Panel discusses preparedness of NYC’s subways, bridges and buildings in face of climate change (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune) NEW YORK - Flooded subways. Bridges deteriorating in the hot sun. Rising seas nipping at the edges of Manhattan. Those scenarios are up for review by a panel of scientists, government officials and private sector representatives studying how the city's infrastructure will hold up to climate change. [News Source]

Bloomberg convenes global warming task force (Crain’s New York Business) The mayor met with the Climate Change Adaptation Task Force Tuesday to launch a battery of studies about how the city will react to hotter temperatures, rising seas and bigger storms. [News Source]

Allergists warn global warming will make pollen more abundant, potent (The Columbus Dispatch) Just in time for ragweed's arrival, allergists are warning that global warming is fueling more abundant and potent pollen and otherwise threatening easy breathing. In a strongly-worded paper, a group of doctors from North Carolina and Colorado say increased illness and death will accompany stronger allergens and deteriorating air quality. The article will be published next month, along with ... [News Source]

Handle with care. At what point should we consider the long-term ramifications of nanotechnology, approaches to resetting the thermostat of a warming planet (such as “fertilizing” parts of the ocean with iron), and other powerful emerging technologies? [News Source]

World Bank, promising to go green, lends to massive coal-fired power plant . A year after the World Bank's President pledged to "significantly step up our assistance" in fighting climate change, the Bank is increasing its financing of fossil-fuel projects around the globe. [News Source]

Costa Rica bids to go carbon neutral. In February, Norway, New Zealand, Iceland and Costa Rica committed to go carbon neutral. The tiny Central American country is the only developing country to have made the tough pledge to turn its economy green -- and says it will do it by 2021. [News Source]

High price of plastics raises prospect of rubbish mining. The value of plastic has risen so rapidly that mining operations to dig it out of dumps are forecast to begin within the decade. There's even talk of scooping out the roughly three million tons swirling around the Pacific Ocean. [News Source]

75 institutions roped in to study climate impact. How vulnerable is India to climate change? The answer will emerge with the widest and largest set of studies being now undertaken to look at the possible impacts of climate change on the country. [News Source]

Prescriptions for health, the environmental kind. In a bright studio at New York University, Natalie Jeremijenko caters to those who want to know more about what they can do to clean up their personal environment. [News Source]

Plants move up mountain as temps rise in Southern California study shows. Striking new research in the Southern California mountains suggests recent warming is behind a massive die-off and rapid migration to higher ground by nine different plants — from desert shrubs to white firs. [News Source]

In Arctic sea, oil rush is on for several nations. It's a scramble for the spoils of global warming as the rapid melting of Arctic sea ice is opening access to previously unreachable deposits of oil and gas, setting off a race by northern nations - including the US, Canada and Russia - to claim them. [News Source]