WASHINGTON — The climate change proposal developed by congressional Democrats and endorsed by President Barrack Obama does little to reduce global warming and saddles Americans with high energy costs, Republicans said Saturday.

via GOP Belittles Democrats’ Climate Change Proposal.

Serious allegations. Quite possibly on a par with the big cigarette companies denials about the cancer risk of smoking, considering the potential devastating  impacts of climate change on the health and well being of the world’s populations:

‘Finally. After years of denying its role in the campaign of climate denial, Exxon has revealed a dirty secret, that it has and likely still is directly funding junk scientists.’

via Kert Davies: Revealed: Exxon Secret Funding of Global Warming Junk Scientists.

‘The most comprehensive modeling yet carried out on the likelihood of how much hotter the Earth's climate will get in this century shows that without rapid and massive action, the problem will be about twice as severe as previously estimated six years ago – and could be even worse than that.’

It is worth noting that this study advances the argument, also mentioned at the Copenhagen Climate Conference by Lord Stern, that the most cost effective approach toward climate risk mitigation is to act quickly as there are increasing mitigation costs and risks with delay. The article goes on to quote study co-author Ronald Prinn:

‘Because vehicles last for years, and buildings and power plants last for decades, it is essential to start making major changes through adoption of significant national and international policies as soon as possible, Prinn says. “The least-cost option to lower the risk is to start now and steadily transform the global energy system over the coming decades to low or zero greenhouse gas-emitting technologies.”‘

via Climate change odds much worse than thought – MIT News Office.

LONDON — Climate-change disasters kill around 300,000 people a year and cause about $125 billion in economic losses, mainly from agriculture, a think-tank led by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan reported Friday.

via Report: Climate Change Causes 300,000 Deaths Yearly Already.

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nevada (Reuters) – President Barack Obama provided a spending boost to the solar and geothermal energy industries on Wednesday and said increased use of the fuels would make America more secure.

via Obama touts solar power to break U.S. oil addiction | Green Business | Reuters.

BEIJING — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged Beijing on Thursday to cooperate on climate change, calling a safe environment a basic human right.

via Pelosi’s New Tactic: Telling China Environment Is A Human Right.

HONG KONG — Worried about heavy reliance on imported oil, Chinese officials have drafted automotive fuel economy standards that are even more stringent than those outlined by President Obama last week, Chinese experts with a detailed knowledge of the plans said on Wednesday.

via China Is Said to Plan Strict Gas Mileage Rules – NYTimes.com.