Dr Rajenda Pachauri, head of IPCC

Politicians may flutter in the wind of public opinion polls, but science doesn't care what people think, say climate scientists as they fight growing public skepticism about global warming and its causes.

Today, some 2,000 scientists and economists sent a letter to the Senate, asking for immediate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. This follows yesterday's announcement by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Re-arming themselves with scientific facts from a report on climate change that won the 2007 Noble Peace Prize, the IPCC has launched a campaign to counter the "climategate" image sewn by climate change detractors and deniers.

But, even as scientists come out swinging, they have yet another opinion poll to deal with: a Gallup poll, just released, that shows nearly half of the American public are unconcerned about global warming, with many of them doubtful it even exists. This is up from 30 percent not so long ago.

One of the great environmental victories of our time—preserving the Flathead Valley from development—has quickly become a teachable moment for middle school students in British Columbia.

The naturally dazzling Flathead, with its abundance of wildlife and environmental splendors, will not be sacrificed to get at its plentiful oil, gas and coal deposits, the BC government decided last month. This is how the decision is being taught to students:

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and his government want to focus on building a creative economy.' This includes clean technology, smart forestry practices and tourism—not fossil fuel extraction. Premier Campbell says it's important to balance economic growth with caring for the environment.

Former Earthjustice Executive Director Buck Parker offers these thoughts on Dr. Ed Wayburn:

Earthjustice notes with sadness the passing of Dr. Ed Wayburn at age 103 on Friday, March 5. We were privileged to work with Dr. Wayburn during his decades of leadership of the Sierra Club and of many national conservation campaigns to establish and protect national parks, wilderness areas, and the magnificent landscapes of Alaska.

He was also a key supporter for creating Earthjustice, originally the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, and maintained a life-long interest in the organization and its work. The efforts of Ed and his late wife Peggy inspired the work of thousands of citizen activists, including many Earthjustice staff, board and supporters, in protecting our public lands and resources.

For more information about Dr. Wayburn and his monumental contribution to the American conservation movement please visit the web site of the Sierra Club.

Satellite map of East Coast storm activity

In a very clever riff on climate change deniers, author Bill McKibben compares their tactics to those used by defense lawyers to get O.J. Simpson off the hook: bury the smoking gun facts in a haystack of trivial facts and then focus on the trivia. After awhile, trivia becomes truth and the suspect walks free in blood-stained shoes.

Example: the brutal East Coast winter. For deniers, this proves their main point, that the earth isn't getting warmer, it's getting colder and flatter. As Americans shiver in their doubts, says McKibben, the deniers move in with an "enormously clever, and enormously effective" campaign against climate science.

You gotta read McKibben's full treatise on the denier movement. As he puts it, "It's worth trying to understand how they've done it."

Update: You can learn more about Earthjustice's work to save wolves (including an interactive timeline) in our newly updated campaign page.

The wolf lifts its muzzle and—as its breath flows like smoke into the crisp air —you hear the sound of wilderness, crying out from the TV set.

This image alone is worth a visit to your local PBS channel, starting tonight (Feb. 26), to view a documentary examining how wolves in the northern Rockies have been affected by the Obama administration's relaxation of regulations protecting wolves. To see when the program can be viewed in your area, go here.

Earthjustice attorney Doug Honnold, who has spent much of his career working to protect northern gray wolves and grizzly bears in the Rockies, figures prominently in the film. He carefully describes natural and man-made threats to both species, and makes clear his disappointment with Obama's Sec. of Interior Ken Salazar for signing off on a Bush administration decision to stop protecting wolves under the Endangered Species Act.

Funafuti atoll, capital of Tuvalu.

In just a few days, parts of the island nation of Tuvalu will be inundated with ocean water, forcing many residents to flee for higher ground—if they can find it in this remarkably low-lying land.

This is not unusual by the way. It happens annually and is known as the "king tides" period because these are the highest tides of the year.

But, what is unusual is how the government of Tuvalu promotes this non-phenomenon phenomenon. Coming as it does on the heels of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, the annual tide event is being treated by Tuvalu government officials as a kind of dress rehearsal for what happens when sea water permanently covers the land because of global warming.

<Update: Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) announced that he will introduce legislation that provides the same protections on federal lands in Montana that British Columbia has agreed to.> Canada's portion of the Flathead Valley—a dazzling part of wilderness known as the "Crown of the Continent"—has been saved from the kind of mineral development that is destroying many parts of the United States.

British Columbia, in partnership with the state of Montana, has agreed to ban mining, oil and gas development and coalbed gas extraction in the valley, which is adjacent to a World Heritage site spanning the U.S.-Canadian border.

This is a big win for Earthjustice and its Canadian counterpart, EcoJustice, which had petitioned the United Nations in 2008 to investigate proposed mining activities. What's been saved, says Earthjustice attorney Tim Preso, is "a treasure more precious than coal or gold."

<Update: Earthjustice attorney Greg Loarie said he is contemplating challenging the decision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not to list the pika>. Warming temperatures have sent the tiny pika scrambling for its life to the nation's highest peaks—but, it may take the nation's courts to save it.

Yesterday (Feb. 4), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refused to wrap the pika in the protections of the Endangered Species Act, even though it has been driven from most of its historic range by climate change-linked conditions and clings to existence in the cooler air of mountain tops.

It took an Earthjustice lawsuit to make FWS even look at the pika's plight. Earthjustice attorney Greg Loarie reacted to the agency's decision:

We've already lost almost half of the pika that once inhabited the Great Basin, and scientists tell us that pika will be gone from 80 percent of their entire range in the United States by the end of the century. To conclude that this species is not threatened by climate change is an impossible gamble that we can't afford.

It's possible, suggests some media outlets, that the United Nations isn't set up to produce the powerful, binding commitment among nations needed to fight global warming. Their proof lies in the shattered hopes of the two-week Copenhagen climate conference that ended Saturday with an agreement so weak that nations are bound only to "take note" of it.

To underscore the agreement's fragility, carbon markets in Europe were slumping today, and analysts were pessimistic about the near-term future.

But, while the conference produced little more on the world stage than agenda items for future international negotiations, The New York Times believes it may have given President Barack Obama a boost at home with climate legislation in Congress. Bloomberg chimes in with a similar take.

(Editor's Note: This file presents news and information from the Copenhagen climate change conference on Dec. 18, distilled from news outlet reports. We will be updating developments during the day.)

<Update>: What is described as a 'meaningful agreement' was announced by the U.S., but is far from the powerful end result that most had hoped for.

<Update>: An agreement has been reached in Copenhagen on a plan to combat climate change, The Los Angeles Times is reporting. President Obama has scheduled a press conference.

<Update>: The BBC says President Obama and other national leaders are meeting deep into the Copenhagen night to create some kind of agreement as this final day of the conference -- wrapped in confusion and consternation - nears its end. Reuters reports that the Chinese premier accepted Obama's offer to continue meeting today to achieve some kind of bilateral agreement. The New York Times'  headline is, "Heading Into Overtime."

<Update>: This news alert from AP: A third draft climate agreement being considered by world leaders at the U.N. summit in Copenhagen has introduced greenhouse gas emissions targets for both industrialized and developing countries. The document, titled the Copenhagen Accord, says rich countries should reduce their greenhouse emissions by at least 80 percent by the year 2050.

<Update>: Here's how the Philippine Daily Inquirer summed up President Obama's speech this morning to the conference: "He came, he saw, he didn’t conquer. The most anticipated event of the entire two-week-long climate change conference in this icy Danish capital was U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech, which many negotiators hoped would drive the newly re-started talks to a successful conclusion. Instead, it may have had the opposite effect." The China Daily had its own news analysis of the speech.

"Transparency" may be a synonym for failure at Copenhagen if China continues to refuse to allow verification of its emissions control efforts, reports AP. Despite last minute meetings with President Obama at Copenhagen, China apparently isn't giving in. Any hopes for a meaningful political agreement from the conference are pegged to an agreement between the U.S. and China. Meanwhile, leaders of more than 100 countries are in Copenhagen, many expressing frustration at the stalled progress.