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Earth is on track to face devastating consequences of climate change – extreme drought, food shortages and deadly flooding – unless there’s an “unprecedented” effort made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, a new United Nations report warns. The planet’s surface has already warmed by 1 degree Celsius – or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit – and could see a catastrophic 1.5 C — 2.7 F — increase between 2030 and 2052, scientists say. “This is concerning because we know there are so many more problems if we exceed 1.5 degrees C global warming, including more heat waves and hot summers,...

National Hurricane Center is forecasting the possibility of a Hurricane in the NE Gulf of Mexico by Tuesday or Wednesday. It would be Hurricane Michael. Landfill is uncertain, but appears to be headed toward Florida Panhandle/Alabama Coasts.

The West Coast will see an ocean several inches higher in coming decades, with most of California expected to get sea levels a half foot higher by 2030, according a report released Friday. The study by the National Research Council gives planners their best look yet at how melting ice sheets and warming oceans associated with climate change will raise sea levels along the country's Pacific coast. It is generally consistent with earlier global projections, but takes a closer look at California, Oregon and Washington. Although the 6 inches expected for California by 2030 seem minor, the report estimated that...

For doomsday theorists, Dec. 21, 2012 could mean the end of civilization, according to some interpretations of the Mayan calendar. But for some tour operators and property owners, the end of the world also means a chance to cash in on the apocalypse hype. In the most prominent countries of the Mundo Maya – Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador – the tourism industry is gearing up for a record year, with dozens of Maya-themed offerings designed to lure visitors. The Guatemalan city of Tapachula will feature an 8-foot digital count-down clock in its main park,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Warming air from climate change isn't the only thing that will speed ice melting near the poles — so will the warming water beneath the ice, a new study points out. Increased melting of ice in Greenland and parts of Antarctica has been reported as a consequence of global warming, potentially raising sea levels. But little attention has been paid to the impact of warmer water beneath the ice. Now, Jianjun Yin of the University of Arizona and colleagues report the warming water could mean polar ice melting faster than had been expected. Their report was published...

Sitting miles offshore in Lake Superior, Isle Royale National Park is about as good as you can get for a wilderness sanctuary in the interior of a continent. But while the park's isolation has provided a perfect, controlled laboratory for its famous predator-prey studies of wolves and moose, the island is not immune to "unnatural" threats, both from the air and the ground. Mercury from air pollution is measurable in the fat of its inland-lake fish, and stowaways from hikers' boots - non-native, invasive plant species such as garlic mustard - now sprout from its interior trails. The problems facing...

A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and could hit the Earth in late February or early March, government officials said Saturday.