I admit it: For a long time, I didn't get the Keystone XL pipeline. Where is it? What's it for? It's bad -- why? Why are people so fired up about it?

So I did a little research. And then a little more. This is the result --...

Adios to 2012 and hello to lucky number 13. Where did climate take us in 2012 and what can we expect for the next 12 -- scratch that, 11 -- months?

I've been writing these year-end climate recaps for four whole years and now they've gotten a whole lot easier,...

What is AGU? It's the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, an annual gathering of more than 20,000 earth and space scientists from all around the world who converge for a week on the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

For me, it's one of the most fun...

What is a Frankenstorm?

A monstrous concoction of part-hurricane, part-nor'easter currently slamming itself against the eastern seaboard to the detriment of 60 million people.

What is climate silence?

The lamentable fact that neither Obama nor Romney mentioned a single word about climate change during the presidential debates or during their...

The State of Colorado is on fire. The day after the landmark Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act, Colorado's fires are so bad that President Obama is in Colorado Springs to tour the damage. On Thursday evening, the federal government approved Governor Hickenlooper's request for the...

I live in Truckee, CA, at about 6000 feet in the Sierras, a part of the country known for getting hit with a lot of snow.

As I write, however, the snowpack depth in my backyard is precisely 0 feet 0 inches. Higher up in the mountains, it's more like...

2011 was a year of extremes. Extremes like Tim Tebow's winning streak and Kim Kardashian's shortest-ever marriage, but also extremes of the weather variety.

Last year, the U.S. got hit with a record-breaking total of 14 weather disasters of over a billion dollars each, from Hurricane Irene...

This week, an article came out in the LA Times describing climate change education as the new "evolution debate" in schools, reporting that some states are considering new policies that would require teachers to "teach climate change denial as a valid scientific position."

ACE was founded...

Over the last couple weeks, the climate blogosphere has been lighting up over a recent report that enormous plumes of methane are bubbling to the surface off the coast of eastern Siberia in Russia. (Original article in the Independent online.)

So, what does this mean? It's a...

The international climate negotiations have wrapped up in Durban, South Africa. I'm curious as to what percent of Americans even knew that these negotiations were happening. There was zero build-up to the talks in the media and pretty sparse coverage of the event even while it was going on or...

It's the holidays, which means it's that time of year when we all pack on a few extra pounds.

Of CO2, that is.

Many young Americans live far from our families. It's the downside of the young American dream of "Go west, young woman!" -- sung more appropriately by...

Do you know where your electricity comes from? I don't. I know I should, but it turns out it's not that easy to find out. My power company won't tell me (not online or when asked by email, anyway). The EPA does have an online tool to tell...

So, what happened to Irene? Did it fizzle or not? That seems to depend on where you live. If you're on the coast of North Carolina, you were probably pleasantly surprised by how little damage the storm did. But the storm did cause the deaths of 35 people...

This is weird. Today at 1:51 pm Eastern time a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck northwest of Richmond, VA. It was felt as far north as Boston.

Being a native East-coaster myself, I can tell you that we don't get earthquakes in that part of the country....

Phew. For many of us, the worst of the heat wave is over. Temps have gone down from the 100's to the mere 80's along much the northern east coast. Apologies to those who live in the midwest, though, where the heat dome is still stuck, trapping hot air and...

It seems like there's been a lot of crazy weather lately. Powerful tornadoes wreaking havoc across the Southeast, Texas in the worst drought in decades and now flooding along the Mississippi.

Global warming, right?

Um, actually, maybe so.

It's a standard first response whenever any climate scientist...

Okay, what is a methane hydrate (or methane clathrate, as it's also called)? If a picture is worth a thousand words, it's this.

Yes, it looks like ice that's on fire, which is why one nickname is "fire ice" but it's not really ice. It's methane, surrounded by...

Warning: Parts of this report are seriously depressing.

This week I'm focusing on a few newsworthy climate studies that just came out in the last few weeks. Just this past week, two studies were published in the journal Nature that point a finger at human-caused climate change (aka...

2010 was a pretty drama-filled year. There was the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners and the excitement of the World Cup and those crazy vuvuzelas, but it was also a year when climatic events made major headlines. So, before we plunge straight into 2011 and forget all...

The impetus for this came from a high school teacher at the California Science Teachers Association conference a few weeks ago who pointed out to me that most people don't get what it takes to make a fossil fuel -- and it's not about dinosaurs!

That sparked my interest --...