Giant, mucus-like sea blobs on the rise, pose danger. As sea temperatures have risen in recent decades, enormous sheets of mucus-like material have begun forming more often, in new regions, and lasting longer, a new Mediterranean Sea study says. The mucilages harbor pathogens that threaten human swimmers as well as fish and other sea creatures. [News Source]

Debate follows bills to remove clotheslines bans. Proponents of hanging laundry argue they should not be forbidden from saving on energy bills. Clothes dryers use at least 6 percent of all household electricity consumption. Opponents say the laws lifting bans erode local property rights. [News Source]

World Bank warns of water shortage. In the Middle East and North Africa, the world’s driest region, “per capita water availability is predicted to halve by 2050 even without the effects of climate change”, said a new World Bank study. Climate change would make the problem worse by causing heat waves and droughts, it said. [News Source]

Scientists back law to limit farm runoff to Great Barrier Reef. Scientists have backed the Queensland government's crackdown on farm runoffs to the Great Barrier Reef, describing new laws to limit the chemicals on sugar crops and pastures as "the right answer". [News Source]

Giant, mucus-like sea blobs on the rise, pose danger. As sea temperatures have risen in recent decades, enormous sheets of mucus-like material have begun forming more often, in new regions, and lasting longer, a new Mediterranean Sea study says. The mucilages harbor pathogens that threaten human swimmers as well as fish and other sea creatures. [News Source]

Debate follows bills to remove clotheslines bans. Proponents of hanging laundry argue they should not be forbidden from saving on energy bills. Clothes dryers use at least 6 percent of all household electricity consumption. Opponents say the laws lifting bans erode local property rights. [News Source]

World Bank warns of water shortage. In the Middle East and North Africa, the world’s driest region, “per capita water availability is predicted to halve by 2050 even without the effects of climate change”, said a new World Bank study. Climate change would make the problem worse by causing heat waves and droughts, it said. [News Source]

Recession ‘threatens UK effort to tackle global warming’. The recession is threatening the vast investment needed in green housing, power and transport and could seriously undermine Britain's efforts to meet its targets for tackling global warming, the government's climate change advisers warn today. [News Source]

Court ruling could restrain EU cap-and-trade system. While the EU might eventually be able to get around restraints on how far it can dictate member states' emissions, in the meantime the EU's chief tool to back up its pledges of cuts has been blunted. [News Source]

On top of the world. Government estimates suggest that it may take 30 years until the Arctic is ice-free during the summer. Crunching the numbers, University of Alaska's Rick Steiner foresees a completely ice-free summer within the next decade. By then, the crisis will have turned into a catastrophe. [News Source]

Elements of carbon capture established, but cost and scale remain a challenge. The individual pieces of a carbon capture and storage puzzle have been around for a while, but there's a long way to go before those fragments can be assembled at a big enough scale and cheap enough to put a worthwhile dent in greenhouse gas emissions. [News Source]