"How hot was November? NOAA says average global temperature, for water and land surfaces combined, was 56.6 degrees F (13.7 Celsius). It was the 37th consecutive November with above-average temperatures."

"A land forged by fire and ice is losing the latter. And with the glaciers go a cultural and societal touchstone – for without ice, Iceland 'is just land.'"

"The heat is on for the world’s caribou with a new study warning the creatures could lose as much as 60 per cent of their range within 60 years."

"If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the ongoing noise about global warming, then you’ve heard of the so-called 'pause'. This is the idea that the planet hasn’t actually been warming for the past 15 years or so."

"Sand is becoming New England coastal dwellers’ most coveted and controversial commodity as they try to fortify beaches against rising seas and severe erosion caused by violent storms."

"In recent years, California’s Agassiz’s desert tortoise population has been decimated by shootings, residential and commercial development, vehicle traffic, respiratory disease and predation by ravens, dogs and coyotes. Now, dwindling populations of the reptiles with scruffy carapaces and skin as tough as rhino hide are facing an even greater threat: longer droughts spurred by climate change in their Sonoran Desert kingdom of arroyos and burrows, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study."

"For more than a decade, the question of how global warming is affecting the scariest storms on the planet—hurricanes—has been shot through with uncertainty. The chief reason is technological: In many parts of the world, storm strengths are estimated solely based on satellite images. Technologies and techniques for doing this have improved over time, meaning that there is always a problem with claiming that today's storms are stronger than yesterday's. After all, they might just be better observed."

"WASHINGTON -- Regional and national environmental and health organizations, joined by sporting and faith-based allies, are asking Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to reduce emissions of methane from the oil and gas industry on both public and private lands, as well as from offshore oil operations."

"The political temperature in the Arctic rose on Tuesday when Vladimir Putin vowed to step up Russia's military presence in the region in response to a claim by Canada to the north pole."

"Skimpy-clothed people splashing amid the red sandstone canyons of Utah define our images of Lake Powell. But six months ago, engineers and water officials from the seven states of the Colorado River Basin quietly met in Santa Fe to consider a more serious possibility: Continued drought could leave too little water in the reservoir for the eight giant turbines in Glen Canyon Dam to produce electricity."

Columnist Allen Best reports for the Denver Post December 8, 2013. [33]