Confused? You have every right to be. On just one day this week, it was reported that the heatwave that has lit wildfires across Australia is so unprecedented that two new colours have had to be added to weather forecasting maps; that 2012 had been by far the hottest year on record in the United States; that the blue-chip World Economic Forum had identified climate change as one of the world’s most urgent dangers; and that, nevertheless, the Met Office had concluded that global warming had stalled.

Steen Ulrik Johannessen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Updated: Jan. 8, 2013 Global warming has become perhaps the most complicated issue facing world leaders. Warnings from the scientific community are becoming louder, as an increasing body of science points to rising dangers from the ongoing buildup of human-related greenhouse gases — produced mainly by the burning of fossil fuels and forests

In a first-of-its-kind feat of science and engineering, scientists have successfully drilled through 800 meters (2,600 feet) of Antarctic ice to reach a subglacial lake and retrieve

1In a first-of-its-kind feat of science and engineering, scientists have successfully drilled through 800 meters (2,600 feet) of Antarctic ice to reach a subglacial lake and retrieve

1 In a first-of-its-kind feat of science and engineering, scientists have successfully drilled through 800 meters (2,600 feet) of Antarctic ice to reach a subglacial lake and retrieve