Carbon tax shaping up as key issue in B.C. vote

VANCOUVER – The phrase "carbon tax" has all but disappeared among federal Liberals, but the B.C. Liberals are not backing down on their version as they head into an election campaign this year.

Premier Gordon Campbell acknowledges the opposition NDP has made gains at his government's expense over his refusal to scrap the carbon tax British Columbians began paying on fuels last July.

With the margin thinning between the two parties, the issue looks like the defining one for voters on May 12. (Provincial elections are now held every four years on the second Tuesday in May.)

A recent poll shows 55 per cent of British Columbians surveyed are against the tax, while only 41 per cent support it.

San Francisco: Protect vulnerable plants from brutal cold

January and February, when it's the rainiest and coldest, are the brutal months in Bay Area gardens. Here's what to do...

Cold weather wipes out cross country ski again - More Sports - SI.com

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Subzero temperatures Tuesday canceled another day of competition at the U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships.

Organizers waited more than an hour past the scheduled noon start before calling off a pair of distance races. Skiers won't compete unless temperatures are at least 4 degrees below zero.

What the global warming fear-mongers won't tell you -- baltimoresun.com

The fact is that the latest global warming began about 18,000 years ago, long before man started spewing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. At that time, thick layers of ice covered much of the Earth. The even bigger picture to keep in mind shows that for several million years, the dominant climate on this planet has been that of ice ages, which last approximately 100,000 years and which are interrupted by far briefer periods of warming, called interglacial periods, lasting for about 15,000 to 20,000 years. The current one in which we humans and other species developed and thrived should last a while longer before the extreme, life-unfriendly deep freeze returns. Warming is what enables and enhances life and is therefore something to be welcomed, not something to be feared.