Star Tribune: A flying insect that thrives in midwinter might seem like a creature from a frightening fictional Minnesota. But Diamesa mendotae, a cold-hardy but delicate insect also known as a midge, is very real and may provide a measure of how the state's climate is warming, and what effect that might have. Researchers from the University of Minnesota are working to understand more about the relationship between these unusual freeze-resistant insects and the fish that eat them in streams in the southeastern...

DAILY KOS: One of the main claims of climate denial is that carbon dioxide is harmless, that there's no proof it can warm a planet. But this claim is against the law. Which law? The Law of Thermodynamics. The temperature of this planet's surface is primarily set by the rate at which heat from the hot Sun moves to the warm Earth, and the rate at which heat from the warm Earth moves to the cold of space. (Some heat can also come from the core of the planet, but in Earth's case this is pretty trivial.) If either...

Climate Progress: Global warming due to human-made gases, mainly CO2, is already 0.8°C and deleterious climate impacts are growing worldwide. More warming is "in the pipeline" because Earth is out of energy balance, with absorbed solar energy exceeding planetary heat radiation. Maintaining a climate that resembles the Holocene, the world of stable shorelines in which civilization developed, requires rapidly reducing fossil fuel CO2 emissions. Such a scenario is economically sensible and has multiple benefits for humanity...

Agence France-Presse: Mediterranean bottom currents and the sediment deposits they leave behind offer new insights into global climate change, the opening and closing of ocean circulation gateways and locations where hydrocarbon deposits may lie buried under the sea. A team of 35 scientists from 14 countries recently returned from an expedition off the southwest coast of Iberia and the nearby Gulf of Cadiz. There the geologists collected core samples of sediments that contain a detailed record of the Mediterranean's...

Associated Press: Clouds of smoke from Lunar New Year fireworks sent air pollution readings soaring in the more sensitive measurement system Beijing started using a little more than a week ago, reports said Sunday. Readings of fine particulate matter called PM2.5 reached 1.593 milligrams per cubic meter on the Jan. 22 eve of the holiday, about 100 times worse than the amount considered good for 24-hour exposure, the city's environmental bureau said. The reading drew wide publicity in the local media on Sunday....

Jakarta Globe: Developing primate conservation projects, particularly for great apes, can contribute toward the long-term health of forests and to carbon sequestration schemes, scientists contend. Ian Redmond, a tropical field biologist and conservationist, said primates and other fruit-eating animals were crucial to forests because of their role in seed dispersal. ?Fruit-eating animals have been long known to play a very important role in the life cycle of tropical forests, with between 75 to 95 percent...

Times-Picayune: A team of Louisiana scientists is laying the groundwork for creating a new carbon storage industry that could both reduce the effects of global warming and rebuild wetlands along the state`s coastline. Sarah Mack, founder of New Orleans-based Tierra Resources, and Louisiana State University wetlands scientists John W. Day and Robert Lane have come up with a method for measuring the molecules of carbon removed from the atmosphere by the soils and plants that are created with coastal restoration projects....

Daily Camera: History of Boulder's Climate Action Plan tax 2002 -- The City Council adopts the Kyoto goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels November 2006 -- Voters approve the CAP tax, making Boulder the first city in the country to tax itself for greenhouse gas emissions April 2007 -- Xcel Energy begins charging the CAP tax to Boulder residents and businesses July 2009 -- The City Council increases the CAP tax to the maximum level approved by voters Tuesday -- The...