World leaders flatly admitted this weekend what everyone pretty much knew: there won't be a major deal on climate change at the big conference in Copenhagen next month. Instead, leaders will try to keep the process going, in hopes of coming up with a deal next year.
You know you're in for a bout of grim reading when the international agency charged with worrying about how we power the planet starts off its fact sheet with a question like this: "Why is our current energy pathway unsustainable?"
As if anyone needed proof that immigration will remain a major issue, a new international survey reports that some 700 million people worldwide say they would move to another country if they could. Not surprisingly, the largest single group, one-quarter, say their first choice would be to come to the United States.
At one of the last preliminary meetings leading up to the international climate change conference, a U.N. official called on the diplomats to craft "simple, clear options for politicians" at Copenhagen.
An excellent idea, but they've left it until pretty late in the day. And when they've created these clear options, they might want to let the public in on them, too.
Don't feel bad if your eyes glazed over this story reporting the Obama administration is going to put $3.4 billion behind an upgraded electrical grid – the so-called "smart grid." But it may match the Senate climate change hearings as the most important energy story of the day – and it's no less
As the Senate holds hearings on a major climate change bill this week, you're going to hear a lot of numbers: 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gases, 350 parts per million, and $100 per household. But the best number to focus on may be this one: 55.
The latest edition of the "nation's report card" shows that math scores failed to improve for the first time since 1990, and you don't have to have great math skills to know that isn't good enough. But how do we move skills forward?
The battle over climate change has been joined in the Senate, and judging from the first day, it's not only going to be as heated as health care, it's also going to be just as obscure.
The first news stories, for example, tell us that the Senate version of a global warming bill introduced this week wants to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent from 2005 levels, compared with 17 percent in the House bill.
Here's a measure of both how important Social Security is and the problems it faces: the program will actually run a deficit over the next two years because fewer people are paying in and more are applying for benefits.
