WEF warns of increased risk: The World Economic Forum (WEF) has upped its assessment of the risk posed by climate change, estimating that it could cause up to $250 billion of economic losses over the next ten years. WEF’s assessment of the risk of water shortages, tropical storms and inland flooding was also increased, along with a rash of other potential disasters such as a global pandemic, international terrorism and civil war. Environmental Finance

Warm winter worries Canada: Eastern Canada’s unusually warm winter is worrying tribal people in its remote northern regions, a native leader says. Matthew Mukash, grand chief of the Grand Council of the Cree, said Hudson Bay, whose shallow waters are usually ice-covered at this time of the year, had yet to freeze over near his home town of Whapmagoostui in northern Quebec. SMH

Being green should be for everybody: Going green and installing energy efficient renewable technologies – like solar panels – should no longer be the preserve of the middle class, or for politicians to point score, the UK’s largest housing and regeneration group said today. Easier Property

Study casts doubt on nuclear storage safety: Materials that scientists had hoped would contain nuclear waste for thousands of years may not be as safe and durable as previously thought, researchers said on Wednesday. ABC News

Mutiny for the bounty: Humans can’t live under water, so we tend to overlook the fact that most life on this planet exists not on land but in the oceans … Climate change was the big environmental story of 2006, but the alarming state of the oceans was not far behind. Topping the list was a study published in Science that projected that edible sea life will completely disappear by 2048 if current trends of overfishing and pollution continue. The Nation

Exxon Mobil softens its climate-change stance: In one of the strongest signs yet that U.S. industry anticipates government curbs on global-warming emissions, Exxon Mobil Corp., long a leading opponent of such rules, is starting to talk about how it would like them to be structured. post-gazette