Prince Charles: Climate change is the real crisis

The heir to the British thrown, Prince Charles, has long been a champion of environmental causes. During a visit to Japan this week, he urged the world to re-shift its focus back to the issue of climate change, saying that while the global credit crunch will be temporary, the effects of the "climate crunch" are irreversible.

Ten greenest colleges in the nation

America’s institutions of higher learning are doing more than just molding and inspiring the bright minds of students. Many are also setting admirable examples of sustainable solutions to myriad problems.

Another climate change effect: Disease

When people think of global warming, they conjure images of melting ice caps and rising sea levels that threaten coastal cities and nations. The U.N. Climate Panel has said that greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from human use of fossil fuels, are raising temperatures and will disrupt rainfall patterns and have impacts ranging from heat waves to melting glaciers.

Up until recently few have considered how increasing temperatures and fluctuating rain and humidity will disrupt the life cycles and distribution of disease-producing agents around the world.

ARCTIC UPDATE: This is what a ton of Carbon Dioxide looks like

It's pretty much common knowledge that those of us living in industrialized nations are guilty of releasing way too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere -- a crime of humankind that most agree is speeding up the warming of our planet.

But since carbon dioxide, or CO2, is invisible, it's hard to visualize a ton of the stuff, or roughly the amount of the gas each American is responsible for emitting over the course of 18 days.

Abrupt climate change research gears up in Bush's 11th hour

The federal government is launching a new initiative to coordinate research among six national laboratories and other private universities to study one of the most concerning aspects of global warming: Abrupt Climate Change.

Permafrost may not thaw during global warming

Climate change scientists have warned for years that one of the potential consequences of a warmer world is the deep thawing of the permafrost. This would release potentially dangerous quantities of carbon into the atmosphere, as vegetation, bones and other organic material, long locked up in the deep freezer that is the permafrost, decompose.

Green real estate is taking over

By 2012, green building could represent 20% of the market, reports the Daily Green. This is shocking news in a real estate economy that’s seeing tough times.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Green Building Conference revealed the study that focused on changes in green building activity between 2001 and 2007. The findings far exceeded expectations.

New film takes on water profiteers

Water is viewed by many financiers as the “new petroleum” of the 21st century – a commodity that is in ever-shorter supply, and that people will be willing to pay more and more to have access to. However, global water supplies are at risk from a wide variety of threats. Global warming is shrinking glaciers and snowfields that millions rely on for drinking and irrigation water. Mining of ancient groundwater supplies can only go on for so long before the aquifers run dry, and industrial and agricultural pollution is widespread.

UN says eat less meat to curb global warming

People should have one meat-free day a week if they want to make a personal and effective sacrifice that would help tackle climate change, says the world's leading authority on global warming.

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that people should then go on to reduce their meat consumption even further.

His comments are the most controversial advice yet provided by the panel on how individuals can help tackle global warning.

Massive Canada Arctic ice shelf breaks away

In the latest sign of accelerating climate change, a huge 19 square mile ice shelf in Canada's northern Arctic broke away last month and the remaining shelves have shrunk at a "massive and disturbing" rate.

Scientists said the Markham Ice Shelf, one of just five remaining ice shelves in the Canadian Arctic, split away from Ellesmere Island in early August. Two large chunks totaling 47 square miles also broke off the nearby Serson Ice Shelf, reducing it in size by 60 percent.