Climate

No one doubts that Los Angeles is ready, willing and able to host another Summer Olympics. There are a handful of major league sports venues and an ample fan base, not to mention a reliably sunny climate, all of which contributed to two successful Games in the past. "L.A. is the one place in the world that is always ready to host," said Anita DeFrantz, an International Olympic Committee member and longtime resident. "It's a city that loves sports. " But that doesn't mean the U.S. Olympic Committee or the IOC necessarily favors returning to Southern California.

If cities were stocks, you'd want to short Phoenix. Of course, it's an easy city to pick on. The nation's 13th-largest metropolitan area crams 4.3 million people into a low bowl in a hot desert, where horrific heat waves and windstorms visit it regularly. And it depends on an improbable infrastructure to suck water from the distant (and dwindling) Colorado River. If the Gulf Coast's Hurricane Katrina and the Eastern Seaboard's Superstorm Sandy previewed how coastal cities can expect to fare as seas rise and storms strengthen, Phoenix - which also stands squarely in the cross hairs of climate change - pulls back the curtain on the future of inland empires.

For environmentalists, population has long been a problem. Many of the things we do wouldn't cause so much trouble if there weren't so many of us. It's why I wrote a book some years ago called "Maybe One: An Argument for Smaller Families. " Heck, it's why I had only one child. And many of us, I think, long viewed immigration through the lens of population; it was another part of the math problem. I've always thought we could afford historical levels of immigration, but I understood why some other environmentalists wanted tougher restrictions.

As speculation swirled around his potential run for president in 2016, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush made a plea Friday for greater bipartisanship, hailing President Obama's dinner invitation to a dozen Republican senators this week as a promising development. Striking a tone than set him apart from the more strident rhetoric of the 2012 Republican contenders, Bush argued that the future of the Republican Party could hinge on enhancing cooperation between the parties. He praised work in the Senate  on immigration reform, as well as Obama's recent moves.

Having given his film a title like "Greedy Lying Bastards," director Craig Rosebraugh is clearly out to take no prisoners in his timely documentary tracking the politics, inconvenient truths and alternative "realities" of the endless global warming debate. Yet, despite his cogent finger-pointing, nifty graphs and succinct highlighting of recent climate change history, longtime followers of the hyper-partisan topic may not find much terribly new or revealing here. Rosebraugh, doing his Michael Moore thing both in front of and behind the camera (though he's hardly as commanding a presence)

WASHINGTON - President Obama picked a chief for the Environmental Protection Agency who has long worked on combating climate change and an Energy Department secretary closely associated with increasing use of natural gas and renewable energy, further signaling his intention to take on global warming, although not as dramatically as some activists would like. "They're going to be making sure that we're investing in American energy, that we're doing everything that we can to combat the threat of climate change, that we're going to be creating jobs and economic opportunity," Obama said at a White House news conference Monday as he introduced his EPA nominee, Gina McCarthy, and his choice for Energy, Ernest J. Moniz.

A sub-Mediterranean climate in Canada ? Yes, indeed. And that makes Pender Island , a tranquil spot in British Columbia's Gulf Islands, a multi-season getaway. The destination is full of bed-and-breakfasts and boutiques and offers a bounty of outdoor recreational opportunities. Pender Island is just four miles north of Stuart Island, one of Washington state's San Juan Islands, and is popular with Canadians but little known by Americans. Canada's maple leaf flag flutters in the ocean breezes on what, despite the name, are two islands linked by a narrow, one-lane bridge.

Activist investors have succeeded for the first time in placing a shareholder resolution on the risks of greenhouse-gas emissions up for a vote at a major bank, a step toward making climate change an important consideration for corporations. The resolution, which follows years of protests over banks financing certain coal operations, is to be included in proxy material being sent to shareholders of PNC Financial Services Group of Pittsburgh before the bank's April 23 annual meeting.

Quick: Name one thing mainstream Republicans and Democrats agree on when it comes to energy policy. Other than that both sides would like it to be cheaper, you're probably drawing a blank. That's why there was something a little quixotic in President Obama's call last week, during his State of the Union address, urging Congress to get together and pursue "a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change. " It's pretty far-fetched to imagine congressional Republicans pursuing a costly new program, market based or not, positing the solution to a climate problem many believe don't exist.

Climate activists descended on Washington, D.C., on Sunday in what organizers boasted was the largest climate-change rally in American history, claiming more than 35,000 attendees. The Forward on Climate rally, as it was billed by environmental groups Sierra Club and 350.org, called for President Obama to take immediate action on climate change, with many calling for the government to block the construction of the oil pipeline known as Keystone XL. Protestors marched through the streets bearing placards and massed on the National Mall, where speakers addressed the crowd.