What will a successful global climate change agreement look like? That question is only more important to ask in the wake of this weekend’s agreement by President Obama to a plan that will ask world leaders to reach a political agreement at this December’s UN climate talks in Copenhagen, ahead of a more binding agreement [...]

Thirteen years ago, The Nature Conservancy teamed up with Fundación Amigos de la Naturaleza, American Electric Power Company, BP America and Pacificorp to buy out four logging concessions adjacent to Bolivia’s Noel Kempff Mercado National Park.
In addition to protecting almost 832,000 hectares of forest habitat and doubling the size of the national park, this purchase [...]

Are practical solutions to climate change within reach? Based on what I saw at the Governors’ Global Climate Summit, yes we can.
The Governors’ Global Climate Summit wrapped up last Friday with governors and other subnational leaders from around the world signing a declaration to work together toward effective climate solutions — including creation of climate [...]

After yesterday’s star-studded kickoff, today’s discussions at the Governor’s Global Climate Summit in California started on a more sobering note. The topic: adaptation to the inevitable impacts of climate change.
Let’s face it. Climate change hurts: 

Coastal flooding will continue to displace more and more people from their homes. 
Increasing droughts are going to make it even harder for the [...]

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, kicked off the second Governors’ Global Climate Summit (www.GovernorsGlobalClimateSummit.org) in Los Angeles on Wednesday. And he was there to pump participants up.

What does climate change mean to you?  Maybe you think about polar bears stranded on a melting ice block.
But climate change is going to be a lot more personal to U.S. residents than that, according to a new analysis released today by The Nature Conservancy. Longer, drier droughts could wither crops and push family farms [...]

With so much public and political attention on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, I often get asked to explain why climate change adaptation is also important.
It’s important because the climate has already started to change, and it is affecting people and nature in negative ways.
As a scientist, I can rattle off facts and figures about how [...]

For all the doom and gloom forecasts that have dominated climate change warnings, it’s easy to understand why people envision a future when post-apocalyptic survivors struggling to save civilization in a barren world where people battle over scarce food and water supplies. The realities of climate change will probably not be so sensational. But a landmark scientific report issued by the US government this week clearly shows that the impacts will be just as scary.

If we want to contain global warming, then we need to constrain carbon dioxide emissions within an appropriate ecological budget. According to a new study published in NATURE, our cumulative carbon dioxide budget for 2000-2050 is 1000 gigatons.

I have heard some conservationists lament that Bill Gates and his philanthropic foundation don’t “get it” when it comes to the environment — because they focus on vaccines and agricultural development, but not on environmental protection that also contributes to human well-being.
I think Mr. Gates has already “gotten it.”
In his 2009 Annual Letter [...]