The United States is seeing more heavy storms and major floods, and it seems global warming is partly to blame.

The National Wildlife Federation is set to release “Increased Flooding Risk: Global Warming’s Wake-Up Call for Riverfront Communities,” a report detailing how global warming is causing more heavy rainfall events even as America’s over-reliance on levees and other old strategies for taming rivers sidesteps flooding issues. The report offers a new course of action for confronting the realities of global warming and shielding flood-prone communities from the consequences of unnaturally heavy rainfall.

Perspectives will be provided regarding the latest scientific research on global warming and flooding, the national flood insurance program, and recommendations for how to cope with projected changes and how to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.

According to a major anti-poverty organization, unchecked global warming will exacerbate a crisis already being called "the defining human tragedy of this century": hunger.

Oxfam International says that global warming will bring crop failure, erratic storms, droughts, and a shift in growing seasons, thus increasing the pressure on millions of already-suffering people worldwide to produce the food they need to survive.

The report, "What Happened to the Seasons?" comes as leaders of the G8 nations prepare to meet in Italy this week to discuss food scarcity, climate change, and other issues.

Oxfam surveyed farmers around the world and found that changing growing seasons are already affecting the planned planting and harvesting of subsistence crops. For example, nations that depend on rice, the world's most common food, are among the hardest hit, as yields of the staple crop are predicted to decline by 10 percent for every 1 degree C rise in temperature in some poor countries.

New Yorkers now need only crane their necks for a reminder of the need for new energy practices in America.

Deutsche Bank recently unveiled a seven-story 'carbon clock' in Manhattan to keep a ton-by-ton tally of the amount of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere.

The counter, devised by MIT scientists, reflects the growing need for emission reform: the spinning numbers show that carbon is being added to the atmosphere at a rate of about 800 tons per second.

With lawmakers moving forward on a bold new piece of climate legislation in the House, a green job boom seems to be on the horizon.

A report released last week finds that investing in a clean energy economy should help alleviate a soaring unemployment rate and improve job prospects across a wide range of sectors and experience levels.

The Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (PERI) report focuses on job creation and the investment opportunities that stand to emerge in a clean energy economy.

The report concluded that blue collar workers would be among the biggest beneficiaries of a nationwide clean energy boost. Workers with "relatively low educational credentials" stand to gain the most. An estimated 870,000 of the predicted 1.7 million (net increase) jobs arising from the move to a clean energy economy will be accessible to workers with high school degrees or less.

In addition to generating new opportunities for blue collar workers, a clean energy economy is projected to bring about a drop in the overall unemployment rate and a raise in per capita earnings for current low-income workers.

The total bounty of a clean energy economy is projected to include a 300 percent improvement in job opportunities over those found in fossil fuel fields and a significant reduction in day-to-day living costs for members of low-income households.

More than 100 conservation leaders from around the country met in New Orleans last week to push for the restoration of iconic U.S. waters such as the Chesapeake Bay, Coastal Louisiana, Florida Everglades, Great Lakes, Gulf of Maine, Long Island Sound, Puget Sound, and others.

“Restoring American’s great waters will benefit the country’s economy and environment—and will be vital in addressing the impacts of global warming,” said Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, the host of the summit.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program is set to release a comprehensive report today on the impact of global warming in the United States.

The report culls the best available climate science to present a realistic, detail-oriented assessment of two divergent emissions scenarios:  one in which we continue to overload the atmosphere with global warming pollution by using outdated, dirty fossil fuels, and one in which we deploy clean technology like wind, clean cars, and more efficient energy use to reduce emissions, create jobs, and protect our children and grandchildren from the worst consequences of climate change.

According to Amanda Staudt , climate scientist, National Wildlife Federation, the report is sweeping in its implications: "It's a clarion call for immediate action," she said. "This report basically describes a state of emergency. It says we need to act quickly and decisively. Every state is going to be affected, and every sector of the economy."

Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson led a delegation of federal and Louisiana officials to the Netherlands, to learn how the Dutch manage their water.

More than half of the Netherlands is below sea level, where 60 percent of citizens live and where 65 percent of its gross national product is produced, according to the New York Times. This makes the country extremely vulnerable to both sea-level rise and river flooding.

“We came here to learn about what the Dutch have been doing for many years to protect their people from the ravages of flooding and how their system not only seems to protect people from flooding, but also has contributed to a high quality of life,” explained Landrieu during a press conference.

“It’s not that we believe that the sea level will rise by 2 meters, but we do need to make sure we take the necessary measures,” professor Louise Fresco told the American delegation.

Arctic sea ice is melting so fast most of it could be gone in 30 years. A new analysis of changing conditions in the region, using complex computer models of weather and climate, says conditions that had been forecast by the end of the century may occur much sooner.

The new report is by scientists at the Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Ocean and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.

The scientists expect the area covered by summer sea ice to decline from about 2.8 million square miles normally to 620,000 square miles within 30 years. Since 1979, the six lowest winter maximum ice covers have all occurred in the last six years.

Arctic sea ice is so important because it helps cool the planet by reflecting sunlight back into space. As the ice melts, the sun’s warmth is instead absorbed, increasing water and air temperatures.

The ocean is expected to rise nearly 5 feet along California's coastline by the end of this century, hitting San Francisco Bay the hardest of all, according to a new state study.

Nearly half a million people and $100 billion in property are at risk of major flooding, researchers found in the comprehensive study of how global warming will alter California's coastal areas.

Some of the infrastructures put at risk by rising sea levels along the California coast include roads and highways, hundreds of hazardous waste sites, schools, and two Bay Area airports. The 99-page state-commissioned report was conducted by the Pacific Institute.

Healthy wetlands that nourish fish and birds and act as a buffer against flooding will be inundated, and constructing seawalls and levees, if needed, could cost $14 billion plus an annual maintenance cost of $1.4 billion, the study said.

The study shows a greater sea-level rise for California than previous studies because it takes into account recent changes in glaciers and ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. Low-income citizens will be disproportionately vulnerable to sea level rise, according to the report.

Five nations that created a treaty almost four decades ago to protect polar bears have issued a joint statement identifying global warming as “the most important long-term threat” to the bears.

The statement was released at the end of a meeting held in Norway, with scientists and officials attending from the United States, Canada, Russia, Norway and Denmark, representing Greenland. All nations have territory that abuts the Arctic Ocean, which is prime polar bear habitat.

Experts at the meeting said the parties were committed to collaboration on programs aimed at limiting direct threats to bear populations from increasing tourism, shipping and oil and gas drilling in the warming region, The New York Times reports.

Bear experts said that the five nations who cosigned the 1973 agreement on the conservation of polar bears need worldwide cooperation to address greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.

It is estimated that there are currently 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears worldwide.