CO2 and carbon sinks. Carbon dioxide is the primary perpetrator of climate change, and most efforts to slow global warming go into preventing CO2 production and aiding CO2 absorption. But a new study suggests that the more CO2 we make, the more nature absorbs. So do we really need all those rainforests? [News Source]

Big profit from nature protection. Money invested in protecting nature can bring huge financial returns, according to a major investigation into the costs and benefits of the natural world. [News Source]

Arab experts predict Mideast water wars. There is a widely held fear in the Middle East that global warming, dwindling water resources and burgeoning populations will trigger wars over water in the not-too-distant future. [News Source]

Turtle tours, and turtles, are casualties of climate change in Costa Rica. Warmer temperatures and rising seas that scientists link to global warming have vastly diminished the turtle population that has dwelt in the Pacific for 150 million years. [News Source]

If EPA’s Air chief loves a brawl, she’s come to the right place . U.S. EPA air chief Gina McCarthy has a thick Boston accent, a shock of cropped white hair and a penchant for a good fight. As the nation's top air regulator she may be in the center of a political free-for-all over climate regulation and other air pollution policies. [News Source]

Death toll from snow in North China rises to 40. Unusually early snowstorms in north China have claimed at least 40 lives in weather-related accidents and caused billions of yuan in damage, the Civil Affairs Ministry said yesterday. The snowfall is the heaviest recorded in the area in at least 50 years. [News Source]

China and U.S. energy giants team up for ‘clean coal’. Inside the Beltway, China is often cast as an environmental villain. But a new dynamic is taking shape that may transform this perception. [News Source]

Banker seeks to put a price on nature. Putting a price on the world’s natural resources is the most cost-effective way of tackling climate change — at least until cleaner energy technologies become available, according to Pavan Sukhdev, a banker working with the UNEP. [News Source]

Dykes may be vital. Dykes, seawalls and other barriers may have to be built to save thousands of coastal properties, many of them in Sydney and Melbourne, threatened by rising sea levels due to climate change, according to a landmark government study. [News Source]

Greenland’s ice sheet melting faster than ever. Everyone knows that the ice sheet on Greenland is melting. But new research shows it is disappearing much faster than previously thought. The findings could mean that ocean levels are also rising more quickly. [News Source]

Study links climate change to California droughts. California experienced centuries-long droughts in the past 20,000 years that coincided with the thawing of ice caps in the Arctic, according to a new study. [News Source]