Climate Change

"Todd Stern, the chief American climate change negotiator, ... made clear at an afternoon press briefing that the United States was seeking an agreement that addresses all the major issues that make up the current climate change agenda. He said quite emphatically that he was not interested in some sort of face-saving partial deal that makes progress on some questions but kicks the more difficult problems down the road."

"Climate change is fanning longer- and deeper-burning fires in interior Alaska, changing the area from a carbon sink -- where planet-warming gases are stored naturally in the soil -- to a carbon emitter, scientists reported on Sunday."

"The number of Americans who believe that global warming is a scientific fact has been dropping, and environmental groups and climate scientists who say the evidence for warming is clear are scratching their heads over this reversal and scrambling to find a new strategy."

China is showing none of the hesitancy that marks the U.S. effort to train people for clean-energy jobs. One result is that China is poised to beat the U.S. in the contest for developing a clean-energy economy.

"If the U.S. Supreme Court takes up a high-profile case over whether states can invoke common law to force industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it's likely one of the justices will sit on the sidelines." Her missing vote might determine the outcome of the case.

"This year is set to be among the three warmest since records began in 1850 and caps a record-warm decade that is a new indication of man-made climate change, the United Nations said on Thursday."
 

"The president's deficit commission proposed slashing energy tax breaks yesterday, a move that could make renewable power more competitive and help chisel down greenhouse gas emissions. But the plan is brimming with political pitfalls and vagueness around whether clean power subsidies might also be axed to curb the nation's rising debt."

Senate Republicans, led by James Inhofe (OK), are saying they will block any effort by the United States to honor the financial pledges, negotiated at last year's Copenhagen talks, to help developing countries reduce their greenhouse emissions and adapt to climate change.

"Since summer, signs of severe food insecurity — droughts, food riots, five- to tenfold increases in produce costs — have erupted around the globe. Several new reports now argue that regionally catastrophic crop failures — largely due to heat stress — are signals that global warming may have begun outpacing the ability of farmers to adapt."