Denis Hayes: 5 things Obama should do to tackle climate change

Bold climate policy could lead to an ultra-efficient planet powered mostly by the sun and living in a productive state of ecological harmony.

Environmental Racism: Blacks Should Care About Climate Change

African Americans living in Los Angeles are more than twice as likely to die during a heat wave as other residents of the city. That's because cities develop "heat islands," which are created by an abundance of concrete and asphalt. People of color more densely populate urban areas that are prone to the heat-island effect. And folks living in these areas also tend to have limited access to cars and air conditioning.

Top candidate for EPA head tough on CO2

[Gina McCarthy] "If you take a look at what's recently happened with Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ... you will realize that there are tremendous opportunities to address climate change in ways that build the economy, that grow jobs, that you can articulate that make sense to every individual who works in those communities."

Climate change a key factor in extreme weather, experts say

A few years ago, talking about weather and climate change in the same breath was a cardinal sin for scientists.

Now it has become impossible to have a conversation about the weather without discussing wider climate trends, according to researchers who prepared the Australian Climate Commission's latest report.

The report, The Angry Summer, says behind the litany of broken heat and rainfall records this year, a clear pattern has now emerged.

''Statistically, there is a one in 500 chance that we are talking about natural variation causing all these new records,'' said Will Steffen, the report's lead author and director of the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute. ''Not too many people would want to put their life savings on a 500-1 horse.''