mexico, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said Wednesday. A similar bill that would revise offshore drilling rules had previously been considered but never reached a full Senate vote. "We must ensure that we have systems in place in our government and in the industry so that this cannot happen again," said Bingaman, chair of Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. "Beyond that, we should lead the world in …

More density and more public transportation help cities emit less GHG per capita.Photo: Duane StoreyWASHINGTON -- Big cities like New York, London, and Shanghai send less pollution into the atmosphere per capita than places like Denver and Rotterdam, said a study released Tuesday. Researchers examined data from 100 cities in 33 nations for clues about which were the biggest polluters and why, according to the report in the peer-reviewed journal Environment and Urbanization. While cities across the world were to blame for around 71 percent of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions, urban dwellers who can use public transportation rather than drive …

If A Tree Falls tracks the rise and fall of an Earth Liberation Front cell.PARK CITY, Utah -- A documentary film at the Sundance Film Festival examines the roots of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), which has been branded an "environmental terrorist" group. If A Tree Falls, by Oscar-nominated director Marshall Curry, traces how the group, known for setting fires to draw attention to their cause, became a more intense target for the FBI after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "Obviously 9/11 completely changed the way that the public saw what they were doing, the way that some of …

Carol Browner, headed for the door.Photo: White HouseWASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's top energy and climate change adviser will step down in the coming weeks, Politico reported Monday night, citing White House officials. The departure of Carol Browner comes as passage of major clean energy legislation appeared increasingly unlikely under the new Republican majority controlling the House of Representatives. "She will stay on as long as necessary to ensure an orderly transition," Politico quoted a White House official as saying. "Carol is confident that the mission of her office will remain critical to the president," the official continued, "and she …

The British report found that substantial changes to water and energy use are needed to bring about sustainability.Photo: tlindenbaumLONDON -- The world needs fundamental changes to the global food system to feed the expanding population, says a British government report on how to feed the planet until 2050. Governments must take action to change dietary habits, cut waste, reduce subsidies, and embrace genetically modified food, said the "Global Food and Farming Futures" report out Monday. The study -- led by Professor John Beddington, the British government's chief scientific adviser -- said that with the global population forecast to reach 9 …

From being a marginal and even mocked issue, climate-change litigation is fast emerging as a new frontier of law where hundreds of billions of dollars could be at stake. Compensation for losses inflicted by human-made global warming would be jaw-dropping, a payout that would make tobacco and asbestos damages look like pocket money. Imagine: A country or an individual could get redress for a drought that destroyed farmland, for floods and storms that created an army of refugees, for rising seas that wiped a small island state off the map. In the past three years, the number of climate-related lawsuits …

Don't forget to break out the SPF 800.GENEVA -- The U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization said Thursday that 2010 was the warmest year on record, confirming a "significant" long-term trend of global warming and producing exceptional weather variations. The trend also helped to melt Arctic sea ice cover to a record low for December last month, the WMO said in a statement. Last year "ranked as the warmest year on record, together with 2005 and 1998," the WMO added, confirming preliminary findings released at the global climate conference early December that were based on a 10-month period. "The 2010 data confirm …