United Press International: Scientists say climate records from Australasia show there are no other warm periods in the last 1,000 years that match the warming experienced since 1950. A study led by researchers at the University of Melbourne used a range of natural indicators including tree rings, corals and ice cores to study Australasian temperatures over the past millennium and compare them to climate model simulations. "Our study revealed that recent warming in a 1000-year context is highly unusual and cannot be explained...

National Public Radio: A new law in Pennsylvania has doctors nervous. The law grants physicians access to information about trade-secret chemicals used in natural gas drilling. Doctors say they need to know what's in those formulas in order to treat patients who may have been exposed to the chemicals. But the new law also says that doctors can't tell anyone else - not even other doctors - what's in those formulas. It's being called the "doctor gag rule." 'I Don't Know If It's Due To Exposure' Plastic surgeon...

Independent: Moves to cut subsidies for fitting solar panels on homes were halted by ministers today following warnings that the planned reductions threatened Britain?s hopes of hitting targets for renewable energy production. Ministers halved subsidies for feed-in tariffs last year and were due to implement another cut in July. The Independent disclosed this month that senior figures in the solar energy industry warned they faced a crisis which jeopardised thousands of jobs as a result of the tariff reductions....

Environment News Service: One of New Zealand's major environmental groups will appeal a decision by the Environment Court that stops climate change impacts from being considered under the Resource Management Act. The Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society of New Zealand says its appeal will be heard in the High Court. If the group's appeal is successful, it would mean that the contribution to climate change of developments such as coal mining would be considered during the government's permitting process, known...

Reuters: Apple Inc plans to power its main U.S. data center entirely with renewable energy by the end of this year, taking steps to address longstanding environmental concerns about the rapid expansion of high-consuming computer server farms. The maker of the iPhone and iPad said on Thursday it was buying equipment from SunPower Corp and startup Bloom Energy to build two solar array installations in and around Maiden, North Carolina, near its core data center. Once up, the solar farm will supply 84...

Reuters: An oil spill was discovered off Brazil's coast near the country's Espirito Santo state, Brazil's Navy said on Thursday, the latest in a series of spills that have raised questions about the safety of a massive expansion of the country's oil production capacity. The Navy said it has sent a team to investigate and has no immediate estimate of the spill's size. Oil workers returning home after work offshore said there was an oil stain about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) long on the ocean near the P-57...

redOrbit: Scientists in Australia have used 27 natural climate records to create the first large-scale temperature reconstruction for the region over the last 1000 years. This is the first study of its kind. Researchers at the University of Melbourne led the study. They used a range of natural indicators including tree rings, corals and ice cores to study the temperatures in Australia over the past millennium and compared them to climate model simulations. ?The results show that there are no other warm periods...

National Public Radio: Raging wildfires are burning tens of thousands of of acres in Arizona, Nevada and parts of New Mexico and Colorado. But federal agencies overseeing the response say they're not worried - by this time last year, there had already been more fires that destroyed more acres. "I would describe [this season] as getting off to a slow start," said Kari Boyd-Peak, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center, which bills itself as a national support center for wildland firefighting. "We're just...