As budgets are cut local authorities are selling off farmland without considering the long-term implications of losing a valuable asset for future generations. Tom Levitt reports.
As Papua New Guinea gives go-ahead to a Canadian mining company to dredge its coastal seabed for minerals, critics say environmental assessments have been inadequate, local objections ignored and new species of life could be extinct before they have even been discovered.
The dramatic increase in use of antibiotics by farmers over the past decade may be spreading antibiotic-resistant bugs from farm animals to the food chain.
With planning permission for Britain's biggest dairy at Nocton about to be re-submitted, The Ecologist travels to California to examine intensive milk production - and finds factory farms, conflict, intimidation, pesticides, pollution and small-scale farmers driven out of business.
Viticulture is growing at a rate of knots in India, and the country's largest winery is leading by environmental example. Nestling just 200km from the bustling metropolis of Mumbai lies Nasik, an area of natural beauty, rich spiritual heritage and home to one of India's newest and burgeoning industries: wine.
US climate sceptic lobbyists' attempts to stop greenhouse gas emissions from being labelled as a pollutant have been rejected by The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Energy secretary Chris Huhne focuses on 2050 targets in first major policy statement but admits the UK faces 'short-term challenges' to meet targets for renewable energy.
Advocates of foreign ownership of agricultural land say it brings wealth, infrastructure and new farming techniques; opponents say that displaced and deskilled smallholders are often the result. When people talk about land-grabbing the immediate focus tends to be on issues like food security, land sovereignty and worries about a new, financial colonialism.
