Outlook: In the absence of a collapse in commodity prices, the US and the UK are struggling

David Davis condemns flagship green policies as senior Tory MPs question climate change consensus

Air pollution may trigger appendicitis, research suggests.

Chancellor to bring in legislation within weeks designed to curb culture of risk that precipitated global financial meltdown

Those who warmed up the planet must pay to cool it down

Britain has the greatest number of small breweries of any major industrialised nation, with 71 starting up in the last year alone, according to the Good Beer Guide.

Japan's Prime Minister-elect says his government will follow through on a campaign pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent by 2020. It is a more aggressive goal than the previous administration's, which would have cut emissions by only 8 per cent from 1990 levels.

The world economy has avoided "utter catastrophe" and industrialised countries could register growth this year, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said on Monday.

At last we're beginning to grasp the true dimensions of the apocalyptic crisis we have generated and now have to confront ("Water scarcity now bigger threat than financial crisis", 15 March). I work in Nicaragua alongside people who've been working for years to combat the devastating effects of our "developed" countries' practices. To sustain the unsustainable, this small should-be paradise has been systematically stripped of its phenomenal natural wealth and human potential. Among its remaining treasures is one of the world's largest deposits of fresh water. Given the vicious history of the US and European imperial powers towards Latin America, Nicaraguans are increasingly nervous that the industrialised nations will invade for water just as surely as they did for oil. Wars over water will make wars over oil look like children's games.

We get the message. The planet's doomed unless we get our act together PDQ. We even know some of the measures needed to give ourselves a chance. But which less orthodox proposals could stave off disastrous climate change? Environment editor Geoffrey Lean has a cunning plan

Brown resists pressure from close allies to sound more contrite note

Gordon Brown has rejected calls from close allies to apologise for playing any part in triggering Britain's slide into recession when he addresses the two Houses of Congress today.

Hundreds of thousands of French workers staged a nationwide strike today to try to force President Nicolas Sarkozy and business leaders to do more to protect jobs and wages during the economic crisis.

These principles must be put at the heart of any deal on global warming