A century ago today, residents of San Francisco were roused from their sleep by a disturbing natural alarm clock.

More than 93,000 people could die as a result of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident – a figure dramatically higher than previous international estimates, according to a report released Tuesday.

Archaeologists have begun digging for what they think might be a pyramid hidden beneath a hill in Bosnia.

While fluoride compounds occur naturally in some water supplies, the past 50 years have seen a dramatic - and troubling - increase in the volume of man-made industrial fluoride compounds expelled into our water and air.

A handful of the world’s largest food companies and commodity traders, including McDonald’s in the UK, are driving illegal and rapid destruction of the Amazon rainforest, according to a six-year investigation of the Brazilian soya bean industry.

Scientists doing climate research for the federal government say the Bush administration has made it hard for them to speak forthrightly to the public about global warming.

A medical expert has claimed that the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 may have caused more than 1,000 infant deaths in Britain.

DOZENS of the world’s cities, including London and New York, could be flooded by the end of the century, according to research which suggests that global warming will increase sea levels more rapidly than was previously thought.

One of the most fascinating natural phenomena on Earth is the flipping of its magnetic field, which has occurred hundreds of times in the last 160 million years.

With winds of up to 300 kilometres an hour, cyclone Larry smashed into the coastal community of Innisfail, about 100 kilometres south of Cairns, a popular jumping-off point for the Great Barrier Reef, sending hundreds of tourists and residents fleeing for higher ground.

Despite the Prime Minister’s well-known support for the nuclear industry, the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) concluded that a new nuclear programme was not the answer to the twin challenges of climate change and security of supply. In a hard-hitting report, the 15-strong Commission identified five “major disadvantages” to nuclear power.

“We predict the next solar cycle will be 30 to 50 percent stronger than the last cycle,” said Mausumi Dikpati, a solar scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, yesterday in a telephone briefing with reporters.

Timothy Belden, who ran Enron’s Western power trading desk in 2000 and 2001, had earlier testified that California’s “dysfunctional” market in the aftermath of electricity deregulation left it ripe for high prices. Enron pocketed almost $1 billion over nine months in late 2000 and the first half of 2001.

Katrina Whitewash: A Shameful Cover-Up. I’ve had some time to digest it, but bear in mind that it is about 380 pages long, not including the appendices.

A satellite study of the Greenland ice cap shows that it is melting far faster than scientists had feared - twice as much ice is going into the sea as it was five years ago. The implications for rising sea levels - and climate change - could be dramatic.