Climate Change

"Dust storms accelerated by a warming climate have covered the Rocky Mountains with dirt whose heat-trapping properties have caused snowpacks to melt weeks earlier than normal, worrying officials in Colorado about drastic water shortages by late summer."

"A new analysis halves longstanding projections of how much sea levels could rise if Antarctica's massive western ice sheets fully disintegrated as a result of global warming."

Marathon negotiations seem to have produced a deal on key points of climate-and-energy legislation among House Democrats. Energy Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) announced late Tuesday that he though he had enough votes to pass the compromise. It reportedly gives away about half of the CO2 credits to utilities and other heavy industry -- instead of auctioning them.

"The Obama administration said Friday that it would retain a wildlife rule issued in the last days of the Bush administration that says the government cannot invoke the Endangered Species Act to restrict emissions of greenhouse gases threatening the polar bear and its habitat."

"President Barack Obama's $3.55 trillion budget, released on Thursday, retains his plan to cut climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions by auctioning off 100 percent of emission permits to industries."