Climate Change

"Sen. John McCain once led the global warming debate on Capitol Hill, pledging to force repeated floor votes on cap-and-trade legislation until it passed. ... But McCain has gone on hiatus from the issue since losing the presidential election to Barack Obama. And he is likely to keep his distance even more over the next six months due to a primary challenge from a conservative former congressman that threatens to end his Senate career after four terms."

"HEAVY WEATHER, a new radio documentary by Barbara Bernstein explores the connections between increasing extreme weather and our changing climate and landscapes. It presents solutions that are community driven, based on decisions we make to change the ways we live and travel. Changes that actually can improve our quality of life."

"A proposed new U.S. NOAA Climate Service is meant to help businesses adapt to the impact of climate change, and to spur development of new technologies to cope with it, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke on Monday."

"The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has received national pledges to cut and limit greenhouse gases by 2020 from 55 countries, including China and the United States that together account for 78 percent of global emissions from energy use."

"[Rajendra K.] Pachauri and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are now under intense scrutiny, facing accusations of scientific sloppiness and potential financial conflicts of interest from climate skeptics...."

"An advertising campaign that previously pushed the phrase 'clean coal' launches new spots this week focused on jobs and low-cost power, the latest offering in a three-year, nearly $120 million effort to sell Congress and the White House on coal's future. Increasingly, there are signs that it is working."

Greenhouse gases may not be the only cause of the observable thinning of Himalayan glacier; airborne black carbon particle, or soot, is also a major contributor.

"Scant ice over the Arctic Sea this winter could mean a 'double whammy' of powerful ice-melt next summer, a top U.S. climate scientist said on Thursday."

"The Obama administration's top climate adviser strongly defended a cap on emissions a day after the president suggested Congress might move an energy bill without such a cap in place."

"President Obama acknowledged yesterday that the Senate may pass an energy bill this year without the cap-and-trade component he has long put at the center of his environmental agenda."