The US cannot set higher early emissions reduction targets because it has wasted the last eight years (under Bush), President Obama’s chief scientific advisor Dr John Holdren says. But despite it cannot emulate the tough targets set in Europe, the US still wants to take the lead in fighting climate change. One casualty of that ambition may be NASA’s renewed moon-landing programme.

Canada has joined Russia in effectively reneging on the G8 agreement both nations have just signed, with PM Jim Prentice redefining the word “pledge” as a moveable feast which others may achieve – but Canada won’t.

The mystery of how flowering plants suddenly assumed ecological superiority over ferns in the Cretaceous era may have been solved. New research suggests that whereas ferns enjoy poor soil and do not improve it, flowers enhance the soil with quick-decaying leaf-litter, creating a “positive feedback” loop that quickly (over 50 million years) allowed them to spread into dominance.

Perhaps the G8 meeting will deliver something tangible after all: leaders pledged $20 billion to fund a three-year programme to help poor nations develop their own agriculture. Of course, if they’d stop exploiting and corrupting indigenous agriculture with chemicals and GMOs that might make a difference too, hmmm?

Floating nuclear reactors will soon be reality, with a Russian corporation building a ship-shaped plant with twin 35 MW reactors, which it plans to anchor off the Kamchatka peninsular in 2012 to help power the city of Viluchinsk.

Odd Spot: Tokyo Station is trialing generating electricity from the kinetic energy of the heavy foot traffic of commuters. Special flooring converts the pressure and vibration of footsteps into piezoelectricity which is then used to power the station’s lights.

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