UN climate talks: Save the forests—but how? Deforestation, one of the main drivers of global warming, has barged its way to the heart of UN climate talks, which resumed in Bonn this week. [News Source]

Heat and acidity ganging up on coral. Human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide are starting to harm marine life with a one-two punch of rising temperatures and stronger ocean acidity. Now a study of a reef in the Red Sea confirms the impact of rising acidity and suggests that it could eventually make reefs across the globe dissolve. [News Source]

Call to halt falling Oz food productivity. Australia's food productivity is declining, according to one expert. Agricultural economist Dr John Mullen says, "We've got to feed another 3 billion people in the next 30 or 40 years and at the same time we've got climate change and concern about environmental outcomes." [News Source]

Climate change could harm penguins and polar bears. An increasing number of studies have documented current declines or project future ones for polar bears and for many penguin species. They both depend on ice and cold for survival—a problem in a world that's warming . [News Source]

A census taker for penguins in Argentina. Dee Boersma, a University of Washington conservation biologist, is the Jane Goodall of penguins. She believes that the decline among Magellanic penguins is due to both climate change and food scarcity. [News Source]

Academic urges national dengue database. An academic says a national database needs to be established to monitor dengue fever, especially since global warming can increase the range of the mosquitoes carrying the disease. [News Source]

Thames Barrier to hold until 2070. The Thames Barrier will protect London from flooding until 2070, the Environment Agency has said. [News Source]

Landscape ‘to resemble Portugal’. Parts of Dorset will resemble Portugal by the 2080s with temperatures 4C (39F) higher in the month of July, a Natural England report has claimed. [News Source]

Hurdles remain for nuclear comeback in Europe. The much-touted European "nuclear renaissance," a key element in the European Union's climate-change policy, still needs to overcome formidable obstacles to become a reality -- most notably in Germany. [News Source]

Secrets of the Amazon may help Scotland reduce global warming. Scots scientists are replicating a technique used by Amazonian tribes to create charcoal that boosts crop growth and locks up carbon dioxide. [News Source]

Coal: Dirty past, hazy future (part 3). Coal has a reputation as a sooty, dirty fuel. More recently, environmentalists and the coal industry alike have become just as worried about the carbon dioxide released when coal is burned. [News Source]