Members of Brazil's environmental police force IBAMA and the Para state police inspect logs discovered during "Operation Labareda," a raid against illegal logging, near Novo Progresso in the Amazon

Two efforts to redraw the poverty line in Asia find that millions more are barely getting by.

Germans were once dead set against nuclear energy. But high energy costs are forcing them to rethink.

For any company with a supply chain, if they want to continue being profitable, they have to reduce their carbon footprint.

Peru is considered to be one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change. On the steep slopes of Chopcca, a community of 10,000 residents in the Andes, the rains come later, don't last as long and end more abruptly than they did only a few years ago. Frosts and hail hit earlier and more frequently. Fewer clouds drift by to moderate the extremes of temperature.

Manmohan Singh's four-year term in office has been resurrected in the last few months of its existence. When his government this week defeated a no-confidence motion in Parliament instigated by his former coalition partners, the communists, Indian television stations used a popular Bollywood song, "Singh Is King," as a backdrop.

It's almost a point of pride with climatologists. Whenever someplace is hit with a heat wave, drought, killer storm or other extreme weather, scientists trip over themselves to absolve global warming. No particular weather event, goes the mantra, can be blamed on something so general.

The world will experience a growing risk of conflicts over food, energy and water in coming years. The population rises each year by about 80 million people, with most of the increase in impoverished regions already facing environmental stress. Climate change, water scarcity and tighter oil supplies will add to the stresses.

West Africa is one of the least green regions in the world, but the nation of Ghana has distinguished itself among its neighbors, achieving a rank of 86 on Yale and Columbia's Environmental Performance Index. In sub-Saharan Africa, only Gabon and the island nation of Mauritius rank higher, and Ghana is bigger and poorer than each of them.

Several hundred head of camel, sheep and cattle shoved and bustled in the blistering afternoon heat to get closer to the well. Many of them were crying and braying from thirst. Nearby, also waiting their turn, half a dozen Touareg nomads sat on donkeys carrying empty yellow water containers. Some had traveled a day or more just to get to this well.