Global warming heats up Ill. governor race. Most of the Republican candidates for Illinois governor flatly reject the idea that human activity contributes to global warming, a position that contradicts the overwhelming consensus among climate scientists. [News Source]

Human rights, health: Twin issues for climate change. Vietnam will be one of five nations most affected by climate change. As millions are displaced and the potential for vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue to spread grows, health and human rights have become concerns closely related to climate change. [News Source]

Ocean acidification impacts coastal rivers. Ocean acidification, caused by rising CO2 levels, is affecting not only coral reefs, but coastal ecosystems by changing everything from the ability of oysters to adhere to the riverbed to the extent of dead zones along the U.S. Pacific coast. [News Source]

Major Asian cities face climate disaster. Low-lying and impoverished Asian coastal cities such as Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta are vulnerable to "brutal" damage from climate change without global action, environmental group WWF warned Thursday. [News Source]

Tiny car has big potential. Analysts say the Tata Motors' Nano could rock the international auto industry and put millions of new Indian drivers on the road. Many are concerned about an increase in emissions, but the company claims that Nano is still environmentally friendlier than any other car. [News Source]

Shell exec: We need a worldwide carbon trade. Royal Dutch Shell might seem a strange candidate for a front-row seat at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen in a few weeks' time. But James Smith, the company's UK chairman, sees no contradiction between big oil and a green future. [News Source]

Canada’s boreal forest top-rated carbon warehouse. North America’s boreal forest contains nearly twice as much carbon per hectare as tropical forests and more carbon than any land-based ecosystem on the planet, says a new report by Canadian and American researchers. [News Source]

Go vegetarian at least two days a week urge Friends of the Earth. A new report says that if people cut meat from their diet for just two days a week - adopting "flexitarianism" - that will be enough to stop global warming. [News Source]

“Clean coal will work:” IEA boss. One of the world's top energy experts says that despite climate change, there is a strong future for the backbone of the Australian economy - coal. [News Source]

Clinton calls climate talks in Copenhagen a ’steppingstone’. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today called U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen a "steppingstone" toward a global, legally binding climate agreement, and spelled out U.S. priorities for the talks. [News Source]

U.S. Interior Dept. changes stance on climate. Last month, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued an order coordinating Interior Department efforts on climate change and forming a Climate Change Response Council to bring global warming concerns into policy making. [News Source]