To the list of air pollution's health effects, add another one: loss of sense of smell.

Mexico City residents can't detect subtle smells as well as residents of neighboring Tlaxcala, researchers at Mexico's National University (UNAM) have reported, though the regions are quite similar in both culture and climate. The primary difference: Mexico City has much higher levels of air pollution.

The global campaign to eradicate malaria in the 1950s and '60s successfully vanquished the disease from the United States and Europe and substantially reduced it in others – in India and Sri Lanka, for instance, malaria cases decreased by 99 percent. Malaria transmission was nearly wiped out in the subtropics, and it was significantly reined in in parts of the Soviet Union, Latin America, and Asia.

About the insecticide that served as a cornerstone of the campaign, the National Academy of Sciences wrote in 1970: "To only a few chemicals does man owe as great a debt." But the same insecticide has become one of today's most infamous chemicals. It is DDT.

Ecological resources have factored into many national conflicts--either through competition for scarce resources or greed to exploit plentiful ones. But some scholars see another role for the environment: fostering peace. Resources managed jointly can quell regional hostilities, or better, keep lines of communication open so that a conflict never starts, these scholars say, and it seems the idea is gaining traction.

One of the last untapped fisheries for human consumption may not remain that way much longer. Krill, shrimp-like crustaceans that grow about two inches long, are some of the most abundant marine life. They're regularly eaten by whales, seals, penguins, and sea birds, but so far not extensively fished for human consumption. However, fishery regulators say, that could change quickly, with high food prices and depleted fish stocks driving a new industry in krill oils.

But krill might yet be saved from the fate of its marine neighbors. Regulators are proactively aiming to prevent overfishing of krill, to stem off destroying a species fundamental to ocean food chains worldwide.

Environmental ministers from around the world are wrapping up two weeks of meetings in Bonn, Germany, as part of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Today, delegates made some of the best progress of the meeting, establishing plans to create an independent scientific panel to do what the IPCC did for climate change--bring it scientific credibility and urgency. However, some of the conference's biggest challenges remain unresolved, including financial commitments to follow through on this plan.

Countries are constantly being compared to one another in environmental measures--carbon emissions, energy intensity, environmental footprints. These international comparisons have generally focused on the activities of governments or businesses, making them a useful measure for policymakers but less helpful for average citizens. However, last week the National Geographic Society and polling firm GlobeScan released results from the first-ever international survey of the "greenness" of consumer behavior. (And if you want to test your own consumer greenness, you can take a shortened version of the survey here.)

Cuba's agricultural system was turned on its head by the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was one of the most dramatic agricultural collapses of recent history--suddenly Cuba's heavily-subsidized exports to Russia and East Germany disappeared, the large state farming operations had no fuel or spare parts to keep their thousands of tractors running, and the heavy chemical inputs Cuba had become accustomed to were no longer available. Almost overnight, Cuba's agriculture radically transformed.

Of the World Health Organization's data on alcohol use, at the other end of the spectrum from Uganda is India. The country has been among the bottom 15 percent of nations in terms of per capita alcohol consumption for most of the past 40 years. As of 2003, the average Indian citizen consumed 0.3 liters of alcohol, roughly the amount in a drinking glass.

The World Health Organization records alcohol consumption around the globe, and the leading consumers on a per capita basis are almost exclusively European. This makes Uganda, the global leader in consumption, a surprising outlier.

As of 2003, Uganda was the world's highest per-capita consumer of alcohol. At 17.6 liters per person per year, the average Ugandan consumes twice as much alcohol as the average American, and more than twice the amount of a resident of any of Uganda's neighboring countries. And this number probably doesn't tell the whole story, since Uganda also has one of the highest estimated levels of unrecorded consumption--that is, smuggled, imported, or home-brewed alcohol--in the world.

Of the countries with highest child mortality, only one-quarter are on track to meet the millennium development goals for reducing child mortality says a recent analysis. The authors examined 68 countries that together have 97 percent of maternal and child deaths worldwide. They concluded that the majority of these most critical sites haven't made significant progress toward the U.N.'s goal of reducing under-5 child mortality by two-thirds by 2015. Some countries have even seen reversals of progress. However, two countries which have successfully lowered child deaths -- India and Tanzania -- took two very different approaches to beat the odds.