US Mission Geneva

Excessive levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere are causing the planet to grow warmer, most researchers agree. One possible response to the problem is to prevent CO2 from entering the atmosphere by storing it somewhere else.

International cooperative actions to mitigate climate change will be up for discussion when a major international meeting convenes in Durban, South Africa, November 28 through December 9. The chief U.S. negotiator, Todd Stern, expects that this year’s session on the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will build on progress made in the last two years.

The new partnership will help fight hunger, build resilience to climate change, and reduce the costs of natural disasters, USAID said in an October 20 press release. The partnership combines the expertise of Swiss Re, a global reinsurance provider, with two initiatives of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Degradation of the land supporting human life and the food supply is an environmental threat that endangers the lives and livelihoods of more than 1 billion people worldwide. On September 20, world leaders met in a high-level U.N. forum for the first time to address desertification and drought.

Washington — Seventy days remain until international leaders will gather in South Africa to discuss ways to tackle climate change. The road ahead is tough, U.S. lead climate negotiator Todd Stern told reporters September 19, “but I’m not pessimistic.”

“Cities are the location of a lot of emissions because they’re centers of industry and population,” Mann said. “But they’re also laboratories for solutions. They’re going to generate the ideas the federal government will come back to, at some point, out of necessity.”

Research published June 20 finds a steady rise in the sea level on the U.S. Atlantic coast, a faster rise now than at any time in the last 2,000 years.

The Obama administration has announced an intent to provide $1 billion through 2012 to help other nations adapt to climate change, an amount Stern said is only three one-hundredths of 1 percent of the annual budget

Choosing the right tree to plant depends on what sort of climate

you live in. The U.S. Department of Agriculture teamed up with the

Chicago Botanic Garden and Pennsylvania State University to produce an

illustrated list of trees and shrubs best suited for urban environments.