Prior to taking Mr. Visco's high school science class, Keith Hogan did not believe humans had had any hand in climate change.

"I thought the media had just picked that up and blown it out of proportion," he said.

The next ice age could be delayed by tens of thousands of years due to excessive amounts of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which disrupts Earth’s natural cycle of warming and cooling, according to a study in Nature Geoscience.

It's been obvious for some time now that the Obama administration's promises to fight global warming are in mothballs. But it's still shocking to see Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attack the 27 European countries that are actually trying to do something about the greatest environmental challenge of our time.

Weather isn’t the same thing as climate. Just because it’s sunny or chilly on a given day doesn’t tell us all that much about long-term temperature trends. Even so, plenty of research suggests that local weather does heavily influence how people think about climate change. Back in 2009, survey data from Patrick Egan and Megan Mullin found that Americans were more likely to agree that there was “solid evidence” of climate change on hotter-than-average days. And now Justin Wolfers points to a fascinating recent paper with similar findings.

Global warming has brought a new normal to the Arctic, with warmer air and ocean temperatures, thinner and less expansive summer sea ice, and greener vegetation in coastal regions abutting the open water.

Despite non-record temperatures this year, the Earth's surface is continuing to get warmer, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Dear President Obama,

Two years ago, I wrote you a letter. I talked about climate change, and hope, and about a generation pulling together. I did not tell you that I myself was falling apart.  The gory details are not important– life can break your heart, and sometimes it conspires to break it in multiple ways all at the same time.  But if we are lucky, life puts us right again. And it was in all of that–not in graduate school, not on the Hill, not in the halls of Copenhagen–but in the growing pains of young adulthood–that I learned the most important lesson I can bring to the international climate negotiations.

JOHANNESBURG — Imagine the savannas of South Africa's flagship Kruger Park so choked with brush, viewing what game is left is nearly impossible. The Cape of Good Hope without penguins. The Karoo desert's seasonal symphony of wildflowers silenced.

The U.S. Department of Energy recently released calculations stating that the total global carbon output in 2010 was the biggest increase ever recorded. The world pumped about 564 million more tons of carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009, an increase of 6% with China, and the U.S. responsible for half the increase and India in 3rd place. According to two combined land and sea surface temperature records from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and the US National Climatic Data Centre (NCDC), the first six months of 2010 were the hottest on record. According to GISS, four of the six months also individually showed record highs.

There is an urgent need to decrease man carbon emissions.  Policy, practice and life style changes are tepid at best and must be exponentially increased to meet the growing challenge.

 

So What Can You Do About It?

 

As someone who now realizes the urgency of our global warming dilemma, what can you do on a personal level to help lower carbon emissions?

 

1.     Coal is the biggest carbon source worldwide and emissions from that jumped nearly 8 percent in 2010. We can support government efforts to limit coal as a fuel, learn more about “clean” coal and if that is a real option, support energy development and companies moving away from coal to cleaner fuels. And limit our own consumption of energy, especially fossil fuel energy.

2.     We can support companies that use “green fuel.” This means companies that are powered by wind, solar, bio-fuels like algae and battery power. These companies often put this information on the label of their product. Buying green products including those using alternative fuels is powerful.

3.     Buy local! When things don’t have to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to reach your hands, they didn’t use as much carbon emissions to get to you.

4.     If you’re not already recycling and/or composting, start now! Disposing of your trash takes energy, often fossil fuel energy.

5.     Don’t drive your car more than you have to. Group your trips taking the most efficient route and take the bus, carpool, bike or walk when you can!

6.     Turn off lights and appliances when not in use and keep the thermometer down and the air conditioning off as much as you can.