President Obama is about to nominate outgoing Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire as the new head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a very private prediction from a very senior source in Washington’s congressional delegation. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
M.I.T. climate scientist Kerry Emanuel has published an updated edition of “What We Know About Climate Change,” his 2007 book explaining the science of global warming. [New York Times]
Recent laws in the United States and Europe that mandate the increasing use of biofuel in cars have had far-flung ripple effects, economists say, as land once devoted to growing food for humans is now sometimes more profitably used for churning out vehicle fuel. [New York Times]
New solar power installations in Germany hit a record high last year, but tapered off in the fourth quarter as subsidies were cut to curb costs to consumers, Environment Ministry data showed on Saturday. [Express Tribune]
A Canadian company has developed a cleansing technology that may one day capture and remove heat-trapping gasses directly from the sky. And it is even possible that the gas could then be sold for industrial use. [New York Times]
More than 100 homes destroyed and thousands of people displaced on Australian island state of Tasmania due to dozens of wildfires sparked by record high temperatures. [Guardian]
Global warming could result in a significant shift of the North American monsoon, with less rain during the early part of the season, in June and July, and more rain later in the summer and early autumn. [Summit County Voice]
Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and a salvage crew managed to refloat a drilling rig that ran aground in Alaska in preparation for towing it to a safe harbor. [Bloomberg]