Carbon-capping legislation moving through the U.S. Congress gives a sign to world climate-watchers that the United States is serious about crafting an international deal on global warming in December.

The report by the U.S. Global Climate Research Program is billed as "a comprehensive scientific report on current and pending impacts of global climate change in the United States, and why it is important to act now, rather than later, to minimize those impacts."

The United States wants to forge a partnership with China, bringing the world's two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases together to address global warming, Washington's top climate diplomat said on Wednesday.

Tree-munching beetles, malaria-carrying mosquitoes and deer ticks that spread Lyme disease are three living signs that climate change is likely to exact a heavy toll on human health.

These pests and others are expanding their ranges in a warming world, which means people who never had to worry about them will have to start. And they are hardly the only health threats from global warming.

Counting the climate-warming carbon dioxide locked up in forests could offer a cheaper way to curb the greenhouse gas than by considering only emissions from industry and fossil fuels, according to a new study.

Counting the climate-warming carbon dioxide locked up in forests could offer a cheaper way to curb the greenhouse gas than by considering only emissions from industry and fossil fuels, according to a new study.

Tree-munching beetles, malaria-carrying mosquitoes and deer ticks that spread Lyme disease are three living signs that climate change is likely to exact a heavy toll on human health.

These pests and others are expanding their ranges in a warming world, which means people who never had to worry about them will have to start. And they are hardly the only health threats from global warming.

New York, Boston and other cities on North America's northeast coast could face a rise in sea level this century that would exceed forecasts for the rest of the planet if Greenland's ice sheet keeps melting as fast as it is now, researchers said on Wednesday.

US President Barack Obama is walking a tightrope on climate change -- and so far appears to be achieving a delicate balance.

At Obama's urging, Congress is working on a bill to curb greenhouse gas emissions with a cap-and-trade system. The developed world is again looking to the United States to lead on the climate issue after eight years of Washington sitting on the sidelines.

The Obama administration said on Friday it will keep a Bush-era rule that weakens protection for polar bears' icy habitat and plays down links between the threatened status of the species and climate change.

"Seeing the polar bear's habitat melting and an iconic species threatened is an environmental tragedy of the modern age," US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a telephone briefing.

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