Most of the concern in local quarters in relation to coal seam gas mining is usually to do with either the release of the methane gas accidentally into the atmosphere, or the contamination of the water used in fracking, which can potentially then be released into the water table. Well, it turns out we might be able to add one more problem to the list - fracking can aggravate geological faults, causing earthquakes.

We all remember Blinky, right? The lovable and very-slightly-mutated fishy from The Simpsons? Well, it turns out he actually exists, having been found by Argentinian fishermen in a Cordoba lake. Points to Groening and co for what is now surely to be acknowledged as incredibly insightful prophetic comedy.

At a time when we're about to pass carbon tax legislation as law, scientists have just completed one of the first large scale studies of the carbon emission supply chain, tracking amounts of energy sources traded and consumed across 112 countries.

Many green buildings involve technologies like solar power, recycling of water or natural ventilation. But there's another path of relatively unexplored green potential - literally greening buildings by planting trees on them. The Bosco Verticale, under construction in Milan, Italy, is bridging the gap between this concept and reality.

When most people think of simulating a volcano, they think of baking soda, vinegar, and third grade science fair projects. A team of British researchers are thinking more along the lines of a giant balloon the size of a soccer stadium and a 12-mile garden hose that can pipe chemicals into the stratosphere to slow global warming. And they're planning to test their hypothesis soon, sending a scaled down version of their sky-hose-balloon-thing skyward in the next few months.

Not content with just stirring the pot in particle physics, CERN has embarked on an experiment aimed at addressing whether or not comic rays from deep space might be seeding clouds in Earth's atmosphere, influencing climate change. The early findings are far from deciding the issue of whether climate change is man made or otherwise, but they have borne some interesting results. It turns out that cosmic rays could be influencing temperatures on Earth. Perhaps even more groundbreaking, it turns out they also might not. Welcome to climate science.