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By Marice Richter FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) - It's official: 2011 was the driest year on record in Texas, according to the National Weather Service.

Poaching of elephants and the illegal trade in their tusks and related ivory products were out of control in 2011, with more than 2,500 animals confirmed killed and thousands of kilograms of tusks seized by customs officials around the world. This was the worst year on record since the international ivory trade ban was established in 1989, according to TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network.

Plants need water to live, but exactly how much? Scientists have built a simulator to figure out how to far we can push crops before they die of thirst, in preparation for a hotter climate. It's a research project that seems particularly fitting for this year, when Texas has suffered (and continues to suffer) through the worst drought year on record.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Arctic ice cover receded to near record lows this summer, opening elusive northern trade routes from Asia to the West, Russia's climate research agency said on Wednesday. After the third hottest year on record since 1936 in the Arctic last year, ice cover has melted as much as 56 percent more than average across northern shipping routes, making navigation in the perilous waters "very easy," it said. [More]