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Texas Tech climate change expert available to discuss the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change results.

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on Friday, Feb. 2, will release in Paris a summary of its Fourth Assessment Report (the full text of the report will follow later in the year). Two University of Chicago climatologists are available to journalists to comment on the report.

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The future of federal climate change policy is likely to include a host of strategies such as a national cap on carbon dioxide emissions, mandatory standards on renewable energy, mandatory efficiency standards on vehicles and products, and a national carbon dioxide cap-and-trade scheme, according to new research conducted by the University of New Hampshire.

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Tomorrow will be an important day in the history of humankind's battle against global warming, says a science historian at the American Institute of Physics. "For the first time, society is taking scientific predictions like this seriously. We should congratulate ourselves for not only paying attention but taking serious action."

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If, as planned, Maryland joins a regional compact designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions, it will have a modest positive environmental impact and will not translate into higher bills for electric customers, according to a new study from the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER).

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The International Panel on Climate Change Friday will release a major report that represents the consensus of the international scientific community on the state of the world's climate. SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) experts are available to discuss the report.

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Punxsutawney Phil may be smarter than we've given him credit for. In addition to checking out his shadow to forecast the end of winter, this old groundhog has been ahead of the curve in predicting global warming.

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While temperature records dating back thousands of years already exist for certain regions of the United States, like the East Coast and the Northwest, no such record exists for the North American Great Plains. But now, a Baylor University researcher along with a team of scientists has developed a new method to measure temperature fluctuations in the Great Plains, creating a temperature record for that area of the country dating back 12,000 years.

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How severe will global warming get? Jason P. Briner is looking for an answer buried deep in mud dozens of feet below the surface of lakes in the frigid Canadian Arctic. His group is gathering the first quantitative temperature data over the last millennium from these areas.

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will release on Feb. 2 the Summary for Policymakers of its Fourth Assessment Report, an ongoing United Nations-sponsored analysis of climate change, its potential societal impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. The first component of the report from the IPCC's Working Group I will contain several key findings and estimates about effects of climate change.

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A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists offers the most comprehensive documentation to date of how ExxonMobil has adopted the tobacco industry's disinformation tactics, as well as some of the same organizations and personnel, to cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue. According to the report, ExxonMobil has funneled nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of 43 advocacy organizations that seek to confuse the public on global warming science.

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Could low-level heavy metal pollution be combining with warm water temperatures to fatally weaken cold-blooded sea life? A study examining the joint effects of cadmium and temperature on mitochondrial metabolism in oysters finds a combined effect that is potentially lethal and could be a significant contributor to recent oyster declines.

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Small insects that inhabit some of the most remote parts of the United States are sending a strong message about climate change. New research suggests that changes in midge communities in some of these areas provide additional evidence that the globe is indeed getting warmer.

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Carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels will produce a 3 percent reduction in the density of Earth's outermost atmosphere by 2017, scientists predict. Recent observations have shown that the thermosphere, which begins about 60 miles above Earth and extends up to 400 miles, is becoming less dense.

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New NCAR research indicates that Arctic sea ice will soon begin to retreat four times more rapidly than at any time since observations began. The Arctic may become nearly devoid of late summertime sea ice by about 2040 because of greenhouse gas emissions.

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Near the Lower Colorado River, home to the Cocopah people for many centuries, an unprecedented gathering is underway. The Cocopah Indian Tribe and National Wildlife Federation have partnered to co-host the first-ever Tribal Lands Climate Conference"”bringing together leaders from more than 50 tribes to address the growing global warming crisis.

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The U.S. Supreme Court today heard oral argument in a case centering on whether the Environmental Protection Agency should regulate carbon dioxide and other pollutants from tailpipes that cause global warming. The National Wildlife Federation filed an amicus brief in the case pointing to science showing the link between global warming and declines in wildlife species.

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In response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) argument in the U.S. Supreme Court case, Massachusetts et al. vs. U.S. EPA et al. that it would not regulate carbon dioxide due in part to scientific uncertainty, Alan Covich, President of the Ecological Society of America, expressed dismay over the agency's disregard for the widespread scientific consensus on the facts and effects of climate change.

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Researchers for the first time have shown a connection between global warming and decreased polar bear survival.

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Russian and American scientists are studying the dramatic climate changes of northern Europe and Asia to better predict future weather pattern shifts worldwide. Their findings are expected to help policymakers develop strategies to overcome negative effects of the climate variations on global agriculture and economies.

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Can nuclear energy save us from global warming? Perhaps, but the tradeoffs involved are sobering: thousands of metric tons of nuclear waste generated each year and a greatly increased risk of nuclear weapons proliferation or diversion of nuclear material into terrorists' hands.

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Recent heat waves, long dry spells, and heavy bursts of rain and snow hint at longer-term changes to come, according to a new study based on several advanced climate models. Much of the world will face significant changes in extreme weather events by the end of this century.

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Future weather forecasts call for longer droughts and heavier rainfall, thanks to global climate change, says a Texas Tech researcher and scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

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Shifting snow melts, record wildfires and rising temperatures are already changing life in the West. Experts Philip Mote and Steven Running recently joined a National Wildlife Federation press briefing, to explain new scientific research.

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Oysters exposed to high water temperatures and a common heavy metal are unable to obtain sufficient oxygen and convert it to cellular energy, according to a new study presented at The American Physiological Society conference, Comparative Physiology 2006.

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Today, the National Wildlife Federation releases a new report --Fueling the Fire: Global Warming, Fossil Fuels and the Fish and Wildlife of the American West. The report provides solutions to the urgent crisis, and pulls together the latest scientific research about global warming impacts in the West.

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A group of leading scientists find that unless steps are taken to slow global warming, several states in the Northeast could have climates similar to those of the modern-day South.

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A severe storm that occurred in the Gulf of Alaska in October 2005 generated an ocean swell that six days later broke apart a giant iceberg floating near the coast of Antarctica, more than 8,300 miles away. (AUDIO EMBEDDED)

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The Union of Concerned Scientists is hosting a telephone press conference on global warming in the Northeast. A new report shows how decisions made today can effect the climate of the Northeast in the future.

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David Inouye, professor of biology at the University of Maryland, has found that climate change is damaging the Aspen sunflower of the Rocky Mountains. The sunflower could be a "canary in the mine," warning of future ecological consequences of a warming climate.

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A new computer model study shows that a two-pronged approach to stabilizing climate, with cuts in greenhouse gas emissions as well as injections of climate-cooling sulfates into the stratosphere, could prove more effective than either approach used separately. The study will be published this week in Science.

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Changes in the Sun's brightness over the past millennium have had only a small effect on Earth's climate, according to a new study appearing in Nature. The results imply that human activities are having a far greater impact on climate change than are variations in solar brightness.

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Increases in greenhouse gas concentrations are causing ocean temperatures to rise in key hurricane breeding grounds in the Atlantic and Pacific, according to a study that will be published next week. The observed sea surface temperature increases cannot be attributed to natural processes alone, the authors conclude.

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David Wolfe, Cornell University professor of horticulture, will speak on "Climate Change and Our Gardens, Our Forests, Our Farms," at the Climate Change: Prospects for Nature symposium sponsored by the New York Botanical Garden.

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A study co-authored by a Florida State University scientist in Tallahassee, Fla., and published in the Sept. 7 issue of the journal Nature has found that as the permafrost melts in North Siberia due to climate change, carbon sequestered and buried there since the Pleistocene era is bubbling up to the surface of Siberian thaw lakes and into the atmosphere as methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

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New research suggests Antarctica has been getting gradually warmer for the last 150 years, a trend not identifiable in the short meteorological records and masked at the end of the 20th century by large temperature variations.

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New research shows fast-warming climate appears to be triggering genetic changes in a species of fruit fly that is native to Europe and was introduced into North and South America about 25 years ago.

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Researchers at Syracuse University and Boston University have discovered evidence for a warming climate change that occurred more than 14 million years ago. The result -- catastrophic drainage of subglacial lakes caused flooding that formed a 50-kilometer maze of canyons (called the Labyrinth) in Antarctica's southern Victoria Land. Could this happen again?

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As first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina nears, a just-released Zogby poll shows that not only are Americans more convinced global warming is happening, they are also linking recent intense weather events like Hurricane Katrina and this summer's heat wave and droughts to global warming.

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The California Climate Action Team has released a summary report of 17 scientific studies examining the potential impacts of climate change on California. Today, officials discussed the report, the science and what the state is doing to take action on reducing heat-trapping gases that threaten to cause more frequent coastal floods, rising sea levels, beach erosion and disruptions to wetlands.

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One of the most insidious impacts of global warming will be changes in the timing of ecological events which can disrupt natural communities. At a special session on this subject at the ESA annual meeting, University of Maryland's Dr. David Inouye presents three decades of data suggesting climate change impacts on pollination ecology in mountain environments.

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Palm trees on Florida's west coast appear to be dying more rapidly than in previous years because of sea level rise tied to global warming.

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A little-known valley in northern Sweden holds evidence that warming temperatures may lead to significant changes in nutrient availability for plants and increasing amounts of greenhouse gases, a University of Arkansas researcher and his colleagues say.

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Earthwatch-supported scientist, Dr. Stephen Williams of James Cook University, reports on the limited distributions of diverse rainforest animals in the Wet Tropics of Queensland, Australia. Stranded on mountaintop habitats, these populations may have nowhere to go in the face of climate change, making them vulnerable to extinction.

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The increasing number of pine plantations in the southern United States could contribute to a rise in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, a new study reports. This is important because carbon dioxide is a key greenhouse gas, one that is linked to global warming.

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A new paper by Dr. Ilan Koren of the Weizmann Institute Environmental Studies and Energy Research Department and Dr. Yoram Kauffman of the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, USA,* published in Science Express online, weaves together two opposing effects of atmospheric aerosols to provide a comprehensive picture of how they may be affecting our climate.

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A study implicates rising seasonal temperatures and the earlier arrival of spring conditions in connection with a dramatic increase of large wildfires in the western United States.

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For the first time, glaciologists have combined and compared sets of ancient climate records trapped in ice cores from the South American Andes and the Asian Himalayas to paint a picture of how climate has changed "“ and is still changing "“ in the tropics. Their conclusions mark a climate shift to a much warmer world within the last 50 years.

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The following faculty members from The University of Texas at Austin are available to the media for interviews concerning global warming issues.

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Global warming accounted for around half of the extra hurricane-fueling warmth in the waters of the tropical North Atlantic in 2005, while natural cycles were only a minor factor, according to a study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research appearing in the June 27 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.