Uncontrolled logging is posing a risk to Liberia's virgin rainforests and depriving people of economic benefits, campaign group Global Witness warns. Its report says that logging companies have been granted more than 60% of the country's rainforests in the six years since Nobel Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became president.

"Let's replace our fixation on growth with a steady-state economy focusing on lower consumption, leisure and ecological health" - "... it isn't true that the more we buy, the happier we are. Endless growth means endlessly increasing production and endlessly increasing consumption. Social critics have for a long time pointed out the resulting hollowness carried by that thesis. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly apparent that infinite growth is impossible on a finite planet. ..."

Forests now cover 31 percent of the world’s land surface, just over 4 billion hectares (one hectare = 2.47 acres,) which is down from the pre-industrial area of 5.9 billion hectares...

A total of 1,590 U.S. cases of West Nile virus, including 66 deaths, have been reported through late August this year, the highest human toll reported since the mosquito-borne disease was first detected in the country in 1999, health officials said on Wednesday.

"... We have had major hurricanes bearing down on the United States during four of the past six Republican conventions: Andrew in 1992, Frances in 2004, Gustav in 2008, and this year, Isaac. ... Republicans seem determined to underfund, undermanage, and understaff the government agencies that respond to hurricanes, putting lives and property at risk ... When Republicans retook the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010, they made deep cuts in [the President's] 2011 request for the Polar Joint Satellite System, a system of new satellites needed to replace the old ones, which currently provide 85 percent of the data used in hurricane forecasting. ... House Republicans proposed further deep cuts in the program in fiscal year 2012. ... National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Director Jane Lubchenco called the cuts "insanity." She said that failure to fund the satellites would create a significant gap between the time the existing satellites failed and the new system became serviceable. ... Marion Blakey, who served as head of the Federal Aviation Administration under President George W. Bush and is now chief executive officer of the Aerospace Industries Association ... pointed out, "Imagine the damages we will suffer in the future if weather forecasting...

Record Ice Melt in the Arctic and Other Alarming Events have Scientists Gravely Concerned about Global Warming 08-28-2012 EcoWatch Scattered ice floes are seen from the bridge of the USCGC Healy on August 20, 2012 northwest of Barrow, Alaska. Arctic sea ice fell to its lowest daily extent in the satellite record on Sunday, August 26, 2012. In the last month, scientists have noted a series of alarming events, all of which indicate the significant effects climate change is having on the planet. Yesterday, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) announced that the Arctic sea ice cover was at its lowest level since the satellite record began in 1979. Earlier this month Australian scientists found concrete evidence of “very unusual warming” over the last hundred years in Antarctica. And in July, 97 percent of Greenland’s ice sheet melted, an event that received little coverage in the American news media.

Hurricane Isaac sidestepped New Orleans on Wednesday, sending the worst of its howling wind and heavy rain into a cluster of rural fishing villages that had few defenses against the slow-moving storm that could bring days of unending rain. Isaac arrived exactly seven years after Hurricane Katrina and passed slightly to the west of New Orleans, where the city's fortified levee system easily handled the assault. The city's biggest problems seemed to be downed power lines, scattered tree limbs and minor flooding. Just one person was reported killed, compared with 1,800 deaths from Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi. And police reported few problems with looting. Mayor Mitch Landrieu ordered a dusk-to-dawn curfew just to be sure.

Heavy flooding in Niger over the past few weeks has killed up to 65 people and left 125,000 homeless. After appeals from the country's president for international aid, the first supplies, donated by Ireland to Plan International, have now arrived. The southern Dosso region has been worst affected, with over 10,000 homes destroyed according to the UN. The capital Niamey was also hit when the River Niger burst its banks, flooding the city's suburbs. Plan International's Niger director Rheal Drisdalle said on 18-19 August, the river reached levels "not seen since the 1920s".

"Water scarcity's effect on food production means radical steps will be needed to feed population expected to reach 9bn by 2050. Leading water scientists have issued one of the sternest warnings yet about global food supplies, saying that the world's population may have to switch almost completely to a vegetarian diet over the next 40 years to avoid catastrophic shortages. ... Dire warnings of water scarcity limiting food production come as Oxfam and the UN prepare for a possible second global food crisis in five years. Prices for staples such as corn and wheat have risen nearly 50% on international markets since June, triggered by severe droughts in the US and Russia, and weak monsoon rains in Asia. More than 18 million people are already facing serious food shortages across the Sahel."

The engineers started examining test results in December to learn how much trouble a single rogue technician caused California. They found problems that extend beyond that former employee and call into question testing of the new Bay Bridge and three other key Bay Area spans. The engineers' assessment follows assertions by California Department of Transportation officials that their tests were valid and that the Bay Bridge is safe. It identified at least 23 cases of suspect radiation test data used to approve the reinforced concrete foundations of the Bay Bridge, Benicia-Martinez Bridge, Dumbarton Bridge and Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, according to state and federal reports and emails. The engineers said the records for those spans should be analyzed further.