An enormous iceberg breaks off the Knox Coast in the Australian Antarctic Territory, 2008. Japanese researchers said Wednesday they hoped to enlist bacteria in the fight against global warming to transform carbon dioxide buried under the seabed into natural gas.(AFP/File/Torsten Blackwood)AFP - Japanese researchers said Wednesday they hoped to enlist bacteria in the fight against global warming to transform carbon dioxide buried under the seabed into natural gas.


Quiver trees, known also as AFP - An old man gently touches the trunk of the huge quiver tree with a worried look on his wrinkled face, as he points at several dead branches lying on Namibia’s rugged terrain.


AP - Republican leaders in a South Carolina county known as a GOP stronghold have voted to censure U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham for working with Democrats on immigration and climate change.

President Nicolas Sarkozy 9pictured) has told the council of ministers that a revamped carbon tax will be presented to the cabinet later this month and that it will go into force on July 1, government spokesman Luc Chatel told reporters.(AFP/File/Eric Feferberg)AFP - The French government decided Tuesday that a new carbon tax to fight global warming will go into force in July, a week after the constitutional court struck down a previous version of the measure.


A bushfire burns out of control in the Kiewa Valley in Victoria state. Australia has sweltered through its hottest decade on record, officials have said, linking a rise in heatwaves, drought, dust storms and extreme wildfires with global warming.(AFP/File/Torsten Blackwood)AFP - Australia has sweltered through its hottest decade on record, officials said Tuesday, linking a rise in heatwaves, drought, dust storms and extreme wildfires with global warming.


Pew - From April 2008 to October 2009 the percentage of Americans saying there is solid evidence of global warming has fallen from 71% to 57%. A third of the country now says there is no evidence of global warming, up from 21% last year.

FILE -This July 8, 2009 photo shows Greenpeace climbers on Mount Rushmore National Memorial in Keystone, S.D. unfurling a banner that challenges President Obama to show leadership on global warming. Eleven Greenpeace members were sentenced Monday, Jan. 4, 2010 in federal court in Rapid City for hanging a banner on Mount Rushmore National Memorial. (AP Photo/Kate Davison, Greenpeace, file)AP - Sentences for 11 Greenpeace members who climbed Mount Rushmore National Memorial in July to hang an anti-global warming banner range from jail time to community service.


AP - Michigan could gain a significant economic boost and thousands of new jobs by reducing emissions of gases that cause climate change, according to an analysis released Monday.

AP - Angry farmers wearing broad-brimmed hats and cracking kangaroo-hide whips rallied outside Parliament Monday as one of their colleagues continued a hunger strike to demand compensation for Australian climate change policy.

The Anglican leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams -- seen here in Rome last year -- has said the world has endured a AFP - The world had endured a “terrible and gruelling” past decade, the Archbishop of Canterbury said in a New Year message Friday that called for cooperation to tackle issues like extremism and global warming.


This TV grab taken from French TV channel France 2 shows French president Nicolas Sarkozy giving his live New Year's wishes to the nation at the Elysee presidential Palace in Paris. Sarkozy promised an economic revival in 2010 as his country struggles with high unemployment after crawling out of recession, in his new year's message on Thursday.(AFP/France 2)AFP - France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy enters the new year weakened in the polls while looking back at scandals, legislative setbacks and frustrated efforts to lead the fight against climate change.


The Red River that divides Hanoi is at its lowest level in more than a century, and global warming could be a factor, a Vietnamese official has said.(AFP/File/Hoang Dinh Nam)AFP - The Red River that divides Hanoi is at its lowest level in more than a century, and global warming could be a factor, a Vietnamese official said on Thursday.


AP - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is trading barbs with Spain’s environment minister over the Copenhagen summit on climate change.

Heavy traffic on a French motorway. French President Nicolas Sarkozy faced an embarrassing setback after the high court struck down a planned carbon tax to fight global warming, just days before it was to kick in.(AFP/File/Jean-Philippe Ksiazek)AFP - French President Nicolas Sarkozy faced an embarrassing setback Wednesday after the high court struck down a planned carbon tax to fight global warming, just days before it was to kick in.


President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, pictured on December 18, Tuesday signed a law requiring that Brazil cut greenhouse gas emissions by 39 percent by 2020, meeting a commitment made at the Copenhagen climate change summit.(AFP/File/Attila Kisbenedek)AFP - President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Tuesday signed a law requiring that Brazil cut greenhouse gas emissions by 39 percent by 2020, meeting a commitment made at the Copenhagen climate change summit.


AP - Insurers’ losses from natural disasters fell by more than half in 2009 thanks to fewer hurricanes and earthquakes, although climate change contributed to a significant increase in damages and losses in the U.S., a leading reinsurer said Tuesday.

A policeman stands in front of the ruins of an hotel in the Sumatran city of Padang on October 2 following a huge earthquake. We made it through the year with a minimum of natural disasters, German re-insurer Munich Re said, but climate change still threatens our planet and the failed Copenhagen summit ensures losses will rise in the future.(AFP/File/Adek Berry)AFP - We’ve made it through a year of relatively few natural disasters, German re-insurer Munich Re said Tuesday, but climate change is still a threat and the failed Copenhagen summit ensures costs will rise in the future.


Politico - The next round of the battle over climate change policy on Capitol Hill will involve more than the usual suspects – way more.

China's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, He Yafei, at a press conference in Copenhagen on December 17. China has defended its role at this month's climate change talks in the Danish capital, saying its premier, Wen Jiabao, played a key part in sealing an accord, after critics blamed Beijing for blocking negotiations.(AFP/File/Olivier Morin)AFP - China has defended its role at this month’s climate change talks in Copenhagen, saying Premier Wen Jiabao played a key part in sealing an accord, after critics blamed Beijing for blocking negotiations.


Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao addresses the session of United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen December 18, 2009. REUTERS/Bob StrongReuters - China on Friday defended the role played by premier Wen Jiabao at climate change talks in Copenhagen this month after a barrage of international criticism blaming China for obstructing negotiations.


AP - Mexico will push for a binding international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions when it hosts the next climate change summit in Mexico City in the coming year.

AP - Greenpeace will keep up the pressure on leaders it believes let the world down on global warming, the head of the international environmental group said Thursday.

U.S. President Barack Obama makes a statement on health care and climate change at the White House in Washington December 19, 2009. REUTERS/Yuri GripasReuters - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that disappointment over the outcome of the Copenhagen climate change summit was justified, hardening a widespread verdict that the conference had been a failure.


U.S. President Barack Obama waves as he leaves an announcement on government efficiency at the White House in Washington December 21, 2009. Obama said on Wednesday that disappointment over the outcome of the Copenhagen climate change summit was justified, hardening a widespread verdict that the conference had been a failure. REUTERS/Jim YoungReuters - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that disappointment over the outcome of the Copenhagen climate change summit was justified, hardening a widespread verdict that the conference had been a failure.


Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, covers his eyes as he attends a news conference at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, December 19, 2009. Countries should stop blaming each other for the weak outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks and sit down together to move the process forward, Boer said. REUTERS/Ints KalninsReuters - Countries should stop blaming each other for the weak outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks and sit down together to move the process forward, the U.N.’s top climate change official said on Wednesday.


Activists from environmental group Greenpeace observe one minute of silence after placing 100 crosses at the Cenotaph memorial in central Hong Kong. The climate change conference held in the Danish capital ended last week with a non-binding agreement that the European Union has blasted as a Sino-US stitch-up which will do little to curtail global warming.(AFP/File/Antony Dickson)AFP - Disappointment at the outcome of a United Nations-sponsored climate change conference in Copenhagen is “justified,” US President Barack Obama said in a US television interview on Wednesday.


Queen Elizabeth II, pictured in November 2009, will urge the Commonwealth to keep taking the lead on global issues such as the environment in her Christmas message, according to extracts released Thursday.(AFP/File/Luis Acosta)AFP - Queen Elizabeth II will urge the Commonwealth to keep taking the lead on global issues such as the environment in her Christmas message, according to extracts released Thursday.


AP - President Barack Obama says the public is justified in its disappointment with the outcome of the United Nations climate change summit.

Executive-Secretary of the UN Climate Conference Yvo de Boer is seen during a press conference on December 19, on the 13th day of the COP15 UN Climate Change Conference. The UN's pointman on climate change pleaded for calm on Wednesday after angry spats erupted over the outcome of the much-trumpeted world climate summit in Copenhagen.(AFP/File/Olivier Morin)AFP - The UN’s pointman on climate change pleaded for calm on Wednesday after angry spats erupted over the outcome of the much-trumpeted world climate summit in Copenhagen.


U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer walks off the stage after the final press conference in Copenhagen Saturday Dec. 19, 2009. A final session of the climate conference delegates that lasted through the night casted doubt on whether the president of the conference, Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, could declare the Copenhagen Accord approved. Several countries, including Bolivia, Venezuela and Sudan said the document is unacceptable because it lacks targets for reducing carbon emissions. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)AP - The top U.N. climate official said Wednesday that though the Copenhagen global warming summit went sour, countries should avoid blaming each other and get down to work on a better deal next year.