THE world must go back to embracing nuclear power as one of its options if it is going to win the fight against global warming, economist Jeffrey Sachs warns. Professor Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and author of The End of Poverty, warned that global warming had the potential to undo the progress being made in the war on global poverty, making the tropics hotter and arid regions even more arid.

Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has flagged a looming confrontation with the Rudd Government on climate change, saying there is "a high probability" that the Coalition will oppose the Government's blueprint to tackle global warming. As world oil prices hit yet another record, and the Government's climate change adviser Ross Garnaut prepares to release his draft report on Friday, Dr Nelson said introducing an emissions trading scheme would make the introduction of the GST "look like a walk in the park".

Flip through a travel brochure, and you're likely to see pictures of sun and sand in Southeast Asia, of luxury lodges in the Serengeti, of scuba diving in the bejewelled coral reefs of the Caribbean, but what the brochure won't reveal is the environmental cost of your trip. That beach in Thailand may once have housed precious mangroves, which were ripped up to make way for your hotel.

Leaders from the Group of Eight industrial powers will agree to establish a task force at their summit next month to tackle the world food crisis, a report said on Monday. The group will aim to address the immediate problem of food shortages in poorer countries as well as address longer-term challenges such as boosting food production, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, citing unnamed government sources. The working group is also expected to discuss removal of export restrictions and directing global food stockpiles to those most in need, the daily said.

TWENTY years ago yesterday, James Hansen, a climate scientist at NASA, told the world that he was "99%" certain that humans were already warming the climate. "The greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is changing our climate now," Dr Hansen said then, referring to a string of warm years and the accumulating blanket of heat-trapping carbon dioxide and other gases emitted mainly by the burning of fossil fuels and forests.

CHAIRING the Victorian Government's review of the moratorium on genetically modified canola proved a challenging task. It was also a heartening exercise in democracy at work. The panel received 248 substantive submissions from the public as well as 1177 that were essentially form letters. Further, 36 groups were invited to meet the panel to discuss their views. Those who wished the moratorium to continue gave essentially five groups of reasons: ?Genetic engineering is somehow against nature or God's plan.

Free-trade policies long advanced by World Bank President Robert Zoellick and US President George W. Bush are losing favour as countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America find they can't buy enough food to feed their people. Global food prices have spiked 60% since the beginning of 2007, sparking riots in more than 30 countries that depend on imported food, including Cameroon and Egypt. The surge in prices threatens to push the number of malnourished people in the world from 860 million to almost 1 billion, according to the World Food Programme in Rome.

THE Goulburn River has been found to have the poorest health of any of the 23 rivers in the Murray-Darling basin

ICELAND authorities shot a polar bear they had hoped to save after it was found hundreds of kilometres from its natural habitat. It was the second bear to be killed in two weeks in Iceland, where sightings of the threatened species are rare. It had apparently travelled several hundred kilometres atop an ice floe. Despite protests after the first bear was killed, the animal was shot when it panicked and charged a group of journalists. Bear sightings have lent credence to warnings that climate change is creating a more perilous habitat by melting Arctic ice.

The lava from an erupting Galapagos volcano did not affect the islands' famed giant tortoises as first feared, Galapagos National Park officials said today. The Cerro Azul volcano on Isabela Island erupted between Thursday and Sunday, unleashing a heavy flow of lava, park authorities said in a statement. Isabela, the largest island in the archipelago, is home to rare and unique flora and fauna, including the Galapagos giant tortoise, which can weigh more than 230 kilos and live more than 100 years.