The image shows how the Netherlands is trying to prevent flooding due to the rise in sea level. There are several projects going on, which try to prevent flooding, especially in areas with a high population density.

• Not only does the melting of ice caps lead to a direct ecosystem loss, it also has, together with the melting of glaciers, an effect on the rise of the average sea level.
• Sea level rise impacts directly all those costal environments and ecosystems. Many islands would potentially disappear.

• Since 1979 more than 20% of the Polar ice cap has melted away.
• Satellite observations show a very dramatic and worrying trend with a melting of the Arctic ice cap of about 30%. If this trend followed, all the ice cap would probably melt by the end of this decade.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – The earth's environmental systems "are being pushed towards their biophysical limits," beyond which loom sudden, irreversible and potentially catastrophic changes, the United Nations Environment Program warned Wednesday.

Gopal Sharma

BARAHBISE, Nepal, Looking at the swirling grey waters of the Bhote Koshi River, Ratna Kaji remembers when it turned into a "monster," leaving behind a trail of death and destruction.

David Fogarty and Deborah Zabarenko

* Rising population, development put more in harm's way

* Policymakers urged to act in next few decades

* Less emphasis on mitigation, more on cutting risk

By David Fogarty and Deborah Zabarenko  

Megan Rowling

Water must be used more efficiently to meet rising food demand from a growing population amid climate-change pressures, experts say.

alertnet // Katie Murray

Failures of urban planning are putting lives, infrastructure and businesses at risk as weather shocks – like the floods now surging through Bangkok – become more frequent as a result of climate change, urban planning and climate experts say.

Reports focus on the possibility a record minimum for Arctic sea ice in September, but a major loss during the early summer months is climatologically more important

Mary Wisniewski

Blizzards. Tornadoes. Floods. Record heat and drought, followed by wildfires.

The first eight months of 2011 have brought strange and destructive weather to the United States.