As reported earlier this month, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have increased by 2.67 parts per million since 2011, reaching a new record of 395 parts per million. At the same time advances in both technology and the public debate are deepening the public’s understanding of climate change. Check out the rest of this week’s post to learn how new research is showing the impact of past climactic change on today’s weather events, and to see how meteorologists from the Weather Channel are impacting public opinion.

Back in 2011 Microsoft shared the results from a pilot program on our corporate campus in Redmond, Wash., aimed at using technology to improve the energy efficiency of the buildings on our campus. Today, Microsoft’s Energy-Smart Buildings initiative has been named a 2013 Computerworld Honors Laureate for the smart building pilot. Selections for the Computerworld award were made by 22 judges who evaluated the humanitarian benefits and measureable results of applying technology to meet a specific social or business need. The awards ceremony will take place on June 3 in Washington D.C., where five Laureates from each of the 11 categories will be named as finalists. One winner will be chosen from each category’s finalists.

This week, we noticed quite a bit of interesting sustainability news about sustainability news, including how the New York Times will cover environmental issues following the shuttering of its Green Blog. Read on to learn more about the New York Times’s new climate column and how “knowledge journalists” are influencing how environmental issues are reaching the broader public.

While the physical design of a device certainly plays an important role in how it consumes power, software can also influence power consumption based on how it is programmed to use the device’s CPU, disk and memory. Windows 8 has numerous features that help make it more energy efficient, but we are also starting to see specific applications on the Windows Store that are helping people understand and measure their Windows PC’s energy use.

As the impact of climate change becomes increasingly evident (case in point: this week’s news that global carbon dioxide levels have reached 395 parts per million), technology will need to be part of an “all of the above” approach that includes innovative approaches to both energy generation and efficiency. While renewable energy gets a lot of attention (and rightfully so), there’s also a huge opportunity for developing smart buildings and smart cities that are built on the back of IT. Read on for more on how technology is making buildings smarter and how smart city spending is expected to reach $20 billion by 2020.