"Much of the heat of global warming has been absorbed by the sea, with a steep cost to marine life, ecosystems and the people that depend on them."

"In the course of a 17-year experiment on more than 1 million plants, scientists put future global warming to a real world test — growing California flowers and grasslands with extra heat, carbon dioxide and nitrogen to mimic a not-so-distant, hotter future. The results, simulating a post-2050 world, aren't pretty. And they contradict those who insist that because plants like carbon dioxide — the main heat-trapping gas spewed by the burning of fossil fuels — climate change isn't so bad, and will result in a greener Earth."

"The United States lifted protection for most humpback whales around the globe on Tuesday, including some in American waters, based on evidence they have made a strong comeback since commercial whaling drove them to near extinction."

"In the Northwest Pacific, already a hotspot for tropical cyclones, the storms that strike East and Southeast Asia have been intensifying more than those that stay out at sea over the last four decades, a new study finds."

"A leading international group has taken the giant panda off its endangered list thanks to decades of conservation efforts, but China's government discounted the move on Monday, saying it did not view the status of the country's beloved symbol as any less serious."

"The United States has joined China to formally ratify the Paris agreement to curb climate-warming emissions, the world's two biggest economies said on Saturday, which could help put the pact into force before the end of the year."

"Pope Francis has called for urgent action to stop climate change and proposed that caring for the environment be added to traditional Christian works of mercy such as feeding the hungry and visiting the sick."

"President Barack Obama snorkeled on Thursday in the electric-blue water off Midway Atoll, a remote coral reef that serves as a reminder of both modern global climate challenges and the United State's dominance in the Pacific since its World War Two victory there."

"President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to formally commit their nations to last year's Paris climate change agreement in the coming days, a move that would increase pressure on other nations to follow suit and serve as an implicit rebuke to the deal's skeptics inside the U.S."