GOP vp candidate Sarah Palin has cranked up the heat on the frigid North. The Alaska governor filed a lawsuit against Endangered Species Act protections for polar bears and is urging expanded oil exploration in the ecologically sensitive Arctic climate.

In a report commissioned by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Government Accountability Office accused the Environmental Protection Agency of of failing to stop the world-wide dumping of hazardous electronic & tech waste.

The Center for Biological Diversity awarded Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin the 2008 Rubber Dodo Award. Last year's award went to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne for setting a new record in refusing to add plants and animals to the endangered species list.

A new analysis has suggested that old growth forests are usually valuable "carbon sinks", and they continue to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and mitigate climate change for centuries.

A report by Oxfam International says emissions, primarily from developed countries, are exacerbating flooding, droughts and extreme weather events.

Highlights from this week: Mann's new hockey stick - yes, it's real; UK Environment Agency planning to abandon parts of Norfolk, Suffolk to sea level rise; insufficient transmission lines lead to wind turbines being turned off.

A bigger risk may come from plans to dam major rivers such as the Congo & the Mekong to provide hydroelectric power. If such dams reduce the outflow of nutrients into the ocean, & thus cripple the CO2-absorbing plankton bloom, then "green" hydeopower may

The devastating effects of climate change are also accelerating sea level rise and small island nations are preparing evacuation plans to guarantee the survival of their populations.

Climate change has made Senator Barack Obama's list of "threats of the 21st century" alongside terrorism and nuclear proliferation, poverty, genocide, and disease.

Great info from the Sierra Club on drilling for oil - the facts, the consequences and how it's not a panacea for prices at the pump.