Resting in the Karakoram Range between northern Pakistan and western China, the Karakoram glaciers are stumping scientists. Unlike most mountain glaciers, the Karakoram glaciers, which account for 3 percent of the total ice-covered area in the world, excluding Greenland and Antarctica, are not shrinking. On the contrary, a team of French glaciologists has recently confirmed that these glaciers on average have remained stable or may have even grown slightly in recent years.

China sent the high-tech industry and markets reeling last fall when it blocked exports of raw rare earth minerals to Japan, Europe and the U.S. The sudden severing of rare earths supply was a frightening prospect as the minerals are key ingredients in a broad range of high-tech products, from smartphones to wind turbines and hybrid cars. Although the bans have since been lifted, governments around the world saw the ban as a kind of wake-up call and started looking at ways to develop their own mineral resources - for rare earths as well as basic industry metals like copper and zinc.

America has made great strides in recent years to reduce carbon emissions by increasing efficiency and turning to other, low or non-carbon energy sources. Meanwhile, carbon emissions in China have grown dramatically during that same time. EARTH looks at this disparity and asks the difficult questions about who is to blame when the coal China is burning is imported from "cleaner" countries and the emissions are produced to manufacture goods exported back to places with lower emissions.

The American Geological Institute (AGI) successfully hosted the virtual component of the first Young Earth-Scientist (YES) Congress held in Beijing, China October 25-28 in an effort to expand the opportunity for participation to young scientists from around the world. Over 200 individuals from 31 countries took advantage of this unique opportunity to participate, even without attending in person in Beijing.

The Young Earth Scientists for Society (YES) network, an association of earth scientists under the age of 35 years representing geological societies from around the world, in collaboration with the International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE), is organizing a world congress for young earth scientists, policy makers, advisors and decision makers.