Climate change causing oceans to become more acidic, endangering sea life. Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are a major contributor to climate change, and now a new study has confirmed that atmospheric CO2 is also affecting the ocean chemistry, potentially threatening marine life. [News Source]

Water crisis in parched northern China. The river has dried up, the well yields only dust, and Li Yunxi is hard pressed to irrigate his plot of land, even though he lives right next to the largest water project in history. [News Source]

U.S., Canadian forests fall to beetle outbreak. The beetle outbreak has cost billions of dollars in lost timber and land values and may thwart efforts to combat climate change, as forests are major storing houses of carbon, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming. [News Source]

Broad action on climate needed to achieve cuts. If global warming is to be addressed without breaking people's pocketbooks, no single answer will do the job, a research group tied to the electric utility industry says in a new study that concludes the problem must be attacked from many directions. [News Source]

Cost to meet emissions goal could double. Without nuclear power and "clean coal," the cost of cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity industry could almost double, according to a study released today by a Bay Area think tank. [News Source]

Shoe brands get tough on leather suppliers to save Amazon rainforest. Some of the world's top footwear brands, including Clarks, Adidas, Nike and Timberland, have demanded an immediate moratorium on destruction of the Amazon rainforest from their leather suppliers in Brazil. [News Source]

U.S. needs 45 more nuclear reactors by 2030. In order to meet lofty climate goals, the U.S. power industry should by 2030 build 45 more nuclear power reactors, cleaner coal power plants, and cut electricity consumption 8 percent, a power industry study issued on Monday showed. [News Source]

U.S. refiners see shakeout under climate change bill. Ailing U.S. oil refiners could face a crippling period of contraction under a House-approved climate change bill, which would give the refining industry only 2 percent of free carbon emission permits, compared to 30 percent for electric utilities, analysts said. [News Source]

South Korea unveils CO2 target plan. South Korea pledged for the first time on Tuesday to set a 2020 emissions reduction target, as the OECD's fastest-growing carbon polluter voluntarily joined richer nations in setting hard goals to roll back climate change. [News Source]

Carbon credits: ‘Cure worse than the disease.’ A cap and trade system of trading carbon credits to offset greenhouse gas emissions won't work because "there are too many emitters to put a price on carbon," says McGill University economist Christopher Green. A carbon tax would cost less, he says. [News Source]

Scottish climate activists target coal industry. Climate activists who Monday occupied a new open-cast coal mine in southwest Scotland are planning to target power stations, energy companies, and mines across the country in protest against the energy policies of Prime Minister Alex Salmond. [News Source]