Issues & Trends

From the Arctic sea ice to the Antarctic interior and the mountainous peaks of Peru, Alaska, and Tibet, ice is melting at an alarming rate. The accelerating loss of ice sheets, sea ice, and glaciers is one of the most powerful and striking indicators of a warming climate.

When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its last report in 2007, environmental tipping points were a footnote. A troubling footnote, to be sure, but the science was relatively new and unsettled. Straightforward global warming was enough to worry about.

By Matt Barringer, CNN Design Ever wondered how much carbon the world emits from the power it uses? The colored circles show each region's population and their electricity consumption and carbon emissions.

Soot Pollution Melting Glaciers

These glaciers are a sign of what is going into your lungs. If we 
replaced all the world's coal electric power plants with nukes we'd 
breathe cleaner air and the glaciers wouldn't lose so much ice.

    WASHINGTON – Black soot deposited on Tibetan glaciers has 

by Stephen Messenger, Porto Alegre, Brazil on 12.14.09

Satellite images that track levels of deforestation could be used in the fight against climate change.

By Stephanie Rogers

Fri, Dec 11 2009 at 1:31 PM EST

By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website

By JOHN M. BRODER