Wildlife researchers are worried an internationally significant wetland near Hobart is being threatened by development.

Peabody Energy Corp., one of the world’s largest coal miners, said the industry will continue to rely on China and other developing nations as the U.S. uses less.

Here’s what the St. Louis company expects for the coal market in 2012:

Scotland's Energy Minister Fergus Ewing has called on the renewable energy industry to build on the successes of 2011.

Weather isn’t the same thing as climate. Just because it’s sunny or chilly on a given day doesn’t tell us all that much about long-term temperature trends. Even so, plenty of research suggests that local weather does heavily influence how people think about climate change. Back in 2009, survey data from Patrick Egan and Megan Mullin found that Americans were more likely to agree that there was “solid evidence” of climate change on hotter-than-average days. And now Justin Wolfers points to a fascinating recent paper with similar findings.

This shark's oddly shaped head is thought to be a mechanism to spread out its highly specialised sense organs, which amongst other things help it to detect electrical currents created by its prey. A useful skill to have when you have an entire ocean to scan for food!

Cleaning up the air, while good for our lungs, could make global warming worse. That conclusion is underscored by a new study, which looks at the pollutants that go up smokestacks along with carbon dioxide.

Given the twin concerns of peak oil and climate change, it's no surprise that natural gas (with its lower carbon intensity than coal) has been hailed by many as the salvation of our modern way of life, at least for now. And with the discovery of enormous deposits under Marcellus Shale in the Eastern US, and other deposits in the Southwest, it's even more appealing, since that is keeping prices relatively low.

It's been more than 40 years since the first Earth Day and the founding of the modern environmental movement -- an awakening to the notion that human beings can, and do, have a profound impact on the planet. If Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail have their way, the nation would be put right back to sleep.