Climate Change

"The UK's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has urged countries to take urgent action on climate change, as UN talks enter their second week."

"International negotiations on how to set up new carbon markets to cut greenhouse gas levels broke down over the weekend in Warsaw, sources said, after developing nations refused to progress the issue before rich nations increase efforts to cut their own emissions."

"The first fine-scale mapping of global forest cover shows the rate of forest loss in the tropics has increased over the past 12 years. The use of remote sensing satellite data to chronicle changes in global land cover is not new. But in a paper published online this week in the journal Science, researchers provide an exceptionally detailed accounting of gains and loses in global forest cover from 2000 to 2012."

"Nature and man together cooked up the disaster in the Philippines. Geography, meteorology, poverty, shoddy construction, a booming population, and, to a much lesser degree, climate change combine to make the Philippines the nation most vulnerable to killer typhoons, according to several scientific studies."

"The U.S. and European Union blocked a proposal supported by 130 nations including Brazil and China that would use pollution levels dating back to the industrial revolution to help set limits on emissions in the future."

"Desperation gripped Philippine islands devastated by Typhoon Haiyan as looting turned deadly on Wednesday and survivors panicked over shortages of food, water and medicine, some digging up underground water pipes and smashing them open. Five days after one of the strongest storms ever recorded slammed into cities and towns in the central Philippines, anger and frustration boiled over on Wednesday as essential supplies dwindled. Some survivors scrawled signs reading 'Help us'."

"This year is the seventh warmest since records began in 1850 and rising sea levels caused by climate change are aggravating the impact of storms such as Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Wednesday."

As science celebs praised Carl Sagan for the opening of a collection of his papers at the Library of Congress, they also lamented the mounting attacks on science by opponents of climate change controls.

"At a major United Nations climate summit in Warsaw this week, a plan is being hammered out for negotiations on a new climate treaty to be finalized in Paris in two years’ time. Delegates from 195 nations are also seeking to obtain commitments from countries to limit their greenhouse-gas emissions between now and 2020. But the path forward is rife with disputes between rich and poor countries over funding, and how to allocate and enforce emissions reductions."