Is it all over for climate change policy in the United States? | Inside Story

In fact, though he couldn’t quite bring himself to say it, Reid’s announcement was close to being that there would be no climate change legislation in the United States for the remainder of Barack Obama’s presidency. If that proves to be the case, the ramifications would be global. It would shift the chances of reaching international agreement on a comprehensive climate change treaty within the next three years to more or less zero.

To be sure, even as Reid was fixing the nails in the coffin of American climate legislation, desperate efforts were being made to push the lid open from the inside.

Twitter / JimInhofePressOffice

RT @drgrist: Worth noting: Major green groups including NWF, NRDC, Sierra Club & EDF absent from Reid's big energy-bill rollout.

Senate Fail: Let's Name Names | Mother Jones

The statement is nice, but I wish they would have called out the specific Senators who remain a problem. I don't mean only Republicans; there are a number of Democrats who wouldn't have voted for a climate bill this year, either, which is why it didn't make its way into the Senate package.

Wonk Room » Recently Elected Dem Senators Want More ‘Passion,’ ‘Political Clarity,’ And ‘Fight’ For Green Economy

In a series of interviews with the Wonk Room at Netroots Nation, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) described the challenges of confronting climate pollution in the sclerotic legislative body, brought to a practical standstill by minority obstruction. They each discussed how the “new class” of 22 Democratic senators elected in the 2006 and 2008 waves (with independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont) have pressed for greater “political clarity” on climate by “rattling all the cages” in the Senate, alongside senior leaders such as Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).

Weather Talk: South America hit hard by unusually cold winter | INFORUM | Fargo, ND

The current winter season in the Southern Hemisphere has been a particularly harsh one in much of South America. Large portions of Argentina, southern Brazil and Chile have recorded temperatures 5 to 10 degrees below average in recent weeks.

Heavy snow and bitterly cold temperatures have contributed to the deaths of more than 100 people. Livestock have been particularly hard hit, with thousands of animals dying from hypothermia.

The usually warm city of Buenos Aires recorded a low of 29 degrees, the coldest reading since 1991. The Antarctic blast was so powerful that it dropped temperatures into the 40s as far north as the Amazon rain forest.

In some ways, South America is experiencing a winter reminiscent of the harsh winter our continent experienced six month ago.