Across the globe an emerging El Nino weather pattern threatens to cause droughts and floods and trigger a spike in planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from burning forests.

El Nino is a warming of tropical Pacific waters that affects wind circulation patterns. Its effects on the global climate vary from one event to the next.

Climate change has already caused "visible impacts" in the United States and poses particular risks to the U.S. agriculture and energy industries, a new government report said on Tuesday.

Oil companies stepped up efforts to shut production in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday as hurricane Gustav tore into the US

Hurricane Gustav swept across the Gulf of Mexico yesterday, forcing the mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, the shutdown of offshore oil production and the cancellation of most of the programme on th

Too much nitrogen being washed into the sea is causing dead zones to spread alarmingly AP NEW life generally flourishes in the spring, unless it is marine life in the Gulf of Mexico. Every spring the coastal waters turn into a scene of devastation and death. Known as a "dead zone', this vast oxygen-depleted area extends along the coast between Louisiana and Texas.

The us demand for corn-based ethanol could cause nutrient-pollution in the Gulf of Mexico, expanding its dead zone, say scientists. The dead zone forms in the Gulf of Mexico every summer

In the third week of August, hurricane Dean battered America's mid-western and southern states, and raced through the Gulf of Mexico. Weathermen did not expect the hurricane to intensify sharply.

the us Senate is on the verge of passing a bill, which would not only allow oil and natural gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but also jeopardise a 25-year moratorium on oil drilling along the us