All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

Remember the big push in the '70s and '80s to ban chemicals that were eating away at the ozone layer?

Well, it worked. Manufacturers stopped using chlorofluorocarbons, or C-F-C's in air conditioners, refrigerators and aerosol cans. The hole in the ozone layer is shrinking and scientists think it may be gone within 40 years.

But now a report from researchers at NOAA says hydro-fluorocarbons - the chemicals that replaced C-F-C's - are causing their own environmental damage by contributing to global warming.

Right now H-F-C's are responsible for only a small percentage of greenhouse gasses, but this study predicts that could explode by mid-century and urges manufacturers to find yet another alternative.

It's a reminder that we can't be complacent. We need to continually monitor our behavior and the man-made materials that may make our lives easier today, but make the health of the planet even more precarious in the future.

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.

The latest evidence comes from opposite ends of our planet, but the story it tells is the same.

At the North Pole, new satellite photos show Arctic ice is melting so fast, many scientists now predict it will be gone within 30 years. Some researchers think it could disappear in just six.

At the South Pole, an ice shelf the size of Connecticut is in danger of melting because the ice bridge that held it in place has shattered. It's one of ten ice shelves that have shrunk or collapsed in the past 50 years. Some were 10,000 years old.

Polar ice works as the earth's air conditioner. Without it, there could be a snowball effect with temperatures rising even faster.

Governments all around the world have to take the lead in solving this crisis, but each of us has to do our part to reduce greenhouse gasses. If we don't all take bold action -- and take it soon -- we will all find ourselves on very thin ice. If we're lucky.

That's a page from my notebook.

It's called globalization: the economies of countries all around the world connected through trade, outsourcing, and foreign investments. It was the subject of Thomas Friedman's book "The World Is Flat."

Many nations saw the upside of deep financial ties to the U.S -- more jobs, better technology, and a global market for goods and services.

But even in a flat world, gravity applies.

What goes up ... must come down.

Now in the midst of a global crisis, Europeans are pointing blame across the pond. And China is warning that the dollar should no longer dominate global currency.

President Obama wants to stop the G20 leaders from closing their doors to trade with the U.S. But the battle against protectionism isn't just "over there."

He'll need to stand up to members of his own party, as the "buy American" cries grow louder.

The President may find himself surrounded by disillusioned skeptics as the problems of a flat world come full circle.

That's a page from my notebook.

Daniel Sieberg is a CBS News correspondent based in New York.

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The ocean's coral reefs are many times more diverse than rainforests and are disappearing four times as fast. Check out this behind-the-scenes look at Daniel Sieberg's report on the effects of climate warming on coral reefs and the researchers that are tackling the problem.

John Blackstone is a CBS News correspondent currently filing from Antarctica, while he's working on a series called, "Journey To The Bottom Of The Earth."

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We stood in silence and in awe on a ridge of black volcanic rock. Behind us a wisp of steam rose from Mount Erebus, the southernmost active volcano on earth. In the distance an ice shelf in pure white stretched down to the Ross Sea where the water was an almost unbelievable deep blue. And then leaping out of the water and wobbling across the ice were the penguins.

We traveled to Cape Royds on Ross Island in Antarctica to see how the Adelie Penguin colony there is doing. But along the way we had a fascinating encounter with Antarctic history.

We stopped at the hut built by Irish polar explorer Ernest Shackleton in 1908. On the stove there was cast iron skillet and a couple of big cooking pots. There were cans of preserved onions and pickled cabbage on the shelves along with salt and candles. Hard to believe it was a century since Shackleton and his men were here.

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If you're looking for someplace cool to escape the summer heat, have no fear. You can join Daniel Sieberg up north. Way up north. Like, at the top of the world.

Sieberg has embarked on a remarkable odyssey to the Arctic Circle, to get an up-close-and-personal glimpse at climate change. And he's filing regular reports for CBS News and CBSNews.com.

Wander over to this link for his ongoing reports, with the latest photos, video and blogs. Fascinating stuff.

And no sweat. Really.

Yesterday was Earth Day -- and more and more Americans see global warming as the most important environmental issue.

Just click the monitor to watch.

Mary Walsh is a producer for CBS News based at the Pentagon.

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The latest warnings about global warming came not from environmentalists, but from a table full of retired three-star and four-star generals and admirals. "Climate is and must be recognized as a threat to our national security."

A non-profit military research center asked the blue ribbon panel to assess the impact of potential climate change on US strategy and overseas operations. The group's conclusions are blunt. Terrorist threats around the world will be "exacerbated and multiplied by environmental damage, which could produce "drought, famine, pestilence of many kinds, disease, pandemics and so forth," Gen. (ret.) Gordon R. Sullivan said.

And then consider this: "It's going to be happening essentially everywhere all at the same time," according to Vice Adm. (ret.) Richard Truly, a former astronaut who went on to become NASA administrator.

So the military must get serious about planning for the potential of worldwide environmental catestrophy, even through it's dealing with on-going wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Our colleagues that are now in uniform are pretty doggone busy," Adm. Joseph Prueher (ret.) said. "This...is an effort to help them think through and add to the work that is already being done...to head off a more dire skirmish in the future if we can act now."

It’s freezing in New York this week – really. With wind chill, the temperature is practically into single digits. The gusts down 57th Street outside the CBS Broadcast Center can freeze you to the bone.

Which, of course, makes this the perfect time to ponder global warming.

When it’s this cold, in the dead of winter, it’s hard for a lot of us to appreciate the dire warnings of scientists about climate change. Are they serious? Turns out: yes. They are.

A major report is coming out this week from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meeting in Paris. The draft that’s been reported on the wires is unbelievably grim, and frightening: droughts have gotten longer, seas have warmed and expanded and carbon dioxide levels have risen sharply. And the forecast for the rest of this century? You better sit down. It’s worse. Don’t leave home without an umbrella, or lots of sunscreen: it’s anticipated that it’s going to get hotter, and lot rainier, with sea ice melting and ocean levels rising. There’s more and more evidence that much of this is not just a freak of nature. It’s man-made.

If that weren’t enough to keep you up at night, there’s the news yesterday from Washington.

To quote the AP:

“Climate scientists at seven government agencies say they have been subjected to political pressure aimed at downplaying the threat of global warming.

The groups presented a survey that shows two in five of the 279 climate scientists who responded to a questionnaire complained that some of their scientific papers had been edited in a way that changed their meaning. Nearly half of the 279 said in response to another question that at some point they had been told to delete reference to "global warming" or "climate change" from a report.”

Democrat Henry Waxman and Republican Tom Davis both say the White House is refusing to hand over documents on climate change.

Said Waxman: "We know that the White House possesses documents that contain evidence of an attempt by senior administration officials to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming and minimize the potential danger."

Given the news that is coming out of Europe this week, it seems more urgent that we all know what is happening and why. No one from either party should be playing politics with the planet.

After all, it’s the only one we’ve got.

Correspondent Armen Keteyian has been following the latest news about climate change – and offers us this insight from Florida.

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They serve a mean breakfast at the Seafood Depot in Everglades City, Florida. The Depot is the kind of place that’s open early and spiced with weathered-faced regulars – the fisherman and air boat operators that populate this former drug-smuggling haven. The surrounding waters shimmer in the early morning sun, and thoughts that this tourist town might one day be swallowed by the sea are as far away as far can be.

But given the news out of Washington, D.C., today residents of Everglades City, Flamingo, Fla., -- and all across the country, really -- may well have cause for long-term concern. It’s not often a team of our nation’s leading scientists gets up before Congress and accuses the very government that funds its research of censoring their reports on global warming. But accuse they did.

The outcry stemmed from the results of an anonymous survey in which hundreds of experts on climate change depicted a culture of fear and censorship when it comes to warnings about the effects of greenhouses gasses and carbon dioxide emissions. In response, a government spokesman denied White House officials had pressured the scientists to downplay the results of their research, and praised the President’s commitment to energy initiatives designed to confront climate change.

From the legendary John D. MacDonald to the hilarious Carl Hiaason, writers with a love of the ‘Glades and South Florida have long waged a literary war against developers, railing over environmental impact in the name of progress. The “Inconvenient Truth” outlined by the likes of Al Gore has only fueled a national debate, one, it appears, getting louder and more important by the day. I must say, folks at the Seafood Depot didn’t seem much concerned today when we raised the subject of global warming, despite a raging pattern of weather lately that simply defies prediction.

“Mostly,” said our waitress, “we worry about the tourists.”

Mostly, I guess, I worry about my children and grandchildren’s future. And places like Everglades City being swallowed by a rising, angry sea.

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