He often speaks to an empty chamber, unheard and unheeded by his colleagues. 

But Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is America's climate soothsayer, repeatedly imploring global warming skeptics to "wake up" and stop courting environmental catastrophe.

The heat is stifling, the soil dry as a bone, and a new law in drought-stricken California restricts sprinklers.

But far from saying farewell to their beloved lawn, some Californians are coping with the drought by... painting it green.

Audi has begun production of a synthetic diesel fuel made from water, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen. Unlike fossil fuels, which release additional carbon into the atmosphere, Audi’s “e-diesel,” which is being produced at a plant in Dresden in conjunction with the German alternative energy company Sunfire, has a net-zero carbon footprint because it is made with carbon dioxide taken from the air.

It’s not the first carbon-neutral fuel, but it’s being hailed by the German government, which provided support for the plant, as an important milestone in the movement for cleaner energy.

Off the coast of Western Australia, three big buoys floating beneath the ocean’s surface look like giant jellyfish tethered to the seafloor. The steel machines, 36 feet wide, are buffeted by the powerful waves of the Indian Ocean. By harnessing the constant motion of the waves, the buoys generate about 5 percent of the electricity used at a nearby military base on Garden Island.

The buoys are a pilot project of Carnegie Wave Energy, a company based in Perth and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. In late February, the buoys started supplying 240 kilowatts each to the electricity grid at HMAS Stirling, Australia’s largest naval base. They also help run a desalination plant that transforms seawater into about one-third of the base’s fresh water supply.

After improving energy efficiency, piloting emissions trading and ramping up renewable energy expansion, China has also been moving on another frontier needed to help ease global warming.

According to a study published recently in the journal Nature Climate Change, the total amount of carbon stored in all living biomass above the soil has increased globally by almost 4 billion tons since 2003, with China contributing in a notable way to the increase.

It has been well established in numerous studies that the Lebanese passenger transport sector is unsustainable.

This study provides an approach from the cost side of mobility to generate recommendations in order to move the Lebanese passenger transport sector towards sustainable ground. It provides a particular methodology to calculate mobility cost in Lebanon, where data and information are scarce.

Sea-level rise is accelerating, not declining as some have hoped, scientists said on Monday citing meltwater from Earth's ice sheets as the likely cause.

In 2013, the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the global mean sea level rose by 19 centimeters (7.6 inches) from 1901-2010, an average 1.7 mm (0.06 of an inch) per year. 

U.S. President Barack Obama's administration on Monday approved petroleum giant Shell's request to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic under certain conditions, despite opposition from environmental groups.

The decision by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management granted Shell the right to explore the Chukchi Sea as long as the Anglo-Dutch firm gets the correct permits from the agencies that regulate the environment and marine mammal health.

Safely reaching the UN's climate target requires governments to have a long-term vision that includes carbon pricing, the World Bank said Monday.

A price on carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal greenhouse gas, "is an efficient way to raise revenue while encouraging lower emissions," the Bank said.

Three sets of scientists in the same week have helped narrow the uncertainties about how the natural world will respond to extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

Carbon locked in the frozen earth will escape gradually as the Arctic permafrost melts – but the scientists say the process could accelerate.