Climate News and Resources

The surge in the price of energy couldn’t come at a worse time. The average price nationally of regular gasoline has shot up to a record $3.28 a gallon. Combine that with the collapse of the housing market and the seizing financial sector, and it is putting a boot to the gut of an economy that is either already in a recession or close to one.

A New York Times editorial

Some 3,000 scientific robots that are plying the ocean have sent home a puzzling message. These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. That could mean global warming has taken a breather. Or it could mean scientists aren't quite understanding what their robots are telling them.

Courtesy if NPR Morning Edition

Energy companies and other business interests have launched a nationwide campaign to undermine climate change legislation pending in Congress, saying it could cost millions of jobs, drive gasoline prices sharply higher and suck thousands of dollars from household incomes.

The effort comes as the Senate prepares to take up in coming months a bill that would cut greenhouse emissions by up to 65 percent by 2050. The bill would create a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions, forcing companies to pay to pollute.

On a 17-state tour that began this week with stops in North Dakota and Montana, industry-funded economists said the legislation threatens to sacrifice three to four million jobs over the next two decades, as higher energy prices dampen industrial production.

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By Matthew Brown, courtesy of the Fort Mill Times

The amount of long-lasting sea ice in the Arctic -- thick enough to survive for as much as a decade -- declined sharply in the past year, even though the region had a cold winter and the thinner one-year ice cover grew substantially, federal officials said yesterday.

By Marc Kaufman, courtesy of the Washington Post

Arresting global warming won’t come cheap. Europe and Japan are already spending billions to meet the modest carbon emission cuts that they agreed to in Kyoto 10 years ago. And according to a recent United Nations report, switching to cleaner energy sources would require investments of up to $20 trillion over the next two decades. Add to that other economic costs, such as the rise in food prices attributable to the world’s embrace of renewable fuels.

By Eduardo Porter, courtesy of the New York Times

The sea of oil under Iraq is supposed to rebuild the nation, but fuel shipments often get diverted to the black market.
By Richard Oppel Jr., courtesy of the New York Times

When half a tank costs $505, rising fuel prices sting. While the price of gasoline may be on the verge of setting another record, diesel is already there.

By Christopher Maag, courtesy of the New York Times

Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware genetic manipulation. Modern times bring with them modern sins. So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of "new" sins such as causing environmental blight.

From Reuters, courtesy of the New York Times

Relatively barren stretches of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans around the tropics have expanded about 15 percent since 1998, according to a new satellite study.

Climate change will worsen tensions and instability between nations competing for arable land, water and other resources, according to a European Union report.

By Robert Wielaard of The Associated Press, courtesy of the Washington Post

In a major shift, a group of Southern Baptist leaders said their denomination has been "too timid" on environmental issues and has a biblical duty to stop global warming.

By Rachel Zoll of The Associated Press, courtesy of the Washington Post

The task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures may be far more difficult than previous research suggested, say scientists who have just published studies indicating that it would require the world to cease carbon emissions altogether within a matter of decades.

By Juliet Eilperin, courtesy of the Washington Post

The world appears to be on the verge of a boom in a little-known but promising type of solar power.

By Matthew L. Wald, courtesy of the New York Times

Record oil prices are suddenly creating the sharpest tensions in years between the oil cartel and the U.S.

By Jad Mouawad, courtesy of the New York Times

Several hundred people sat in a fifth-floor ballroom at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square on Monday eating pasta and trying hard to prove that they had unraveled the established science showing that humans are warming the world in potentially disruptive ways.

By Andrew Revkin, courtesy of the New York Times

Extraordinary winter conditions in many parts of the world have been seized on by those who challenge warnings about dangerous human-caused global warming.

By Andrew Revkin, courtesy of the New York Times