Scientists have found that the animals are hastening the release of greenhouse gases from the permafrost - a vast, frozen store of carbon.

Dr Natali said: "If ground squirrels are adding nitrogen to an area - and that area doesn't have plants because they dug them up - this may result in increased loss of carbon from the system."

Brook and Bradshaw argue that the full gamut of electricity-generation sources—including nuclear power—must be deployed to replace the burning of fossil fuels, if we are to have any chance of mitigating severe climate change.

Although renewable energy sources like wind and solar will likely make increasing contributions to future energy production, these technology options face real-world problems of scalability, cost, material and land use, meaning that it is too risky to rely on them as the only alternatives to fossil fuels. Nuclear power—being by far the most compact and energy-dense of sources—could also make a major, and perhaps leading, contribution.

None of the radio-collared leopards was involved in any serious conflicts with people, despite a few scenarios where things could quickly have turned ugly.

The scientists aren't suggesting that we start building condos for leopards and welcoming them into our cities, but instead stress that active measures need to be taken to better understand how leopards interact with human settlements and to then use that information to prevent potential conflicts before they happen.

A European Union goal to cut greenhouse gases by 40 percent by 2030, agreed early on Friday, sets the pace for a global deal to tackle climate change, pitting heavy industry against green business.

The world's biggest polluters are unlikely to be as ambitious as the EU. China, the biggest emitter, has said it wants to cap its booming emissions, but has not said when.

The EU's decision to ban the use of some pesticides could threaten UK crops, increase food prices and hit farmers' profits, a report has claimed.

It said this could lead to a surge in pests, affecting production of apples, carrots and peas, among other crops.

After yesterday’s news about the unexpected eruption at Ontake, we are finally getting the full, grim picture of the extent of death at the Japanese volcano. Authorities in the area has said that over 30 people have been found on the volcano and mostly of them are likely dead from effects of the eruption.

The hikers on Ontake knew they were hiking on a volcano, but there likely had no real indication that anything was about to happen if this eruption was indeed a large phreatic explosion.

Yesterday a federal US court found BP grossly negligent in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, one of the worst environmental disasters in US history. The ruling leaves the oil company liable for up to $18 billion in fines. But four years on, the drilling industry may not have learned any lessons.

Since the spill, the US Congress has been slow to enact stricter rules for drillers, he says. "We had a moment in time, when this disaster came to the consciousness of the public, that we had a chance of actually getting something done, but it was tamped down so quickly," says Cavnar.

A type of genetically engineered fly which eventually kills itself off could be an effective method of pest control, according to new research.

Helen Wallace from Genewatch, an organisation that monitors the use of genetic technology, is critical of the work. She said that the long-term effects of releasing millions of GM flies would be impossible to predict.

"Fruit grown using Oxitec's GM flies will be contaminated with GM maggots which are genetically programmed to die inside the fruit they are supposed to be protecting."

The controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry Canadian oil through the US, will make climate change worse. It will boost global emissions of carbon dioxide by up to 110 million tonnes per year.

Its supporters argue it will boost the economy, while environmentalists say the toxic oil could be spilled and that it encourages the use of tar sands, which produce more greenhouse gases than normal oil.

"When do we begin to stop?" asks Schnoor. "If not now, when? If one accepts that climate change is a very serious problem, and I do, one concludes that investing in infrastructure that will last 50 years or more is simply not prudent."

Negotiators worked through the night here in Yokohama in an effort to complete their review of a key report on the impacts of climate change.

The report is the second of three analyses developed by international teams of researchers. The first, published last September detailed the mechanics of climate change, explaining that warming was "unequivocal" and humans were behind it.