Climate Change

Seeking collaboration on climate change in her visit to India, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was met instead with simmering grievances.

The UN-based International Maritime Organisation (IMO), which regulates ocean shipping, agreed Friday to voluntary proposals aimed at cutting carbon emissions.

The cap-and-trade climate bill which is the focus of West Virginia protests is packed with help for the coal industry.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to India will bring a $10-billion deal to sell U.S. nuclear reactors to that country -- but probably not break the impasse on whether India will join other nations trying to limit greenhouse emissions.

"A new burst of coal-fired power plant construction now underway -- the largest in decades -- will put 43 new coal plants on American soil in the next five years, and all of them will escape the performance standards written into the climate bill now moving through Congress."

"In addition to weakening Earth’s natural shield against excessive radiation levels, ozone depletion above Antarctica has significantly dampened the Southern Ocean’s ability to absorb atmospheric CO2 and has accelerated acidification of southern polar waters, new research shows."

"During the past few centuries the near-equatorial band of dense precipitation that supplies freshwater to nearly one billion people has migrated hundreds of miles to the north —most likely because of a warming world, scientists say."

"A dramatic warming of the planet 55 million years ago cannot be solely explained by a surge in carbon dioxide levels, a study shows, highlighting gaps in scientists' understanding of impacts from rapid climate change." One implication is that the current warming episode could prove worse than now predicted, as models may not fully account for feedback mechanisms that amplify warming.

"BEIJING -- Top U.S. officials on Wednesday left open the possibility that China might not have to accept a hard cap on its greenhouse gas emissions under a new global climate change treaty."