http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/24/science/earth/restored-forests-are-making-inroads-against-climate-change-.html Source:  By Justin Gillis, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: LA VIRGEN, Costa Rica — ...this small country chopped down a majority of its ancient forests. But after a huge conservation push and a wave of forest regrowth, trees now blanket more than half of Costa Rica. Far to the south, the Amazon forest was once being quickly cleared to make way for farming, but Brazil has slowed the loss so much that it has done more than any other country to limit the emissions leading to global warming. And on the other side of the world, in Indonesia, bold new promises have been made in the past few months to halt the rampant cutting of that country’s forests, backed by business interests with the clout to make it happen. In the battle to limit the risks of climate change, it has been clear for decades that focusing on the world’s immense tropical forests — sav

http://news.sciencemag.org/climate/2014/12/less-tasty-shrimp-thanks-climate-change Source:   By Puneet Kollipara, Science. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt:  Climate change won’t just harm marine life—it could also affect how it tastes. A new study finds that as oceans become more acidic—thanks to the carbon dioxide emissions they suck up—they will sour the flavor of shrimp....  .

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/magazine/mount-kenyas-vanishing-glaciers.html Source:   Jon Mooallem, The New York Times Magazine For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt:  In 1941, an Italian civil servant named Felice Benuzzi ... captured by Allied forces and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in East Africa...faced Mount Kenya, 17,000 feet high...did manage to escape the camp and climb to the summit of the mountain’s third-highest peak. ...This past October, the English photographer Simon Norfolk spent 18 days on Mount Kenya, camping in an old mountaineering hut at nearly 16,000 feet... to document the gradual disappearance of one of the mountain’s many glaciers, the Lewis, which happens to be one of the most thoroughly surveyed tropical glaciers in the world. ...In 2010, scientists found that the Lewis had shrunk by 23 percent in just the previous six years. Worse still, a neighboring glacier — the Gregory — “no longer exists.” ...Our glaciers, we’re told, are disappearing f

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/world/americas/lima-climate-deal.html Source:   By Coral Davenport, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: LIMA, Peru ...top officials from nearly 200 nations agreed to the first deal committing every country in the world to reducing the fossil fuel emissions that cause global warming. In its structure, the deal represents a breakthrough in the two-decade effort to forge a significant global pact to fight climate change. The Lima Accord, as it is known, is the first time that all nations — rich and poor — have agreed to cut back on the burning oil, gas and coal. ...The strength of the accord — the fact that it includes pledges by every country to put forward a plan to reduce emissions at home — is also its greatest weakness. In order to get every country to agree to the deal, including the United States, the world’s largest historic carbon polluter, the Lima Accord does not include legally binding requirements that countries cut thei

http://news.sciencemag.org/climate/2014/12/antarctic-ice-shelf-being-eaten-away-sea Source:   By Carolyn Gramling, Science. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: This year, scientists reported alarming news about the huge continental ice sheet covering the western portion of Antarctica: It's headed for collapse, due to rapid melting of some of its buttressing ice shelves. When it does, global sea levels will rise by several meters. It has long been suspected that warm ocean waters at the base of those floating ice shelves are responsible for hurrying things along. But with scant data from the waters around Antarctica, that has been difficult to prove. Now, a new study that pieces together 40 years’ worth of data collected in multiple regions around Antarctica suggests that scientists have found the smoking gun: Warming waters are indeed sneaking up under the floating ice in the regions of fastest melting....