Is Global Warming for Real? (Bay Weekly) With all the cold and snow, I’ve heard the same refrain all winter: How can it be so cold if there’s global warming? For the average person, it all gets confusing. Who’s right? Does the frigid winter along the Mid-Atlantic signal the end of the global warming threat? [News Source]

World’s top scientists to review climate panel. At a tumultuous time in U.N.-led climate negotiations, one of the world’s most credible scientific groups agreed Wednesday to plug the recent cracks in the authoritative reports of the United Nations’ Nobel Prize-winning global warming panel. [News Source]

Time for next stage of sustainable business. Corporate America needs to track its use of energy and resources as closely as it does its hiring and cash flow if it wants to keep pace with social concern about climate change and other sustainability issues, an activist U.S. investor group argues in a new report. [News Source]

Increasing yields and decreasing fertilizer waste on subsistence farms. A new technology that cuts nitrogen fertilizer waste in half while increasing rice yields is spreading quickly in Bangladesh and is being investigated by 15 other nations. Nitrogen fertilizer waste contributes to global warming, coastal "dead zones," and other problems. [News Source]

Going green vs. going broke. Republicans say California can't afford its global warming law. But the real question should be: Can we afford not to cut pollution? [News Source]

Out of step. Recent changes in the seasonal timing of biological events such as flowering and migration have been linked to warmer temperatures. Now a study shows that such seasonal shifts are becoming increasingly common in the UK and could wreak havoc across ecosystems as they disturb the delicate balance of nature. [News Source]

Review of U.N. climate panel won’t re-examine errors. An outside review of a U.N. climate panel after flaws were uncovered in its most recent report on climate change will not recheck that report's conclusions and will instead focus on improving procedures for the future, officials said Wednesday. [News Source]

Introducing the newest scientific measurement: A “Rosenfeld” for energy savings. It may not roll off the tongue like the ohm, watt or volt, but it would follow in their tradition. Many call Arthur Rosenfeld, a recently retired member of the California Energy Commission, the "godfather of energy efficiency." [News Source]

Fashion muses on global cooling. Chanel trots out fake fur trousers and yeti boots to prepare for the coming ice age. "Have you felt any warming this winter?" design icon Karl Lagerfeld asked after the fashion house's autumn show Monday. "Maybe that's all nonsense, who knows." [News Source]

Oil execs chortle as Obama admin promotes renewables. Renewable energy is being praised in Washington, but it is generating snickers in Houston, the nation's traditional energy capital, where oil, gas and utility leaders are gathered for a major industry conference. [News Source]

Water vapour warming. A loss of water vapour in the Earth's upper atmosphere may have slowed the rate of global warming over the past decade, suggests new research. Although the decade 2000–2009 was the warmest on record, average global temperatures leveled off during this period despite a continued rise in greenhouse gas emissions. [News Source]