Climate change may be global, but it is already changing local North Carolina ecosystems in myriad ways. Beaches are eroding, shorelines are retreating, and birds are shifting their winter ranges. Even insects, fish, and frogs are changing behavior.

"The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia [Friday] rejected an attempt to overturn California's authority to implement greenhouse gas emissions standards for new cars brought by the National Automobile Dealers Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce."

There is little evidence to suggest that tornado outbreaks like the one that devasted the South last week are related to global climate change.

"The death toll soared to near 300 Thursday as rescuers dug through rubble from Mississippi to Virginia in the nation’s deadliest natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina."

"Wildfires have burned about 1.5 million acres in Texas since January, egged on by a drought that federal forecasters say is the worst to hit the state in 45 years."

"Some of the nation's richest and most important ecosystems lie where the ocean meets the land. It's these same coastal areas that are going to disappear as sea level continues to rise as a result of climate change."

"Global warming could increase flooding, shrink salmon habitat and invite in more invasive species in the West, scientists conclude in a sobering new report."

"Green energy offers the prospect of an economic boon, but some worry the environmental, cultural cost is too high."