Its official - the world is getting warmer. The independent Berkeley Earth Project has concluded average global land temperature has risen by around 1˚C since the mid 1950s after assessing around a billion temperature records, some dating back to the 1800s.

A lawyer campaigning for the mass destruction of ecosystems to be officially recognised as an international crime has revealed that her campaign could be successfully completed within 18 months.

Polly Higgins is urging the UN to accept "ecocide" as a crime against peace, alongside genocide and crimes against humanity. The move could make it possible for those individuals and businesses found guilty of environmental harm to be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon has again warned that time is running out to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change, calling on world leaders to redouble efforts to reach a global emissions cutting deal at the forthcoming Durban climate summit.

Ban concluded his tour of the south Pacific with a speech at Sydney University today in which he said that the November talks must overcome the political deadlock over the future of the Kyoto Protocol which marred the previous climate summits at Copenhagen in 2009 and Cancun last year.

Osama bin Laden criticized relief efforts in Pakistan and called for action against climate change in what appeared to be a new audio tape from the al Qaeda leader issued on Friday in an Islamist forum.

The message marks the second time in a year that Bin Laden has departed from his usual calls for armed attacks on the West to make a global theme such a natural disasters or economic crisis the centerpiece of a message.