Rising seas threat to coastal towns. Rising sea levels are likely to have a profound impact on Cape Town in the not too distant future, in particular on the livelihoods and circumstances of poor people, according to an international climate change expert. [News Source]

Global warming chase plants uphill. For the first time, research can show the "fingerprints of climate change" in the distribution of plants by altitude, and not only in sensitive ecosystems, said Jonathan Lenoir of AgroParisTech in Nancy, France. [News Source]

Climbing trees: plants move uphill as world warms. Global warming is leaving trees behind, according to a new study in Science. An analysis of forest species in six French mountain ranges shows that more than two thirds of them moved at least 60 feet (18.5 meters) higher on the mountainsides per decade during the 20th century. [News Source]

Global warming causing plant migration in Europe: study. Global warming has caused numerous European plant species to migrate to higher elevations over the decades, according to new research published Thursday. [News Source]

Climate change pushes plants out of their comfort zone. Plant species migrate to escape climate change, but at different speeds, causing the entire makeup of mountainside communities to change and potentially head toward extinction, researchers conclude. [News Source]

Rising temperatures force many plants higher - study. Rising temperatures have forced many plants to creep to higher elevations to survive, researchers reported on Thursday. [News Source]

Exclusive: no ice at the North Pole. It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year. [News Source]

North Pole could be ice-free this summer, scientists say. The North Pole may be briefly ice-free by September as global warming melts away Arctic sea ice, according to scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. [News Source]

Dead trees tell water tales. Two years of drought have California's water managers scrambling. [News Source]

Moving north not such a hot idea. Shifting irrigation agriculture from the parched Murray-Darling Basin to Australia's wet tropical north would be a "risky business", the co-author of a new CSIRO climate change report warned yesterday. [News Source]

State announces plan for reducing emissions. From the kitchen to the gas pump, the energy-using habits of Californians will be tested in the coming years as the state gradually moves away from fossil fuels in a historic bid to curb global warming. [News Source]