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Today's decision by Governor O'Malley to join an interstate initiative limiting carbon dioxide emissions has major national significance, says a University of Maryland expert, but next steps will decide whether the program lives up to its potential as a response to climate change. Maryland will join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, a cooperative agreement among nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states.

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According to a new report from the National Wildlife Federation "The Gardeners Guide to Global Warming: Challenges and Solutions", there are many things people can do in their gardens that will help reduce the threats of global warming. Spring gardening season is the perfect time to get started.

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University of Maryland experts are available to offer perspectives and information about key aspects of the scientific, technological, economic and public policy issues of global climate change and its impacts.

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An NCAR teleconference Friday will feature five of the main U.S. authors of the new global warming assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The teleconference will be at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (8:00 a.m. Pacific) and will include scientists from NCAR and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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The Union of Concerned Scientists will release its biennial comprehensive analysis of the biggest automakers' environmental performance. The science group's ranking of auto fleets is a national barometer of car manufacturers' gains and setbacks on the environment.

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A new global warming study predicts that many current climate zones will vanish entirely by the year 2100, replaced by climates unknown in today's world.

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NOVA documentary Dimming the Sun wins Earthwatch Film Award during the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital. A lively forum at the awards ceremony urges people hungry for leadership on global climate change to turn to Earthwatch for education and meaningful individual action.

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Solar energy has the power to reduce greenhouse gases and provide increased energy efficiency, says a scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, in a report (view it online) published in the March issue of Physics Today.

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Forests of spruce trees and shrubs in parts of northern Canada are taking over what were once tundra landscapes--forcing out the species that lived there. This shift can happen at a much faster speed than scientists originally thought, according to a new University of Alberta study that adds to the growing body of evidence on the effects of climate change.

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Climate change is becoming obvious to the casual observer, says environmental science professor J.C. Randolph, former regional director with the National Institute for Global Environmental Change. Also: Conflicts over dwindling water supplies in North America, and Floods in Midwest and Northeast expected result of global warming.

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Climate change plays a role in ecosystem changes along the continental shelf waters of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, reports a Cornell oceanographer in the Feb. 23 issue of Science.

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Global warming is threatening corals, reported Cornell's Drew Harvell at the AAAS meeting Feb. 18. But some corals can fight diseases as temperatures rise and may provide clues in how to protect other fragile coral reefs, she said.

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Atmospheric scientists have uncovered fresh evidence to support the hotly debated theory that global warming has contributed to the emergence of stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean.

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Rapidly converging forces are raising the profile of climate change and the need for carbon emissions reduction. Business must prepare to minimize risk and realize the opportunities that are rapidly emerging, concludes an Executive Action report from The Conference Board.

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Most Americans believe global warming is real but a moderate and distant risk. While they strongly support policies like investing in renewable energy, higher fuel economy standards and international treaties, they strongly oppose carbon taxes on energy sources that put carbon dioxide into the air.

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When glaciologist Lonnie Thompson returns to Peru's Qori Kalis glacier early this summer, he expects to find that half of the ice he saw during his visit there last year has vanished. What troubles him the most is his recent observations that suggest that the entire glacier may likely be gone within the next five years, providing possibly the clearest evidence so far of global climate change.

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A new report on climate over the world's southernmost continent shows that temperatures during the late 20th century did not climb as had been predicted by many global climate models.

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The warming most global climate models predict will do more harm than simply raise the sea levels that most observers fear. It will make drastic changes in fragile ecosystems throughout the world, especially in the Antarctic. A warming trend during the last few decades in the Antarctic Peninsula has already forced penguin populations to migrate south.

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Two of Greenland's largest glaciers shrank dramatically and dumped twice as much ice into the sea during a period of less than a year between 2004 and 2005. And then, less than two years later, they returned to near their previous rates of discharge.

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A new proposal for growing biofuels to help stem global warming and protect wildlife.

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Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are available to comment on many of the subjects covered in the summary report to be issued by the International Panel on Climate Change on February 2, 2007.

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Texas Tech climate change expert available to discuss the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change results.

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on Friday, Feb. 2, will release in Paris a summary of its Fourth Assessment Report (the full text of the report will follow later in the year). Two University of Chicago climatologists are available to journalists to comment on the report.

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The future of federal climate change policy is likely to include a host of strategies such as a national cap on carbon dioxide emissions, mandatory standards on renewable energy, mandatory efficiency standards on vehicles and products, and a national carbon dioxide cap-and-trade scheme, according to new research conducted by the University of New Hampshire.

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Tomorrow will be an important day in the history of humankind's battle against global warming, says a science historian at the American Institute of Physics. "For the first time, society is taking scientific predictions like this seriously. We should congratulate ourselves for not only paying attention but taking serious action."

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If, as planned, Maryland joins a regional compact designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions, it will have a modest positive environmental impact and will not translate into higher bills for electric customers, according to a new study from the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER).

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The International Panel on Climate Change Friday will release a major report that represents the consensus of the international scientific community on the state of the world's climate. SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) experts are available to discuss the report.

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Punxsutawney Phil may be smarter than we've given him credit for. In addition to checking out his shadow to forecast the end of winter, this old groundhog has been ahead of the curve in predicting global warming.

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While temperature records dating back thousands of years already exist for certain regions of the United States, like the East Coast and the Northwest, no such record exists for the North American Great Plains. But now, a Baylor University researcher along with a team of scientists has developed a new method to measure temperature fluctuations in the Great Plains, creating a temperature record for that area of the country dating back 12,000 years.

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How severe will global warming get? Jason P. Briner is looking for an answer buried deep in mud dozens of feet below the surface of lakes in the frigid Canadian Arctic. His group is gathering the first quantitative temperature data over the last millennium from these areas.

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will release on Feb. 2 the Summary for Policymakers of its Fourth Assessment Report, an ongoing United Nations-sponsored analysis of climate change, its potential societal impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. The first component of the report from the IPCC's Working Group I will contain several key findings and estimates about effects of climate change.

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A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists offers the most comprehensive documentation to date of how ExxonMobil has adopted the tobacco industry's disinformation tactics, as well as some of the same organizations and personnel, to cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue. According to the report, ExxonMobil has funneled nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of 43 advocacy organizations that seek to confuse the public on global warming science.

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Could low-level heavy metal pollution be combining with warm water temperatures to fatally weaken cold-blooded sea life? A study examining the joint effects of cadmium and temperature on mitochondrial metabolism in oysters finds a combined effect that is potentially lethal and could be a significant contributor to recent oyster declines.

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Small insects that inhabit some of the most remote parts of the United States are sending a strong message about climate change. New research suggests that changes in midge communities in some of these areas provide additional evidence that the globe is indeed getting warmer.

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Carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels will produce a 3 percent reduction in the density of Earth's outermost atmosphere by 2017, scientists predict. Recent observations have shown that the thermosphere, which begins about 60 miles above Earth and extends up to 400 miles, is becoming less dense.

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New NCAR research indicates that Arctic sea ice will soon begin to retreat four times more rapidly than at any time since observations began. The Arctic may become nearly devoid of late summertime sea ice by about 2040 because of greenhouse gas emissions.

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Near the Lower Colorado River, home to the Cocopah people for many centuries, an unprecedented gathering is underway. The Cocopah Indian Tribe and National Wildlife Federation have partnered to co-host the first-ever Tribal Lands Climate Conference"”bringing together leaders from more than 50 tribes to address the growing global warming crisis.

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The U.S. Supreme Court today heard oral argument in a case centering on whether the Environmental Protection Agency should regulate carbon dioxide and other pollutants from tailpipes that cause global warming. The National Wildlife Federation filed an amicus brief in the case pointing to science showing the link between global warming and declines in wildlife species.

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In response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) argument in the U.S. Supreme Court case, Massachusetts et al. vs. U.S. EPA et al. that it would not regulate carbon dioxide due in part to scientific uncertainty, Alan Covich, President of the Ecological Society of America, expressed dismay over the agency's disregard for the widespread scientific consensus on the facts and effects of climate change.

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Researchers for the first time have shown a connection between global warming and decreased polar bear survival.

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Russian and American scientists are studying the dramatic climate changes of northern Europe and Asia to better predict future weather pattern shifts worldwide. Their findings are expected to help policymakers develop strategies to overcome negative effects of the climate variations on global agriculture and economies.

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Can nuclear energy save us from global warming? Perhaps, but the tradeoffs involved are sobering: thousands of metric tons of nuclear waste generated each year and a greatly increased risk of nuclear weapons proliferation or diversion of nuclear material into terrorists' hands.

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Recent heat waves, long dry spells, and heavy bursts of rain and snow hint at longer-term changes to come, according to a new study based on several advanced climate models. Much of the world will face significant changes in extreme weather events by the end of this century.

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Future weather forecasts call for longer droughts and heavier rainfall, thanks to global climate change, says a Texas Tech researcher and scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

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Shifting snow melts, record wildfires and rising temperatures are already changing life in the West. Experts Philip Mote and Steven Running recently joined a National Wildlife Federation press briefing, to explain new scientific research.

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Oysters exposed to high water temperatures and a common heavy metal are unable to obtain sufficient oxygen and convert it to cellular energy, according to a new study presented at The American Physiological Society conference, Comparative Physiology 2006.

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Today, the National Wildlife Federation releases a new report --Fueling the Fire: Global Warming, Fossil Fuels and the Fish and Wildlife of the American West. The report provides solutions to the urgent crisis, and pulls together the latest scientific research about global warming impacts in the West.

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A group of leading scientists find that unless steps are taken to slow global warming, several states in the Northeast could have climates similar to those of the modern-day South.

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A severe storm that occurred in the Gulf of Alaska in October 2005 generated an ocean swell that six days later broke apart a giant iceberg floating near the coast of Antarctica, more than 8,300 miles away. (AUDIO EMBEDDED)

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The Union of Concerned Scientists is hosting a telephone press conference on global warming in the Northeast. A new report shows how decisions made today can effect the climate of the Northeast in the future.