The future looks bleak for the tigers of Bangladesh's Sundarbans mangrove forest at the mouth of the Ganges river. Today some 400 of these impressive carnivores roam through the world's largest surviving mangrove ecosystem. By mid-century, global warming is likely to have starved the Sunderbans' tigers into oblivion.

A new way to predict how habitat zones will shift or vanish could help usher endangered species to safety.

Tens of thousands of American families may be living in buildings once used as methamphetamine labs - most of them oblivious to the fact. Some who have learned of their home's history similarly attribute mysterious ailments to the toxic legacy of illicit drug manufacture, but like Katrina Evans they are finding that there is precious little firm knowledge about what risks they are running. Only now is a new federal law authorising more research into the problem, and promising to fill in some gaps.

Farming contributes more to global warming than all the world's cars, trains, ships and planes put together. And the single biggest problem with farming is not carbon but nitrogen. From the maize fields of Kansas to the emerald rice paddies of China, today's bountiful harvests depend on generous applications of nitrogen fertiliser. Although only a tiny proportion escapes into the atmosphere as nitrous oxide, it is an extremely potent greenhouse gas. It's a vexing problem, but Eric Rey believes he has some of the answers, in the form of crops genetically modified to require less fertiliser.

"JAPAN threatens to quit whaling forum." It's a headline we have got used to reading, but behind the rhetoric this year's meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) saw a shift in power that has put Japan in a bind.

IT IS time to take back the night for wildlife. That was the rallying call from a landmark session on light pollution at the Society for Conservation Biology on 4 July in Edmonton, Canada. The disruptive effects on animals of our penchant for bright lights has rarely impinged on public consciousness.