Over the last few years, three Columbia University professors learned how important language is when it comes to combating climate change. They queried 275 randomly selected U.S. citizens for their opinions on raising money to fund alternative energy projects and the like by adding fees to earth-warming activities such as driving cars and flying in airplanes. They got very different responses depending on how they asked the question. During online surveys, researchers switched up their language, referring to the fees as "taxes" for some, and "carbon offsets" for others. Broken down along party lines, the results showed that Democrats were …

As international leaders trek home from Durban, South Africa, after a week of plotting the world's response to global warming, the debate rages here at home -- over whether Americans even care. The New York Times ran a story in October headlined, "Where did global warming go?" that cited polls suggesting that Americans had lost interest in climate change, or just didn't believe in it. Climate activists have blamed the declines in some surveys on flawed questions. But polls by Gallup and PEW have shown similar recent declines. And one of the leading thinkers on the matter, Anthony Leiserowitz, director …

Flooding in Miami.Photo: kthreadDan Kipness, a retired fishing boat captain and a 60-year Miami Beach resident, has a video that offers a glimpse of where this coastal city is headed. In it, cars and trucks kick floodwater into the air as they drive down Miami Beach's streets. This isn't rainwater -- the skies are at least partially sunny and blue. Instead, the waters seeped into the streets from underground storm sewers during high tide. Kipness says he never saw such flooding until a decade ago, but now sees it up to twice a day during the fall, when tides are …