The Independent (UK)

Peak oil will happen at least 10 years earlier than most governments are expecting, and an oil crunch will occur in the next 5 years, says Dr Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency.

In the continuing battle between architects and Prince Charles, the Prince has resigned from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings after it rejected the foreword he had written for an upcoming handbook on restoration.

The American Human Development Project has determined that the U.S. demonstrates huge disparities in life expectancy and other well-being indicators, based on geography, race, sex and class.

A groundbreaking deal recognizing the economic value of intact forests will not only preserve a million acres of rainforest in Guyana but establish a precedent for future such arrangements.

Scientists are warning that unless consumers use fewer plastics and oceangoing vessels and oil platforms dispose of their wastes differently, gigantic plastic Garbage Patches swirling in the Pacific gyres will continue to grow.

Walls and checkpoints intended to bolster security in Baghdad have made cross-town journeys almost impossible and turned the city into a collection of ghettos that are reinforcing sectarian divisions.

Australian farmers may soon lose access to irrigation if drought conditions don't improve -- which may prove to be the first climate-change related disaster to hit a developed nation.

As the subprime mortgage crisis worsens, civil rights organizations and Democratic presidential contenders alike are calling for a moratorium on foreclosures, but the mortgage industry is resisting.

Using a network of thousands of CCTV cameras which will be able to read license plates, Britain will be first country to monitor every car journey on all motorways and main roads. Data will be stored for two years.

The impact of China's industrial growth on its own lands, waters and peoples has been recognized; now we are seeing its effects on the rest of the world.