The U.S. May Be Chilling This Year But The World Keeps Baking

U.S. may be chilling out this year, but the world keeps baking. "Federal forecasters calculated that for most of the Earth, last month was one of the hottest Marchs on record -- except in the United States. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday that it was the fourth hottest March in 135 years of records." Seth Borenstein in the Associated Press.

Even so, the U.S. has warmed considerably since the first Earth Day. "It's been 44 years since the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, and since that time, average temperatures have been rising across the U.S....Average temperatures across most of the continental U.S. have been rising gradually for more than a century, at a rate of about 0.127?F per decade between 1910-2012. That trend parallels an overall increase in average global temperatures, which is largely the result of human greenhouse gas emissions. While global warming isn't uniform, and some regions are warming faster than others, since the 1970s, warming across the U.S. has accelerated....Since then, every state's annual average temperature has risen accordingly." Climate Central.

Don't expect much from Congress, which hasn't done anything on the environment in a while. "It's been a long time since Congress passed a major new environmental law -- at least 1,894 days as of Tuesday. Based on an informal survey of people who follow environmental issues, the last big new law was probably the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, also known as the stimulus bill." Kate Sheppard in The Huffington Post.

Republicans won't say 'Earth Day.' Why? "For years, mentions of Earth Day have sprung up each April from members of both parties. In April 2010, Democrats spoke of Earth Day over 150 times, mostly in commemoration of its 40th anniversary. But no Republican has uttered the words 'Earth Day' on the House or Senate floor since 2010. The last to do so was Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, in support of expanding nuclear-power generation." Peter Bell and Brian McGill in National Journal.

Explainer: But climate isn't a top priority for the public. Here are 4 reasons why. Natalie Scholl in American Enterprise Institute.

Poll: Only 39 percent are concerned, while one-fourth skeptical. "Over the past decade, Americans have clustered into three broad groups on global warming. The largest, currently describing 39% of U.S. adults, are what can be termed 'Concerned Believers' -- those who attribute global warming to human actions and are worried about it. This is followed by the 'Mixed Middle,' at 36%. And one in four Americans -- the 'Cool Skeptics' -- are not worried about global warming much or at all." Lydia Saad in Gallup.

Politics of climate change stink. That's why 'think globally, act locally' is back. "Now, at middle age, Earth Day and the environmental movement face a fundamentally tougher foe than they did in the spring of '70: climate change. Over the past decade and a half, environmental stalwarts have tried various tactics to fight global warming, and they've largely failed. Now, though they don't say so explicitly, they're essentially reverting to the same principle that characterized that first Earth Day: 'Think globally, act locally'...Today, as on the inaugural Earth Day, the main object of American environmentalists' ire is a piece of oil-industry infrastructure. In this case it's the Keystone XL pipeline." Jeffrey Ball in The New Republic.

Explainer: It's not all doom and gloom. The planet is much cleaner than it was on the first Earth Day. Alan Flippen and Damon Darlin in The New York Times.