Biologists debate the scale of extinction in the world’s tropical forests

A RARE piece of good news from the world of conservation: the global extinction crisis may have been overstated. The world is unlikely to lose 100 species a day, or half of all species in the lifetime of people now alive, as some have claimed. The bad news, though, is that the lucky survivors are tiny tropical insects that few people care about. The species that are being lost rapidly are the large vertebrates that conservationists were worried about in the first place.

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Man is assaulting the oceans. They will smite him if he does not take care

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Not much is known about the sea, it is said; the surface of Mars is better mapped. But 2,000 holes have now been drilled in the bottom, 100,000 photographs have been taken, satellites monitor the five oceans and everywhere floats fitted with instruments rise and fall like perpetual yo-yos. Quite a lot is known, and very little is reassuring.

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The UN climate summit has ended with delegates taking very different views on how much it has achieved.

Western delegates said progress here had been encouraging, but environment groups said rich countries had not shown enough ambition.

Developing nations were angry that more money was not put forward to protect against climate impacts.

The meeting is the halfway point on a two-year process aimed at reaching a deal in Copenhagen by the end of 2009.

After Poznan, eyes are turning to Copenhagen

As envisaged at last year's conference in Bali, that agreement is supposed to have two major elements - an expanded Kyoto Protocol-style deal committing industrialised countries to deeper emission cuts in the mid-term, perhaps by 2020, and a longer-term agreement encompassing all countries.

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A new The Economist's Technology Quarterly is out now with many interesting articles on various modern energy initiatives:

• Monitor : Fresher cookers : Technology and development: The humble cooking stove is being overhauled around the world with the help of “user focused” design

• Monitor : How green is your network? : Environment: Telecoms firms are reducing the power consumption of their networks, for economic and environmental reasons

• Monitor : Green iron : Environment: Treating industrial wastewater with scrap iron can be a cheap and effective way to reduce pollution from factories

• Monitor : And the winners were... : Innovation awards: Our annual prizes recognise successful innovators in eight categories. Here are this year’s winners

• Rational consumer : Small is beautiful : Computing: Netbooks are small computers that are cheaper and lighter than full-scale laptops. They have their merits—but do not ask too much of them

• Space solar power : Let the sun shine in : Energy: Satellites that beam solar power to earth have often appeared in science fiction. Will they ever become reality?

• Case history : Wind of change : Energy: Wind power has established itself as an important source of renewable energy in the past three decades. The basic idea is ancient, but its modern incarnation adds many new high-tech twists

• Clean technology : Masdar plan : Energy: Wind power has established itself as an important source of renewable energy in the past three decades. The basic idea is ancient, but its modern incarnation adds many new high-tech twists

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After three years of improvements, deforestation in the Amazon is increasing again, according to the Brazilian government.

Satellite images indicate that nearly twelve thousand square kilometres of land has been cleared within a year, an area the size of Lebanon.

See the video commented by Vanessa Heaney on BBC website.