Popular with conservationists, Parisians and France's first lady, brown bears have been reintroduced to the Pyrenees and infuriated sheep farmers - and their claws are out.

Softly spoken and charming, François Arcangeli is an unlikely recipient of death threats. Nor does Arbas - the tranquil and somewhat forlorn village tucked away in the foothills of the French Pyrenees 50 miles east of Lourdes where Arcangeli has been the mayor for 13 years - seem a likely location for violent demonstrations.

The cause of this unrest are brown bears.

GREENFIELD, Mass. -- U.S. sales of organic products, both food and non-food, reached $24.6 billion by the end of 2008, growing an impressive 17.1 percent over 2007 sales despite tough economic times, according to the Organic Trade Association (OTA), which today made available final results from its 2009 Organic Industry Survey.

While the overall economy has been losing ground, sales of organic products reflect very strong growth during 2008. "Organic products represent value to consumers, who have shown continued resilience in seeking out these products," said Christine Bushway, OTA's Executive Director.

Increased competition and the global economic crisis have cast clouds upon the Western European solar energy market. Falling polysilicon and solar module prices have the potential to cement China's role as a solar manufacturing hub.

In terms of installed capacity, the United States is playing a greater role as more and more states are putting the renewable energy standards into existence.

Despite these market developments and the current economic crisis, the future of Europe's solar energy market continues to appear bright as new emerging markets within Europe may turn into strong performers.

Europe and Japan were the original trailblazers of the solar energy industry; thus they have historically held the strongest positions.

Climate change will present the greatest threat to health this century, amplifying the risk of disease, malnutrition and homelessness through floods, drought and rising sea levels, a medical panel said on Thursday.

"Even the most conservative estimates are profoundly disturbing and demand action," said the report, compiled over a year by The Lancet medical journal and experts from the Institute for Global Health at University College London.

"Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century."

The commission drew much of its data from the landmark Fourth Assessment Report, issued in 2007 by the UN's Nobel-winning climate experts, the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Changing weather patterns could widen the habitat of disease-bearing mosquitoes, bringing malaria and dengue to previously cold regions, while flooding in poor countries will be a boon for cholera and other water-borne diseases.

Indirect effects on health include malnutrition as a result of poor harvests; injury and death from storms; and vulnerability from migration, as populations flee swamped delta cities or civil unrest.

Ministers and officials from more than 70 countries on Thursday called for oceans to be discussed at the next global climate change talks which aim to draw up a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The call comes from the World Ocean conference, meeting in Manado, Indonesia.

The Manado Ocean Declaration calls for cuts to ocean pollution, funding for sustainable development in poor countries, more research into how climate change affects the seas and the role oceans play in fighting climate change.

But it is non-binding and contains no specific commitments for funding or emissions targets, leading some scientists to claim that it is too weak to combat sea rises and the likely destruction of key species.

... The world would have to build about 200 nuclear power plants just to power all the TVs, iPods, PCs and other home electronics expected to be plugged in by 2030, when the global electric bill to power them will rise to $200 billion a year, the IEA [International Energy Agency] said.

Consumer electronics is "the fastest-growing area and it's the area with the least amount of policies in place" to control energy efficiency, said Paul Waide, a senior policy analyst at the IEA. <...>

Most of the increase in consumer electronics will be in developing countries, where economic growth is fastest and ownership rates of gadgets is the lowest, Waide said. ...

Cold Water Ocean Circulation Doesn't Work As Expected

ScienceDaily (May 14, 2009) -- The familiar model of Atlantic ocean currents that shows a discrete "conveyor belt" of deep, cold water flowing southward from the Labrador Sea is probably all wet.

New research led by Duke University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution relied on an armada of sophisticated floats to show that much of this water, originating in the sea between Newfoundland and Greenland, is diverted generally eastward by the time it flows as far south as Massachusetts. From there it disburses to the depths in complex ways that are difficult to follow.

A 50-year-old model of ocean currents had shown this southbound subsurface flow of cold water forming a continuous loop with the familiar northbound flow of warm water on the surface, called the Gulf Stream.

"Everybody always thought this deep flow operated like a conveyor belt, but what we are saying is that concept doesn't hold anymore," said Duke oceanographer Susan Lozier. "So it's going to be more difficult to measure these climate change signals in the deep ocean."

Wouldn't this seem to undermine the hypothesis that global warming could cause a little ice age in Northern Europe?

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

did you know that:

australians are the most likely to use cold water for laundry to save energy?

most surveyed russians feel extra spending to go green is 'not worth it'?

 52% of french never fly in airplanes?

mexicans are the most likely to use a compact car?

for these and other fun-filled factoids, check out this cute mouse rollover map.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty