It’s about as sure a bet as you can make: 2015 is going to be the hottest year on record. Month after month this year, above-average — and sometimes record — global temperatures have piled up, raising the odds that this year will be the hottest one humanity has ever experienced. And now October has blown those records out of the water. According to , October was not only the warmest October on record, but had the biggest temperature difference...

Coastal flooding in Maryland. The state earned a B+ rating in a new Climate Central and ICF International report for its capacity to combat future climatic threats, including flooding. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Most U.S. states are prepared to fight the climatic events they currently face — whether drought, wildfires, inland flooding, heat or coastal flooding. But few have taken the appropriate steps to combat future threat levels from climate change, a new analysis from Climate Central and ICF...

Hallie Turner is taking North Carolina to court to demand it begin reducing carbon dioxide by at least 4 percent each year. (Our Children's Trust) North Carolina sits in a region vulnerable to sea level rise, hurricanes and coastal flooding — and now a 13-year-old resident is demanding her state take action before it’s too late. She's taking her state to court to get them to begin enforcing stricter regulations on greenhouse gases. With the help of the nonprofit Our...

It floats upright in , but it's not a buoy or a pillar. It can be seen in different locations in different days, depending on the weather. In fact, it's not connected to anything to tether it to the lake's floor. Known as the "Old Man of the Lake," this mysterious phenomenon has perplexed park staff and visitors for decades. The Old Man is actually a that somehow remains upright in the water, even as it moves. Indeed, the Old...

Image of Greenland's Zachariae Isstrom glacier as seen by the NASA/USGS Landsat satellite. The steady change in the glacier can be seen in photos from 1975 to today. The green lines show the loss of ice. (NASA/USGS) A new study has shown a glacier located in northeast Greenland, called the Zachariæ Isstrøm, is melting at an accelerated rate and will increase sea-level rise for decades to come, according to findings published in the journal. The researchers made their conclusions...

In this Nov. 9, 2015 photo, precooked Dungeness crabs from Washington state are offered for sale at Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File) In addition to California, Oregon and Washington have delayed the start of their commercial crab seasons after dangerous toxin levels were found in local crabs. Officials confirmed that crabs in all three states were found to have elevated levels of domoic acid, a toxin naturally produced by microscopic algae in the Pacific...

Orlando, Florida, is one of the most visited places in the United States, a fact that has spurred its development during the past three decades. The next six images show just how much the city has expanded. This image is from January 1982. (NASA) NASA’s series of stark, eye-opening satellite images, its “” project, reveals years of global change in just seconds, changes from weather, humans and natural phenomena that transform Earth’s landscape. Take, for instance, the rapid in Brazil’s...

Volunteers search through destroyed homes on April 30, 2011 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Alabama, the hardest-hit of six states, is reported to have had nearly 300 deaths as a result of the storms. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images) On Monday, the United Nations released a new report that shows weather-related disasters in the past two decades have . A warning was also issued that the frequency and impact of such events are set to rise, according to The New York Times. The numbers...

Wyoming State Welcome Road sign on the interstate. (robertcicchetti/Thinkstock) In Wyoming, a sparsely populated state where cattle more than 2-to-1, electricity is cheap, coal is king, winters are cold and distances are so vast that driving dozens or even hundreds of miles to reach a shopping mall or healthcare is a way of life. That formula makes the Cowboy State the nation’s leader in per capita carbon dioxide emissions related to burning energy, according to a new U.S. Energy Information...

A sidescan image of the ship Argo, situated deep under Lake Erie's surface. (CLUE/Tom Kowalczk) The waters of Lake Erie have been polluted by an unexpected source: a chemical-ridden ship that's been at the lake's bottom for almost 80 years. The ship, Argo, sank in 1937 with thousands of barrels of benzol and crude oil on board. This week, the U.S. Coast Guard pumped from the tank barge, according to MLive. "The wreck has been traced to in both nations,"...

Oranges are seen in a tree as the citrus industry tries to find a cure for the disease 'citrus greening' that is caused by the Asian citrus psyllid, an insect, that carries the bacterium, 'citrus greening' or huanglongbing, from tree to tree on May 13, 2013 in Fort Pierce, Florida. There is no known cure for the disease that forms when the insect deposits the bacterium on citrus trees causing the leaves on the tree to turn yellow the roots...

World leaders are gathered in Paris for , or COP21, to try create international legislation to help solve the world's greatest climate change issues. Here are five things you should know about COP21 as it kicks off in Paris today: Protests and Presidents Hundreds of thousands of people across several countries marched in a collective call to action Sunday with the goal of putting political pressure on world leaders to collectively lower emissions and reduce long-term global warming. According to...

More than 150 world leaders converged on Paris Monday to kick off COP21. COP stands for Conference of Parties, an annual meeting meant to tackle the challenges of climate change. This year, leaders aim to reach “the most far-reaching deal ever to tackle global warming,” the Associated Press wrote. In the past, disagreement over how much responsibility developed vs. developing nations — particularly the United States and China — should have for climate action has stalled talks. Day one of...