Super Eco

Photo credit: Google Earth

Have you been playing with Google Earth's new climate change projection tool, since Lucy's thought-provoking article last week on mapping and visualizing change? If you're hesitant to download Google Earth (we do understand; it's a big program to cram onto a busy computer), you can always hop over to YouTube to watch the most popular simulation tours, like this one:

The sense of immediacy gained from tools like these has swept us into another round of evaluations on the climate change issue. What can we do to make a difference? What efforts are happening right now? What initiatives should we support? Who's trailblazing the path? We uncovered so many fresh developments and news—such welcome news!—that we collected them here for your review. Here, in a nutshell, is climate change in the news this week.

• Exelon quits Chamber over climate change Power generator Exelon became the latest utility to drop its membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of the group's opposition to legislation that would limit emissions of greenhouse gases.
• Catastrophic climate change could happen within 50 years A new report from British Met Life shows accelerated global warming, underlining the importance for the world to reach an ambitious climate deal in Copenhagen.
• Four-degree warming called "likely" without carbon cuts Global temperatures may be 4 degrees Celsius hotter by the mid-2050s if current greenhouse gas emissions trends continue, said a study published on Monday.
• Global increase in atmospheric methane likely caused by unusual arctic warmth, tropical wetness Unusually high temperatures in the Arctic and heavy rains in the tropics likely drove a global increase in atmospheric methane in 2007 and 2008 after a decade of near-zero growth, according to a new study.
• Denver the top greenhouse gas-polluting city? A new scientific report that ranks 10 world cities for their contribution to global warming has a surprising conclusion: Denver is the most polluting city, by a long shot.
• Climate change pledges met with skepticism Environmental activists Tuesday cautiously welcomed pledges made at a climate change summit here, but remained skeptical that key powers can bridge differences before crunch Copenhagen talks.
• U.S. working on G20 pact to cut fossil fuel subsidies The United States is still working toward an agreement with G20 partners to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels, a top White House adviser said ahead of this week's G20 summit.
• Airlines pledge to cut emissions by 50% Addressing the United Nations climate-change meeting in New York, a representative for IATA, the trade body for airlines, promised that by 2050 the industry would cut its carbon emissions to 50% of 2005 levels.