The Copenhagen climate conference: the negotiating text needs a lot of negotiation

With the Copenhagen climate talks in December now just 69 days away (and counting), the latest version of the negotiating text being thrashed out by officials in Bangkok gives a vivid sense of just how far there is to go.

In its 181 pages there were, on one official’s estimate, about 2,000 square brackets, representing passages that were disputed and still needed to be resolved. If you are so minded, you can have a go at counting them yourself.

Alhambra [history] teacher gets grant to [promote the global warming scam] - Pasadena Star-News

Sanchez was one of 20 high school teachers in the country - picked from 100 applicants - to receive a "Classroom Earth" grant from the National Environmental Education Foundation. The $1,600 grant will allow him to take two on-line courses offered by the University of Wisconsin that show teachers how to incorporate environmental issues into lesson plans....He's also considering assigning a year-end project where two to four students plan solutions for major environmental issues, such as global warming. 

Greenland’s Helheim glacier: a melting mystery | csmonitor.com

The picture of what happened in Greenland is just starting to come together, and scientists are still in the dark about how the underlying causes were set in motion, how much was owed to natural variances and how much to man’s tinkering with the global climate system.

“This is like medical science in the 15th century,” says David Holland, director of the Center for Atmosphere Ocean Science at New York University. “It’s going to take a while to find out what’s going on with the patient here.”

The most popular explanation is that the patient — Greenland’s ice sheet — contracted its ailment not from warmer air, but a warmer ocean.