Global warming causes extreme results in 2 very different locations

By Carrie Mihalcik / current.com / @CDMihalcik

More than half of the United States is experiencing drought, with almost 21 percent of the country suffering from "exceptional" drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. So far, 1,369 counties across 31 states have been designated as drought disaster areas.

The unrelenting drought is destroying crops, forcing ranchers to sell off herds and fueling wildfires that are still raging in the West. The Wall Street Journal reports that companies that rely on the American corn crop, such as grain exporters and ethanol producers, have seen their share prices tumble as corn prices reach record highs.

While America is burning up, Greenland is melting.

NASA satellites show nearly 97 percent of Greenland's ice sheet thawed at some point during July. In an average summer, only about half of Greenland's surface ice melts.

Greenland's big melt is rare because of the wide area it covers and because it happened rapidly. The satellite images below show Greenland on July 8 (left), when about 40 percent of the ice sheet's surface had melted. By July 12 (right), 97 percent had melted.

It's part of an unusually warm summer in the Arctic. Melt onset began earlier than normal this year, and Arctic sea ice levels continue to be far below average, according to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Koch-funded study finds global warming is caused by humans

Richard Muller, head of the Berkeley Earth Project and an outspoken skeptic of climate change, is changing his tune. Muller's latest study on climate change, which received a $150,000 grant from the Koch brothers, found that global warming does in fact exist. In an op-ed in The New York Times, Muller wrote:

Call me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.

USDA will not participate in Meatless Mondays

It only took a few hours for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cave to pressure from the beef industry and announce they would not be participating in Meatless Mondays. The quick turnaround shows how difficult it is for the USDA to both help Americans eat healthier and market products our agriculture industry is producing.

On a side note, the USDA is looking for 10 million pounds of missing beef.

Harry Reid calls NRC Democrat a “first-class rat”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid provided us with a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the drama over American nuclear energy policy. Reid unleashed on Democrat Bill Magwood, a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, calling him a "tool of the nuclear industry." Apparently, Reid had been promised that Magwood would oppose storing nuclear waste in Nevada's Yucca Mountain, but instead Magwood worked against efforts to shut down the site.

Is the natural gas industry buying academics?

A pro-fracking report by a University of Texas professor is under investigation after it was revealed that the professor pocketed thousands of dollars from a Texas natural gas developer. Climate Desk examines the growing use of industry-funded fracking research from American universities with poor disclosure and dubious objectivity.

Josh Fox, director of "Gasland," explains why fracking is not only a health hazard, but also a threat to the American political system on "Viewpoint":

(Photo: Nicolo E. DiGirolamo, SSAI/NASA GSFC and Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory)