Glacier melting a key clue to tracking climate change. Many glaciers are melting rapidly, with the pace picking up over the past decade, giving glaciers a central role in the debate over causes and impacts of climate change. [News Source]

Vast new refuge weighed for northern Everglades. To staunch pollution flows into the headwaters of the Everglades, and to provide habitat for animals forced to adapt to climate change, Obama administration officials are considering designating a new 100,000-acre national wildlife refuge north of Lake Okeechobee. [News Source]

Shifting soil threatens homes’ foundations. Extreme weather possibly linked to climate change, as well as construction on less stable ground, have provoked foundation failures in houses nationwide. Repair companies report a tripling of business in the last two decades - even during the latest recession. [News Source]

The big dry ahead. The Department of Water says a report on Western Australia's future water supply presents significant challenges. The report blames climate change since the mid 1970s for a big drop in rainfall and surface and groundwater yields. [News Source]

France’s crumbling sea walls no match for ocean. Environmental groups say the storm that engulfed France's Atlantic coast Sunday and killed at least 52 people should be a wake-up call about the danger of weak sea defenses. Scientists warn that climate change will bring even fiercer storms and rising seas in the years ahead. [News Source]

BASIC difference in increasing members. With BASIC countries - Brazil, South Africa, India and China - emerging as an influential grouping in climate change negotiations, Mexico, Argentina and Indonesia have expressed interest in associating themselves with the group. [News Source]

Texas-based refiners pledge $2 million to fight California’s global warming law. Valero and Tesoro are reportedly helping fund a signature drive for a ballot initiative to suspend the greenhouse-gas-cutting law until the jobless rate improves. [News Source]

EPA head blasts effort to block regs. The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that an effort in Congress to stop the agency from regulating pollution linked to climate change would be an “enormous step backward for science” if successful. [News Source]

Lieberman: Health care ploy could ruin climate bill. Senate Republicans could withhold support of key legislation such as a climate-change bill if Democrats ram a health care reform bill through the Senate using fast-track procedures, Senator Joseph Lieberman said on Wednesday. [News Source]

Murkowski accuses EPA leader of conflicting statements on GHG regulations. Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski today grilled U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on what the senator called conflicting statements on whether the agency's leader would prefer to curb greenhouse gas emissions using regulations or legislation. [News Source]

Lack of climate agreement hits market. The lack of a binding agreement on climate change has seemingly relegated carbon trading to a subsidiary role in the effort to reduce greenhouse emissions and drive change in global energy systems. [News Source]