WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Climate policymakers and scientists need to look beyond global warming emissions of carbon dioxide and take the loss of stratospheric ozone into account, researchers said on Thursday.

The stratospheric ozone layer, which shields Earth from solar ultra-violet radiation, has thinned over the South Pole over the last half-century.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned whether a global warming lawsuit against five big power companies can proceed, with several justices saying the Environmental Protection Agency, not federal judges, should deal with the issue.

The high court justices sounded a skeptical note during arguments when they asked whether complicated environmental issues, such as how much greenhouse gas pollution is allowable and how it should be curbed, should be left to federal judges.

WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) – The Supreme Court on
Tuesday questioned whether a global warming lawsuit against
five big power companies can proceed, with several justices
saying the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, not federal
judges, should deal with the issue.

The high court justices sounded a skeptical note during
arguments when they asked whether complicated environmental
issues, such as how much greenhouse gas pollution is allowable
and how it should be curbed, should be left to federal judges.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sugarcane grown to power Brazil’s cars and trucks as an alternative to climate-warming fossil fuels has a beneficial side effect: it also cools the local air temperature, scientists reported Sunday.

Researchers warned that this does not mean replacing Amazon forest or other natural vegetation with sugarcane fields. The benefit comes when sugarcane is introduced into existing agriculture, replacing pasture land or crops like soybeans.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. law from the pick-and-shovel days of the Western frontier now threatens natural treasures including Grand Canyon National Park as mining claims on public lands proliferate, an environmental group said on Friday.

The 1872 Mining Law, signed by President Ulysses S. Grant, allows mining companies — including foreign-owned ones — to take about $1 billion a year in gold and other metals from public lands without paying a royalty, according to a report by the nonprofit Pew Environment Group.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. law from the pick-and-shovel days of the Western frontier now threatens natural treasures including Grand Canyon National Park as mining claims on public lands proliferate, an environmental group said on Friday.

The 1872 Mining Law, signed by President Ulysses S. Grant, allows mining companies — including foreign-owned ones — to take about $1 billion a year in gold and other metals from public lands without paying a royalty, according to a report by the nonprofit Pew Environment Group.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Those who approve “enhanced interrogation techniques” probably have a flawed idea of whether this constitutes torture, because few have felt the pain these methods can cause, researchers reported Monday.

A new study that gave its subjects a mild taste of such interrogation methods as solitary confinement, sleep deprivation and extreme cold found most respondents characterized what they felt as torture.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two of the most well-known penguin species in Antarctica — chinstraps and Adelies — are under pressure because a warmer climate has cut deeply into their main food source, shrimp-like creatures called krill.

Fewer of the juvenile penguins survive what scientists call their “transition to independence” because there isn’t enough krill to go around, according to a study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academic of Sciences.