Climate Change

"Climate-related disasters will exacerbate conflict and stresses in vulnerable countries, with implications for global and US security, says a new report by Oxfam America and the Center for Naval Analysis. In order to make developing nations more resilient, US aid should focus more on using risk reduction strategies, seeking to prevent climate-related humanitarian disasters before they occur."

"The science behind a new report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal is complicated, but the evidence is more precise than it has ever been: Sea levels are now rising at a faster rate than they were at any time in the past 2,000 years."

"Former Vice President Al Gore is going where few environmentalists -- and fellow Democrats -- have gone before: criticizing President Barack Obama's record on global warming."

"Here's one advantage to armadillos' steady northward march across the Southeast United States: They're awfully handy to have as bait if, say, you're a wildlife biologist looking to trap an alligator that has inexplicably settled into your local pond in north Georgia." Part of the explanation for the armadillo's northward migration is probably climate change.

In the race for the GOP presidential nomination, even candidates who previously accepted climate science and backed cap-and-trade are backtracking and changing position as fast as they can.

"The American public is less likely to believe in global warming than it was just five years ago. Yet, paradoxically, scientists are more confident than ever that climate change is real and caused largely by human activities."

"The Supreme Court ruled [Monday] that six states cannot, for now, try to limit emissions of greenhouse gases under federal common law. The court ruled 8-0 -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor was recused -- that the Clean Air Act and the Obama administration's efforts to regulate emissions had displaced the states' federal common law argument."

"The first six months of 2011 have brought image after image of human misery and ecological upheaval. Droughts, wildfires, twisters, floods, heat waves, extreme blizzards — just about every natural disaster you can imagine has hit just about every place on the planet."