U.N. Climate Summit Sets Goals To Save Forests, Use Clean Energy

An alliance of about 30 countries including the United States and a coalition of multinational companies set a goal of halving losses of forests by 2020 and halting losses by 2030. If fully implemented, this would stave off between 4.5 billion and 8.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year, equivalent to emissions by all the world’s one billion cars.

A Tale of Two Poles

Arctic sea ice continued its long-term decline in 2014, as the ice reached its annual minimum extent on September 17, and was the sixth lowest recorded in the modern satellite era. Meanwhile, sea ice on the other side of the planet was headed in the opposite direction.