Phnom Penh Post: Illegal logging of staggering proportions abetted by military personnel is decimating stocks of luxury rosewood in the Central Cardamom Protected Forest, while the conservation group tasked with protecting the area and its government counterparts deny the trade is even happening. In a period of several hours beginning late on Sunday night, the Post witnessed at least nine industrial transport trucks, seven pick-up trucks and one Land Rover packed with timber drive out of Koh Kong province’s Thma...

Independent: The bitterly cold weather sweeping Britain and the rest of Europe has been linked by scientists with the ice-free seas of the Arctic, where global warming is exerting its greatest influence. A dramatic loss of sea ice covering the Barents and Kara Seas above northern Russia could explain why a chill Arctic wind has engulfed much of Europe and killed 221 people over the past week. The death toll from Arctic blast has been particularly severe in the Ukraine, where many of the dead have been people...

Mongabay: The Indonesian government plans to create a massive plantation firm next month when it will combine the assets of state-owned rubber and palm oil companies, reports Reuters. The new corporation, which will be consolidated under the parent company PT Perkebunan Nusantara III, will have assets worth $5.6 billion, according to State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan. It will own about million hectares of oil palm and rubber plantations, rivaling Malaysia’s Sime Darby and Singapore’s Wilmar among...

Associated Press: Small island nations, whose very existence is threatened by the rising sea levels brought about by global warming, are seeking to take the issue of climate change before the International Court of Justice. Johnson Toribiong, president of Palau, said Friday his country and other island nations had formed an expert advisory committee to bring the issue before the U.N. General Assembly. That would allow the world court in the Hague to determine the legal ramifications of climate change under international...

Mongabay: Confiscated timber stocks in Madagascar must be managed in a "transparent manner" to deter future illegal logging and boosting demand for endangered rainforest timber, says a letter published by a coalition of NGOs. The letter, released today, is addressed to authorities in Madagascar as well as the World Bank, which is providing funds for environmental law enforcement, including a ban on ebony, rosewood, and palissander exports. Traders are currently sitting on large stockpiles of contraband...

Reuters: Republican lawmakers hope to move one step closer next week to linking a measure approving the controversial Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline to a highway funding bill. The House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee will vote on Tuesday on a bill that would transfer permitting authority over TransCanada's planned pipeline to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and direct the commission to approve the project within 30 days. "It's time for Congress to take this decision...

Mongabay: Five villagers were shot in Indonesia's Riau Province on the island of Sumatra during a clash in a land dispute over an oil palm plantation, reports The Jakarta Post and Republika. The violence occurred when heavy machinery owned by PT Mazuma Agro Indonesia (MAI), a palm oil developer, moved into an area of land local residents claims as their own. As many as 200 villagers attempted to block MAI workers, who were accompanied by private security personnel and the Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob),...

Reuters: The U.S. government will require natural gas drillers to disclose which chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing on public lands, according to draft rules crafted by the Interior Department. President Barack Obama pledged in the State of the Union address last week that the government would develop a road map for responsible natural gas production and roll out new rules to ensure drillers protect the environment. Companies would be required to disclose the "complete chemical makeup of all...

Reuters: Selenium contamination from a phosphate mine in southeastern Idaho is linked to fish deformities such as two-headed trout, and the problem would worsen if discharge limits were eased, a new government report found. The findings come as Smoky Canyon Mine, run by the J.R. Simplot Company near the Wyoming border, is asking the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality to relax restrictions on the amount of selenium that the mine may drain into tributaries of the Snake River, a world-class trout stream....

Reuters: Democrats unveiled legislation on Friday that would block export of any oil transported by the Keystone XL pipeline, as they challenged claims that the delayed project would boost U.S. energy security. TransCanada's $7 billion Keystone pipeline has become a political lightning rod this election year, with Republicans arguing that the pipeline will provide a critical link to Canada's vast oil sands crude and lessen U.S. dependence on oil from more hostile regimes. But critics of the project...

Reuters: Canada will set up a new environmental monitoring system for the northern Alberta oil sands as it seeks to fend off harsh international criticism following revelations that oversight of the huge petroleum development has been insufficient. The federal and the Alberta provincial governments said on Friday the new plan that will boost water sampling and increase information available to the public. They said they will take three years to implement a joint program that will continuously study...

National Public Radio: For snow fans in the contiguous US, this winter has left much to be desired. The warm and mild season in the lower 48 and the wild snow dumps and cold weather up north in Alaska can be blamed largely on a weather pattern called "arctic oscillation." Audie Cornish gets an explanation of the weather phenomenon from meteorologist Jeffrey Masters.

National Public Radio: A new map from the USDA has some northern gardeners hoping to grow plants that used to be considered too fragile for cold weather zones. The hardiness zone chart is about a half zone warmer than the last one issued in 1990. The USDA says the changes are not due to global warming, but to more sophisticated mapping methods. Seed sellers and buyers say that, whatever the reason, the warmer temperatures expand possibilities for planting this spring.

Time: Mainstream environmental groups have struggled to find the right line on shale natural gas and the hydraulic fracturing or fracking process. Gas has a much smaller carbon footprint than coal--according to most scientists--and produces far fewer air pollutants. That was enough for many major green groups to give support to gas as a "bridge fuel" to a cleaner energy future--the next best domestic alternative to coal as an electricity source while alternatives like wind and solar scaled up. But for...

Guardian: Opening the door to the animal house, passing a rhino on the way and patting the giraffe inside, Sarah Forsyth points out small white boxes that dot the walls. "Everywhere you look there's a detector or a motion sensor," she says, chuckling in front of one that presented the security firm with a peculiarly zoo-specific problem. "These are the ones the giraffe were licking." She can laugh about it now, but two months ago, when Colchester zoo decided to put in place the £300,000 alarm system, Forsyth's...

New York Times: Sand dunes rise above a windy, desolate stretch of beach, miles beyond where most tourists venture. Occasional flocks of brown pelicans are visible, arcing through the sky above the water. “I love watching them fly,” said Sonny Perez, manager of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, which includes some of the remote northern reaches of South Padre. “They’re like little bombardiers going across.” In the coming years, the 97,000-acre refuge could add more land on the island to its holdings....

Yale Environment 360: The Sierra Club, the largest and oldest environmental group in the U.S., accepted more than $25 million from the natural gas industry from 2007 to 2010 while promoting the fuel as a “bridge” to a clean-energy future, according to a Time magazine report. The organization used the funds -- which largely came from Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon -- to support its Beyond Coal campaign. Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club when the donations were made, was a vocal supporter of natural...

New York Times: As many readers know, considerable fear surrounds the future of the world`s coral reefs. Catastrophic declines have already occurred in some places, usually as a result of climate change combined with human activity like the dumping of sewage. Australian Institute of Marine ScienceTimothy Cooper, a researcher, examining a Porites coral in the Rowley Shoals in western Australia. Now, however, comes a bit of good news. In research conducted off western Australia, scientists found that coral growth...

Associated Press: Federal safety officials will vote Feb. 9 on whether to approve what could become the nation's first nuclear plant in a generation. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a hearing on the Atlanta-based Southern Co.'s request to build two new reactors at Plant Vogtle in eastern Georgia. If the commissioners approve the project, NRC staff would next issue the power company a license to construct and operate the facility. Southern Co. officials estimate the project will cost roughly...

Reuters: Farm analysts living in Argentina's capital city went to sleep on Thursday soothed by the welcome sound of rainstorms, but the showers failed to relieve many of the country's drought-hit soy fields. While the streets and wide avenues of Buenos Aires were deluged late Thursday, causing traffic jams and a breakdown in train service, some key soy producing areas remained dry after months of below-average precipitation. Argentina supplies nearly half the world's soymeal, used for animal feed, and...