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]

Massachusetts positioned for steep global warming gas reductions. Massachusetts is on target to reduce its emissions more than 18 percent below 1990 levels in the next decade, according to a draft technical report released by the state today. [News Source]

Transit misses deprive Vanoc of gold for green effort. A climate action scorecard gives Vanoc a bronze medal for its carbon reduction efforts in staging the 2010 Olympics, but poorer grades for its transportation strategy. [News Source]

Trading houses scramble to secure uranium for nuclear plants. Japan, which prides itself as a nation at the forefront of tackling global warming, could fall victim to growing concerns about climate change around the world in terms of its own nuclear energy supply. [News Source]

A new fission provision. The Obama administration’s 2011 budget includes a provision to triple the amount of money dedicated to nuclear power loan guarantees, to a total of 54 billion dollars. Some opponents fear that money for nuclear projects displaces resources that could go to renewable energy sources, like wind and solar. [News Source]

Loss of species hits economy; new U.N. goals needed. The United Nations says that the world is facing the worst extinction crisis since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago – driven by a rising human population, and spinoffs such as pollution, expanding cities and global warming. [News Source]

Arctic ice melting faster than feared: study. The head of the largest climate change study ever undertaken in Canada says the Arctic sea ice is thinning faster than expected. "It's happening much faster than our most pessimistic projections," said University of Manitoba Prof. David Barber. [News Source]

Arctic warming will cost world billions: Pew study. Climate warming in the Arctic will cost the global economy billions of dollars in 2010 alone, according to a study by the U.S.-based Pew Environment Group released Friday. [News Source]

Arctic melt to cost trillions: report. Arctic ice melting could cost global agriculture, real estate and insurance anywhere from $US2.4 trillion to $US24 trillion by 2050 in damage from rising sea levels, floods and heat waves, according to a new report. [News Source]

Int’l study finds Arctic sea ice melting; changing weather, threatening mammals. Rapidly melting Arctic sea ice is changing the world's weather, releasing contaminants into the food chain and threatening the survival of whales and polar bears, a massive international study on climate change has found. [News Source]