Climate Change

"As the new decade opens up, researchers are gathering data that will redefine weather pattern averages for the nation."

"House Republicans wasted no time Thursday in trying to block the Obama administration from acting to stem global warming." Whether they have the votes to succeed is uncertain.

"The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization announced this week that food prices hit a record high last month. Its Food Price Index was 214.7 for December, the highest level since the organization created the index to measure the price of a standard basket of goods in 1990."

"After spiking upward in response to Copenhagen talks and the 'climategate' uproar, media coverage of climate change plummeted to levels last seen in 2005, according to DailyClimate.org's archives and other media databases."

"Scientists have found evidence of a 'drastic' shift since the 1970s in north Atlantic Ocean currents that usually influence weather in the northern hemisphere, Swiss researchers said on Tuesday."

"MIT professor Kerry Emanuel is among a rare breed of conservative scientists who are sounding the alarm for climate change and criticizing Republicans' 'agenda of denial' and 'anti-science stance.'"

Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), incoming chairman of the House Energy Committee, used to be in favor of reducing the carbon dioxide emissions which are the biggest cause of global warming. Now he is against it.

"U.S. EPA's plan to sidestep state officials and oversee climate rules in Texas has been temporarily blocked by a federal court, making the Lone Star State the only place where businesses cannot apply for greenhouse gas permits that the Obama administration now requires."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will directly enforce new greenhouse-gas rules in parts of Arizona after the state refused to submit its own program for controlling the pollutants."