Warmer winters change Washington foliage

Fifteen years of warm winter weather is beginning to change the Washington area's landscape — with Southern species like crape myrtles having an easier time and northern types feeling less welcome, according to findings by the National Arbor Day Foundation. The foundation has revised its map of "hardiness zones" — with each of the nine zones showing a range of average annual low temperatures that help serve as a guide for gardeners and others. One big change was that the entire Washington area was reclassified in the same zone as parts of Texas and North Carolina. In 1990, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the region sat on the border of the northern and southern zones.

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  thanks to Huffington Post

Dire Warnings from China's First Climate Change Report

Temperatures in China will rise significantly in coming decades and water shortages will worsen, state media has reported, citing the government's first national assessment of global climate change. "Greenhouse gases released due to human activity are leading to ever more serious problems in terms of climate change," the Ministry of Science and Technology said in a statement. "Global climate change has an impact on the nation's ability to develop further," said the ministry, one of 12 government departments that prepared the report. In just over a decade, global warming will start to be felt in the world's most populous country, and it will get warmer yet over the next two or three generations.

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