Climate Change

"One year ago Tuesday, Hurricane Sandy bore down on the East Coast, devastating shoreline communities from Florida to Maine."

"The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season looks set to go down as a big washout, marking the first time in 45 years that the strongest storm to form was just a minor Category 1 hurricane."

"Thousands of Australians were urged to evacuate their homes on Wednesday as dry winds threatened to fan a firestorm in mountainous bushland around Sydney, where firefighters battled to control blazes which have been raging for a week."

"US carbon emissions fell in 2012 – again – after peaking in 2007. The Great Recession and a boom in cleaner natural gas are widely credited as driving the reduction, but broader, longer-term shifts are also changing the way Americans use energy."

"The US economy is expanding. Population is growing. But carbon emissions continue to decline.

"The Amazon rain forest's dry season lasts three weeks longer than it did 30 years ago, and the likely culprit is global warming, a new study finds."

"As Hurricane Sandy barreled ashore a year ago, the storm forced the shutdown of several Northeast coastal nuclear power reactors, including the Oyster Creek plant on the Jersey Shore, which took the brunt of Sandy's huge storm surge. Another reactor at Indian Point Energy Center north of New York City shutdown because of power grid disruptions, and a third reactor in southern New Jersey shutdown when Sandy knocked out four of its circulating water pumps."

"Many residents of the city's waterfront neighborhoods are struggling with a federal mandate that they elevate their homes or face increases in coastal flood-insurance premiums that eventually could exceed 500%, city officials and advocates say."

"The United States called on Tuesday for a more flexible approach to a new United Nations' climate deal which balances the needs of all countries and has a better chance of success."

"Carbon dioxide emissions from energy production in the United States fell to 5.29 billion metric tons in 2012 -- its lowest level since 1994 -- despite a growing economy and rising population, according to government data released on Monday."