Climate change disaster is upon us, warns UN: A record number of floods, droughts and storms around the world this year amount to a climate change “mega disaster”, the United Nation’s emergency relief coordinator, Sir John Holmes, has warned. Sir John, a British diplomat who is also known as the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said dire predictions about the impact of global warming on humanity were already coming true. Guardian

Activists seek new data on mammals threatened by global warming: Environmentalists sued the federal government Thursday for allegedly failing to adequately track populations of polar bears, walruses, sea otters and manatees threatened by global warming. The lawsuit seeks to force the U.S. Department of the Interior to issue updated stock assessments of the four protected marine mammal species. The reports include information on a species’ population, range and threats to survival. International Herald Tribune

Decade of innovation could spark climate fix: The explosion in interest about the threat of global warming should unleash innovations over the next 10 years that begin to cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow climate change, experts told a Reuters summit. “Ten years from now we will see the beginning of a flowering of all sorts of new technologies that’s very hard to envision today.”  Reuters

South America chokes as Amazon burns: Vast areas of Brazil and Paraguay and much of Bolivia are choking under thick layers of smoke as fires rage out of control in the Amazon rainforest, forcing the cancellation of flights. Satellite images yesterday showed huge clouds of smoke and much of the Amazon basin burning as fires, originally set by ranchers to clear land, have raged into the forest itself. Independent

How recycling can be a weapon against global warming: By now, almost everyone acknowledges global warming and climate change are real, from the world’s most eminent scientists to political leaders on both sides of the aisle. But what is not so widely known is that recycling can be an important weapon in the fight against global warming — and how easy it is for all of us to play a role in that fight. The Age