"It's official: climate legislation has zero chance of passing before the big summit in Copenhagen this December." That seems to be the inevitable consequence of an announcement by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"Researchers cannot agree whether the melting is attributable mainly to humanity’s role in global warming."

"A partisan standoff over Senate global warming legislation clouded the start of the Environment and Public Works Committee's markup of the sweeping proposal today with just one Republican in attendance."

"German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the United States Tuesday to agree to binding climate goals, telling U.S. lawmakers in a speech to Congress there was 'no time to lose' in the fight against global warming."

"Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will go ahead and mark up climate legislation in her committee Tuesday, she announced Monday morning, even if the Republicans try to block her."

"Senate Democrats are still aiming for a committee markup on global warming legislation next week despite Republican calls for a slower pace on the sweeping measure."

"The multiyear ice covering the Arctic Ocean has effectively vanished, a startling development that will make it easier to open up polar shipping routes, an Arctic expert said on Thursday."

"An international team of environmental scientists led by the University of Pennsylvania has shown that sea-level rise, at least in North Carolina, is accelerating. Researchers found 20th-century sea-level rise to be three times higher than the rate of sea-level rise during the last 500 years."

"Leaders at companies that develop low-carbon energy told a Senate panel that climate legislation would create millions of new jobs, but lawmakers from fossil-fuel dependent states said the bill would hit employment in the traditional energy economy."

"Even as the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee took up its climate bill for the first time Tuesday, the Environment Protection Agency proposed requiring thousands of greenhouse gas emitters to install stricter pollution control technology."