"DURBAN, South Africa -- The world's three biggest polluters China, the United States and India refused to move toward a new legal commitment to curb their carbon emissions Tuesday, increasing the risk that climate talks will fail to clinch a meaningful deal this week."
"A host of data – from sediment cores to ongoing drought in East Africa to computer models – point to one conclusion: Our increasingly hotter, drier planet is going to be a tough place to farm."
Douglas Fischer reports for The Daily Climate December 5, 2011.
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"Three-Quarters of Climate Change Is Man-Made" (Nature News)
"Back-room negotiations began in earnest Monday on a deal to rescue the only treaty governing greenhouse gas reductions and to launch talks on a broader agreement to include the world's largest polluters: China and other emerging economies, the United States and Europe."
"Global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record last year, upending the notion that the brief decline during the recession might persist through the recovery."
"Environmentalists and other nations say U.S. policy changes raise questions about whether it is committed to substantially cutting emissions and aiding developing nations in their efforts to do so."
GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, who once thought climate change was man-made and required action, has changed his position. He now denies the scientific consensus.
"Is the U.S. leading or blocking progress toward stopping global warming? It's a key question this week as officials from more than 190 countries begin the latest round of negotiations seeking an eventual global climate-protection plan."
"African leaders including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jay Naidoo of former President Nelson Mandela's cabinet, and Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, on Wednesday released an ad calling on Canada to step up the battle against global warming, rather than actively promote the use of its tar sands."
"The Persian Gulf nation of Qatar has been selected as the site of next year’s United Nations climate change meeting, edging out South Korea. The announcement came as this year’s meeting opened in Durban, South Africa, with delegates from 194 nations facing growing concerns about rising global temperatures and more frequent climate-related catastrophes."
John M. Broder reports for the New York Times November 29, 2011.
"Subsistence farmers in Africa, victims of changing weather patterns, are caught in a stormy global debate over a special climate fund for which few want to pay."
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