The Hottest Climate Change Stories of 2012

Perhaps the most unavoidable climate story of 2012 was the warmth that gripped much of the United States, and to a lesser degree, the planet, throughout the entire year. Heat waves brought "spring in March" to parts of the country, and broke all-time high-temperature records in a number of places. This, inevitably, led to a discussion of global warming and the degree to which it contributes to some types of extreme weather, in this case heat waves. In fact, prominent climate scientist James Hansen, of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and colleagues published research saying recent heat waves "were a consequence of global warming, because their likelihood in the absence of global warming was exceedingly small." Some other climate scientists, however, disagreed about the degree to which heat waves can be attributed to climate change. Meanwhile, many of the top climate stories this year have become something like annual rites recently, as people around the world grapple with human-caused climate change, and attempt to address it and its effects. [7 Hottest Climate Change Stories of 2012] Natural disasters, such as Hurricane Sandy (actually a hybrid storm) this year like others last year, have sparked discussion of the connection between climate change and increased risk for some extreme weather events. A majority of Americans also seem to be making the connection between extreme weather and climate change, according to surveys by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. In reality, attributing any single weather event to global warming is tricky, though some scientists said the planet's increasing temperatures may have worsened Sandy. "The climate influences on this are what we might call the 'new normal,' the changed environment this storm is operating in," Kevin Trenberth, who heads the climate analysis section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told LiveScience at the end of October. For instance, the warmer ocean surfaces — which fuel hurricanes — may increase the risk that a storm will become more intense, Trenberth said. In addition, rising sea levels worsen the risk of flooding, the cause of much of the devastation Sandy wrought. Likewise, global climate talks moved forward slowly, as they have in the last few years, against warnings that nations must curb the planet's rising greenhouse gas emissions or face dramatic consequences. This year also brought some milestones. Arctic sea-ice cover retreated to a record low in September. As with unusually warming temperatures, the record sea-ice retreat did not come out of the blue. In recent years, the sea-ice cover has fallen below the average extent for 1979 to 2000, and, likewise, the first decade of this century was the warmest decade ever recorded in all continents of the globe, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Scientists who study sea ice have blamed a combination of natural fluctuations and human-caused warming for the increased loss of ice, although some differ as to how much humans have contributed, Claire Parkinson, a senior scientist who studies climate at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in September. Early in the year, the United States, once the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, saw its carbon-dioxide emissions from energy use drop to the lowest level since 1992, a decline the Department of Energy attributed to a mild winter, a shift from coal to natural gas and a slow economy. In 2011, the United States contributed 16 percent to the world's emissions from fossil fuel use, behind the 28 percent contribution from the top emitter, now China, according to a report by the Global Carbon Project.

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Broadway musical 'Chicago' to enter history books

The musical "Chicago" is about to swagger into the history books again. Thursday night's performance of the edgy musical will be its 6,681, meaning it becomes the third longest-running show in Broadway history. It snatches that title from "Les Miserables." The only shows that have run longer are "Cats," with almost 7,500 shows, and "The Phantom of the Opera," which is still going after more than 10,300 performances. It was only last year that "Chicago" took over third place on the list, beating out "A Chorus Line." Set in the 1920s, "Chicago" is a scathing satire of how show business and the media make celebrities out of criminals. It has skimpy outfits, a rotating cast of celebrities and killer songs such as "All That Jazz."

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Lady Gaga takes youth foundation on the road

Lady Gaga is taking her Born This Way Foundation on the road. The singer announced Thursday that the Born Brave Bus Tour will tailgate outside her upcoming U.S. concerts and provide a space for 13- to 25-year-olds to learn more about local resources on anti-bullying, suicide prevention and mental health services. Her foundation focuses on youth empowerment and self-confidence. Organizations like The Trevor Project, Campus Pride and the National Association of School Psychologists will assist on the bus. Participants will not need a ticket to the show to partake. The Born Brave Bus will be open ahead of each Gaga concert for several hours. The U.S. leg of the Born This Way Ball Tour kicks off Jan. 14 in Tacoma, Wash.

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Halle Berry, Chaka Khan among 2013 BET Honorees

Actress Halle Berry and musician Chaka Khan will be honored at the 2013 BET Honors. The network announced Thursday that basketball star Lisa Leslie, music executive Clarence Avant and religious leader T.D. Jakes will also be celebrated at the Jan. 12 event in Washington at the Warner Theatre. The special airs Feb. 11. BET Honors highlights African Americans performing at top levels in the areas of music, literature, entertainment, education and more. Maya Angelou was among the honorees at this year's BET Honors. First Lady Michelle Obama presented her award. Actress Gabrielle Union will host the special. Performers will be announced at a later date.

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Heart joins select class with Rock Hall induction

The journey to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame can be a long and winding road for some acts. For Heart, it took more than a decade, and sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson admitted they were losing hope. "(The) running joke in the band was (we) would never get in," Ann said. But all that changed when the group made the class of 2013, announced this month. "Well, it just goes to show you that just when you think you know the shape of rock 'n' roll, it changes shape on you," Ann said. "This is really more than thrilling." Her younger sister, Nancy, was glad the speculation over whether they'd make it was finally put to rest. "We feel like we deserve it, so we're happy to be here," Nancy said. Since their seminal 1976 release "Dreamboat Annie" that spawned the classic hits "Magic Man," and "Crazy on You," the band went on the sell more than 30 million albums worldwide. They took time off in the 1990s so Nancy, then married to director Cameron Crowe, could raise her family, but have been performing and touring for the last several years. This year, they released their 14th studio album, "Heart Fanatic," and also released the book "Kicking and Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock & Roll." Their most recent tour resumes on Jan. 25 in Worcester, Mass. With their induction, they are part of only a few rock bands in the hall fronted by women (others include Jefferson Airplane with lead singer Grace Slick. Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie with Fleetwood Mac, and Chrissie Hynde with the Pretenders). Neither sister feels she was an inspiration to other women that eventually played in rock 'n' roll bands. "Boys invented rock to get girls, so when girls came into it they had to make a new universe," Ann joked, before adding: "I'm just looking forward to the time when we don't have to have a gender designation on music. To me, that will really be the time when we've done something." The 28th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on April 18. Other acts who will be part of the 2013 class are Rush, Donna Summer, Randy Newman, Public Enemy and Albert King. They're proud to be among the more senior rock acts still touring today (Ann is 62; Nancy is 58). "Rock 'n' roll does not have an age limit as long as it's authentic. Rock and roll is just as beautiful as when Keith Richards plays it as jazz would be when Thelonious Monk would play it," said Ann. "But the key to all that is that it has to be the real deal. It can't be some old washed up dudes thinking ... 'Let's go out and do it some more.' No. It has to still be vital."

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Study: Solo stars at higher death risk than bands

Rock 'n' roll will never die — but it's a hazardous occupation. An academic study published Thursday confirms that rock and pop musicians are more likely to die prematurely than the general population, and finds that solo artists are twice as likely to die young as members of bands. Researchers from Liverpool John Moores University and Britain's Health Department studied 1,489 rock, pop, punk, R&B, rap, electronica and New Age stars who became famous between 1956 and 2006 — from Elvis Presley to the Arctic Monkeys. They found that 137 of the stars, or 9.2 percent, had died, representing "higher levels of mortality than demographically matched individuals in the general population." The researchers dismissed the "fanciful but unsubstantiated" popular myth that rock stars tend to die at 27 — as Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse all did. The average age of death was 45.2 years for North American stars and 39.6 for European ones. Solo performers had twice the death risk of members of bands. Lead researcher Mark Bellis speculated that could be because bands provide peer support at stressful times. "Solo artists, even though they have huge followings, may be relatively isolated," said Bellis, director of the Center for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University. Music critic John Aizlewood agreed that solo artists receive more attention and adulation — and also more pressure. "And when you are a solo act, irrespective of what they say in interviews, it's an incredibly egotistical thing," he said. "So you tend to be dealing with people who are more emotionally extreme. "They have an ego in the way a drummer or even a lead guitarist in a band doesn't." In good news for aging rockers, the study found that, after 25 years of fame, stars' death rates began to return to normal — at least in Europe. A European star still living 36 years after achieving fame faces a similar mortality rate to the European public. But U.S. artists continue to die in greater numbers. Bellis said factors contributing to the difference could include longer careers — and thus longer exposure to rock 'n' roll excess — in the U.S., a huge, populous country with greater opportunities for aging stars to stay on the road. Europe's stronger social safety net and socialized medicine may also play a role, he said. The research, which updates a 2007 study by the same team, was published in the online journal BMJ Open. The study suggests the infamous rock 'n' roll lifestyle may not be entirely to blame for rock stars' death risk. The researchers looked for the first time at the role of "adverse childhood experiences" — such as physical or sexual abuse — on stars' later behavior. They found that performers who had had at least one adverse childhood experience were more likely to die from drug and alcohol use or "risk-related causes." "Substance abuse and risk-taking in stars are largely discussed in terms of hedonism, music industry culture, responses to the pressures of fame or even part of the creative process," the researchers said. However, they said, "adverse experiences in early life may leave some predisposed to health-damaging behaviors, with fame and extreme wealth providing greater opportunities to engage in risk-taking." But Ellis Cashmore, a cultural studies professor at Staffordshire University and author of the book "Celebrity/Culture," said it would be wrong to overlook "artistic frustration" as a factor in artistic self-destruction. He said troubled artists from Vincent Van Gogh and Ernest Hemingway to the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson all illustrate "the torment that creativity brings with it." "Perhaps it is the continual striving for some sort of unattainable artistic perfection that drives them," he said.

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Ugandan shilling steady, seen weaker after Christmas holiday

KAMPALA (Reuters) - The Ugandan shilling was unchanged against the dollar on Friday but traders said they expected it to weaken once more active trading resumed next year. At 1238 GMT commercial banks in Kampala quoted the currency of east Africa's third-largest economy at 2,645/2,655, unchanged from Thursday's close. "The market is pretty flat because (dollar) demand is not there but going into 2013 we anticipate some small depreciation for the shilling," said Shahzad Kamaluddin, trader at Crane Bank. "Considering the negative factors like a growing current account deficit, aid cuts and the central bank's loose policy stance I reckon the shilling will weaken when business resumes." The shilling has lost 6.4 percent against the dollar this year but it has been strengthening since late November, lifted by decreased demand for the hard currency ahead of the year-end festivities. Traders say the central bank's cuts to its key lending rate will keep yields on Ugandan government securities low and possibly erode the interest of offshore investors - whose dollar flows partly support the shilling's exchange rate. At the last auction on November 29, the yield on the benchmark 91-day Treasury bill was unchanged from the previous auction at 9.8 percent. Bank of Uganda is due to sell 110 billion shillings' worth of Treasury bills of all maturities on December 27. The bank cut its key lending rate by 50 basis points to 12 percent this month, extending its policy easing cycle aimed at resuscitating economic growth. "Because of low demand, market sentiment favours limited shilling appreciation for the remaining trading sessions of this year beyond which it (shilling) will come under pressure," said a trader at a leading commercial bank. The central bank says Uganda's projected growth rate of about 4.3 percent for the 2012/13 (July-June) fiscal year is below the country's potential growth rate of around 7 percent.

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