Australia's Great Barrier Reef could be "severely damaged" if the government does not completely ban the dumping of dredge waste in the World Heritage-listed waters, a report commissioned by conservation group WWF said Monday.

The Australian government in January ordered a ban on dumping dredge spoil in the marine park as part of a push to stop the United Nations declaring the site in danger.

As U.N. climate negotiators gather in Geneva this week, one Japan-inspired Hungarian inventor believes he has found a revolutionary and inexpensive way to construct buildings that could slash humanity's energy needs.

And the magic ingredient for Matyas Gutai's invention is simple: water.

Europe will launch an experimental "space plane" on Wednesday, a car-sized, wingless vessel whose 100-minute unmanned mission will inform the design of reusable spacecraft of the future.

Reentry is a major challenge for the aerospace industry -- as illustrated when Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated in Earth's atmosphere in February 2003, killing all seven crew.

U.N. climate negotiators gathered in Geneva were urged Sunday to show urgency and compromise in crafting a draft by next week for a global pact to be signed in December.

"I ask you to work with efficiency and a sense of compromise," Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Peru's environment minister and president of the negotiations told the opening session of a six-day huddle.

In the 1970s, the environmental movement had no bigger political hero than California Gov. Jerry Brown. He cracked down on polluters, ended tax breaks for oil companies and promoted solar energy.

Forty years later, in his second go-around as governor, conservationists are among his harshest critics.

Warm weather has helped grant a reprieve this year to a homely, eel-like and especially slimy invasive fish pursued by anglers as they compete for big money in two ice-fishing tournaments on the Wyoming-Utah line.

The goal of both annual events is to remove burbot (pronounced BUR'-but) from Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

The French hosts of a UN climate summit later this year insisted Thursday that combatting global warming would not undermine efforts to fight poverty as they lobbied for India's support in cutting emissions.

Speaking in New Delhi, France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he was confident India would play a lead role in efforts to create a low carbon economy, adding to pressure on the right-wing government after similar calls last week from U.S. President Barack Obama.

Residents of a Rio de Janeiro favela face a dangerous challenge in their quest for clean drinking water: a canal infested with hungry caimans, South America's alligator cousins.

With a severe drought that's left much of southeastern Brazil parched and the main water company accused of skimping on favela water supplies to benefit wealthier parts of town, residents are illegally tapping into a pipe near the reptile-filled canal.

Termites, the pesky insects whose fondness for wood makes them the bane of homeowners, help halt desertification in semi-arid areas and protect against the effects of climate change, a study said.

In grasslands, savannahs and arid areas of Africa, Latin America and Asia, termite mounds, which store moisture and nutrients and contain multiple tunnels, allow water to better penetrate the ground, said the authors of the study in the journal Science.

A fourth giant panda has died from canine distemper virus in the same rescue center in northwestern China where three other pandas have died since December, Chinese state media reported.

The official Xinhua News Agency said late Thursday that the 6-year-old panda, named Feng Feng, died after falling into a coma on Jan. 8. Xinhua did not say when the death occurred.