UN defends climate change report (New Kerala) New York, Feb 7 : The great weight of science still supports the findings in a landmark 2007 report from a United Nations-backed panel of experts that global warming is man-made, the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said Saturday following recent attacks from climate change sceptics over a mistake in the assessment. [News Source]

Effort underway to suspend California’s global-warming law (Los Angeles Times) Conservatives propose an initiative that would delay curbs on greenhouse gas emissions until the state's unemployment rate drops to 5.5%, a level not seen since 2007. Republican politicians and conservative activists are launching a ballot campaign to suspend California's landmark global-warming law , in what they hope will serve as a showcase for a national backlash against climate regulations. [News Source]

Centralia, Pennsylvania, coal fire is one of hundreds that burn in the U.S. Thousands of underground coal fires burn worldwide, using up resources and spewing dangerous emissions. Yet little is known about their impact on climate change or human health due to carbon dioxide and mercury emissions, say experts. [News Source]

Movement to suspend California’s global-warming law gathers steam. Republican politicians and conservative activists are launching a ballot campaign to suspend California's landmark global-warming law, in what they hope will serve as a showcase for a national backlash against climate regulations. [News Source]

Obama’s nuclear giveaway. The administration's 2011 budget proposes tripling a loan guarantee program to finance new nuclear plants. The program's expansion is just one of several signs that the Obama administration is throwing its muscle behind the nuclear industry's push for a massive expansion. [News Source]

Is climate change hiding the decline of maple syrup? The burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil releases carbon dioxide that alters the balance of carbon isotopes naturally found in the environment — an effect that is now being found in food, reveals a US study. [News Source]

Arctic melting to cost $2.4 trillion U.S. by 2050: Study. The cumulative cost of the melting Arctic in the next 40 years is equivalent to the annual gross domestic products of Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom combined, according to the authors of the study prepared for the Pew Environment Group. [News Source]

EPA’s voluntary programs under scrutiny as regulatory obligations rise. As U.S. EPA ramps up regulatory activities in climate change and other arenas, the agency may cut back some of its many voluntary programs in an effort to funnel resources toward regulations, a top official said this week. [News Source]

Centralia, Pennsylvania, coal fire is one of hundreds that burn in the U.S. Thousands of underground coal fires burn worldwide, using up resources and spewing dangerous emissions. Yet little is known about their impact on climate change or human health due to carbon dioxide and mercury emissions, say experts. [News Source]

Movement to suspend California’s global-warming law gathers steam. Republican politicians and conservative activists are launching a ballot campaign to suspend California's landmark global-warming law, in what they hope will serve as a showcase for a national backlash against climate regulations. [News Source]

Penn State probe into Mann’s wrongdoing a ‘total whitewash.’ How thoroughly did Penn State University investigate a top climate scientist who brought hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to the school? A growing number of critics say they hardly looked at all. [News Source]