Climate change: Europe must take adaptation measures to lessen impacts of current and future warming
Brussels, 29 June 2007 - Climate change poses a double challenge: Europe must not only make deep cuts in its greenhouse gas emissions but also take measures to adapt to current and future climate change in order to lessen the adverse impacts of global warming on people, the economy and the environment. This is the key message of a Green Paper published by the European Commission today which sets out options for EU action to help the process of adaptation to climate change across Europe. Adaptation means taking action to cope with changing climatic conditions, for example by using scarce water resources more efficiently or ensuring the frail and elderly are properly cared for during heatwaves. The Green Paper aims to stimulate a broad public debate on adaptation in Europe, starting with a major stakeholder conference hosted by the Commission on 3 July in Brussels.
europa.eu: Climate change: Europe must take adaptation measures to lessen impacts of current and future warming
europa.eu: European Climate Change Programme II: Impacts and Adaptation

India's "People's Cars" Spur Green Nightmare Fear
New Delhi, June 28, 2007 - It may be an Indian consumer's dream -- cheap cars for US$2,500-$3,000 within reach of millions of a swelling middle class. But it could also prove to be a traffic and environmental disaster.
www.planetark.com: India's "People's Cars" Spur Green Nightmare Fear

World Wildlife Fund warns against plan by Planktos
June 27, 2007 - World Wildlife Fund today announced its opposition to a plan by Planktos, Inc. to dump iron dust in the open ocean west of the Galapagos Islands. The experiment seeks to induce phytoplankton blooms in the hopes that the microscopic marine plants will absorb carbon dioxide.
www.eurekalert.org: World Wildlife Fund warns against plan by Planktos
www.planktos.com

Heat Record in Germany
Potsdam, 27 June 2007 - In Germany, temperatures have never been as high over a 12 month period as between June 2006 and May 2007. Scientists of the PIK found that the mean temperature exceeded the country’s long term mean of 8°C to a higher degree than ever before.
www.pik-potsdam.de: Heat Record in Germany

Europe hit by killer heatwave and floods
June 26/27, 2007 - A searing heatwave has killed at least 44 people across southern Europe while in Britain torrential rain claimed three lives and forced hundreds to flee a creaking dam.
www.physorg.com: Europe hit by killer heatwave and floods
www.bbc.co.uk: Heatwave and flooding in Europe

Climate change action: Too little, too late?
London, June 27, 2007 - "I want to scare you about climate change," says Fred Pearce, veteran environmental journalist and author. "We are probably the last generation to be able to rely on a stable climate."
www.cnn.com: Climate change action: Too little, too late?

Tackling aviation emissions in the EU

London, 26 Jun 2007 – The EU’s long-awaited decision to include the aviation sector in its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will be an important first step to tackling emissions from aviation.
www.panda.org: Tackling aviation emissions in the EU

Rich nations accused of 'green imperialism'
June 25, 2007 - Asian business and government leaders have accused rich countries of hypocrisy, saying they run polluting industries with cheap labour in China and then blame the country for worsening climate change.
www.guardian.co.uk: Rich nations accused of 'green imperialism'

Energy crisis cannot be solved by renewables, oil chiefs say
Rotterdam / London, June 25, 2007 - The world is blinding itself to the reality of its energy problems, ignoring the scale of growth in demand from developing countries and placing too much faith in renewable sources of power, according to two leaders of the global energy industry.
www.timesonline.co.uk: Energy crisis cannot be solved by renewables, oil chiefs say

Ten predictions about climate change that have come true
June 25, 2007 - Here are the hard facts about global warming that everyone should know, compiled for Times Online by internationally acclaimed writer, scientist and explorer Tim Flannery, author of The Weather Makers: Our changing climate and what it means for life on earth.
www.timesonline.co.uk: / Ten predictions about climate change that have come true

US could have acted sooner if experts had reached consensus
Too little, too late: Gore blames scientists for climate crisis
Washington, June 24, 2007 - In an extraordinary outburst aimed at America's failure to tackle global warming, Al Gore says that if scientific agreement on the climate crisis had been reached sooner it would have been easier to "galvanise the public and persuade Congress to act".
www.independent.co.uk / Too little, too late: Gore blames scientists for climate crisis

The melting ice man cometh
London, June 24, 2007 - He believes his support for Kyoto lost him the coal states of Kentucky and West Virginia - and the 2000 race for the presidency. But Hurricane Katrina and his Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, changed all that. Now, on the eve of his Live Earth global concerts, climate change could put Al Gore back in the White House.
www.guardian.co.uk / The melting ice man cometh

Climate fears for heritage sites

London, June 23, 2007 - Campaigners say the UN must take urgent action to protect six World Heritage sites, including Mount Everest, from the impact of climate change.
news.bbc.co.uk / Climate fears for heritage sites

The fight for the world's food
London, June 23, 2007 - Population is growing. Supply is falling. Prices are rising. What will be the cost to the planet's poorest?
www.independent.co.uk: The fight for the world's food

The Oscars of the Environment
London, June 23, 2007 - The World Heritage Committee will soon pick another list of natural and human-made wonders most in need of protection.
www.time.com: The Oscars of the Environment
www.time.com: And the nominee's are...

Grain prices go the way of the oil price
London, June 23, 2007 - Every morning millions of Americans confront the latest trend in commodities markets at their kitchen table. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, rising prices for crops—dubbed “agflation”—has begun to drive up the cost of breakfast. The price of orange juice has risen by a quarter over the past year, eggs by a fifth and milk by roughly 5%.
www.economist.com: Biofuellled

Booming China Bids to Save Threatened Plants
London, June 22, 2007 - China appealed on Thursday for international financial backing for a major new plan to save its vast and unique set of wild plants from the ravages of booming economic growth and global warming.
www.planetark.com: Booming China Bids to Save Threatened Plants

US Senate passes energy bill, boosts mileage standards
Washington, June 22, 2007 - The Senate passed an energy bill Thursday night that will significantly raise gas-mileage standards for cars and trucks for the first time in two decades. The auto industry had lobbied against the change in standards. Republicans blocked an effort to impose $30 billion in new taxes on oil companies. The bill now awaits action by the House.
www.cnn.com: US Senate passes energy bill

Climate change and the fight for resources 'will set world aflame'
Nairobi, 21 June 2007 - Climate change has become a major security issue that could lead to "a world going up in flames", the United Nations' top environment official has warned. From rising sea levels in the Indian Ocean to the increasing spread of desert in Africa's Sahel region, global warming will cause new wars across the world, said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
environment.independent.co.uk: Climate change and the fight for resources 'will set world aflame'
environment.guardian.co.uk: Darfur conflict heralds era of wars triggered by climate change, UN report warns

Burning the Planet to Fill Your Fuel Tank
June 21 st 2007 - Cellulosic ethanol another chimerical climate "solution" that furthers biological homogenization and ecological collapse.
Humanity's epitaph may well read "Much Potential, but Cut and Burnt Themselves to Death":
Nearly every environmental crisis can be traced to burning hydrocarbons for energy, and cutting and clearing vegetation for a variety of reasons. Sadly, even as climate change awareness has grown, an understanding of root causes of environmental crises such as over-consumption remains dreadfully lacking.
So now, at this late date in the Earth's decline, it is proposed to cut and burn cellulosic ethanol biofuel produced from biomass including forest and agricultural "waste"....
earthmeanders.blogspot.com: Burning the Planet to Fill Your Fuel Tank

An Earth Without People

If all human beings vanished, Manhattan would eventually revert to a forested island. Many skyscrapers would topple within decades, undermined by waterlogged foundations; stone buildings such as St. Patrick's Cathedral (at right in artist's rendering) would survive longer. Weeds and colonizing trees would take root in the cracked pavement, while raptors nested in the ruins and foxes roamed the streets.

New York, June 20 2007 - It’s a common fantasy to imagine that you’re the last person left alive on earth. But what if all human beings were suddenly whisked off the planet? That premise is the starting point for The World without Us, a new book by science writer Alan Weisman, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Arizona. In this extended thought experiment, Weisman does not specify exactly what finishes off Homo sapiens; instead he simply assumes the abrupt disappearance of our species and projects the sequence of events that would most likely occur in the years, decades and centuries afterward.
sciam.com: An Earth Without People

Oil companies endorse Global Warming to support new drilling opportunities
Toronto, June 18 2007 - Rising global temperatures will melt areas of the Arctic making them more accessible for oil and natural gas drilling, a report prepared by the United States and seven other nations had stipulated reported since 2004.
www.agoracosmopolitan.com: Scientists: Oil companies endorse Global Warming to support new drilling opportunities

Contract signed on Earth observer

Paris, June 17 2007 - The European Space Agency (Esa) has ordered up the first bespoke spacecraft in its new global monitoring programme.
Sentinel 1 is the first Earth observation satellite to be built for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) project.
news.bbc.co.uk: Contract signed on Earth observer

Ban Ki-Moon: Climate change behind Darfur killing
New York, June 17 2007 - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the slaughter in Darfur was triggered by global climate change and that more such conflicts may be on the horizon, in an article published Saturday.
www.physorg.com: Ban Ki-Moon: Climate change behind Darfur killing

Reduced greenhouse gas emissions required to avoid dangerous increases in heat stress
West Lafayette, Ind/USA, June 14 2007 - A study led by a Purdue University researcher projects a 200 percent to 500 percent increase in the number of dangerously hot days in the Mediterranean by the end of the 21st century if the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions continues. The study found France would be subjected to the largest projected increase of high-temperature extremes.
news.uns.purdue.edu: Reduced greenhouse gas emissions required to avoid dangerous increases in heat stress

Yale journal examines the global impact of cities
New Haven, Conn/USA, June 14 2007 - The global impact of cities is the focus of cutting-edge research in a special issue of Yale’s Journal of Industrial Ecology.
www.eurekalert.org: Yale journal examines the global impact of cities Issue cover

World oil supplies are set to run out faster than expected, warn scientists
London, June 14 2007 - Scientists challenge major review of global reserves and warn that supplies will start to run out in four years' time.
news.independent.co.uk: World oil supplies are set to run out faster than expected, warn scientists

Human activities increasing carbon sequestration in forests
Corvallis, June 11, 2007 - Ore/USA – Human-caused nitrogen deposition has been indirectly “fertilizing” forests, increasing their growth and sequestering major amounts of carbon, a new study in the journal Nature suggests.
www.eurekalert.org: Human activities increasing carbon sequestration in forests

Did G8 achieve anything on climate?
London / New Delhi, June 11 2007 - The agreement to “seriously consider” a halving of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 by the G8 countries can, in the context of the stone-walling being done by the United States on any climate targets, be seen as a significant step forward. The adequacy of this longer-term step, with no immediate or short-term commitments to alleviate the risks posed to developing countries from the committed climate change, is highly questionable.
www.indiatimes.com: Did G8 achieve anything on climate?

Global Warming Threatens Scott's Antarctic Base
New York, June 9 2007 - The Antarctic base occupied by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his ill-fated expedition to the South Pole on foot early last century has been included by World Monuments Fund (WMF) on a list of the world's 100 most endangered sites.
Global Warming Threatens Scott's Antarctic Base

G8 summit acknowledges results of climate science
London / Rostock, June 9 2007 - Realclimate.org publishes on their website the full declaration of the G8 summit in Heiligendamm (Germany), which was agreed by the leaders of the G8 countries.
The weblog documents the key passages on climate change and comments: "As usual we refrain from a political analysis, but as scientists we note that it is rewarding to see that the results of climate science are fully acknowledged by the heads of state."
www.realclimate.org: G8 summit declaration acknowledges results of climate science

Modest progress for the G8
London / Rostock, 8 juni 2007 - The German Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, once a playground for the rich and minor royalty, was given over this week to a different kind of aristocracy, the leaders of the seven most powerful industrial economies, along with Russia.
news.bbc.co.uk: Modest progress for the G8

G8 climate deal signals a breakthrough
London / Rostock, 8 juni 2007 - It is full of political wriggle-room, it does not send clear signals for business investment and it offers no certainty that the climate will be saved from irreversible damage - but for all these failings, the G8 summit looks like a breakthrough in the long Euro-American stand-off over climate policy.
news.bbc.co.uk: G8 climate deal signals a breakthrough
edition.cnn.com: G8 backs climate-change science, sets no hard goals

G8 leaders agree to climate deal
London / Heiligendamm, June 7, 2007 - Leaders of the G8 nations have agreed to seek "substantial" cuts in emissions in an effort to tackle climate change.
news.bbc.co.uk: G8 leaders agree to climate deal

UK Scientists Change Weather Measures, World Warms
Exeter, (UK), June 7, 2007 - (Reuters) - Global warming is forcing weather scientists at Britain's Met Office to change the way they compare seasonal temperatures, they said on Wednesday.
www.planetark.com: UK Scientists Change Weather Measures, World Warms

Tough talks ahead for G8 leaders
London / Heiligendamm, June 6, 2007 - G8 leaders have begun the first full day of talks in Germany, amid divisions over tackling climate change and tense relations between Russia and the West.
news.bbc.co.uk: Tough talks ahead for G8 leaders
www.monbiot.com: Breast Beating

India, China under pressure at G8
London, June 6, 2007 - Leaders of the world's major powers gather on Germany's Baltic coast for a G8 summit likely to be dominated by U.S.-Russia tensions and wrangling over global warming.
India and China are coming under increasing pressure to sign up to a mandatory limit on greenhouse gas emissions at the G8 summit in Germany.
With the issue of climate change expected to take centre stage at this year's meeting, India, which is one of the world's leading polluters, says it recognises the threat of climate change.
"Once our per capita emission levels reach the same as those of the industrialised countries, we'll be very happy to do our share too."
But, India says it cannot take steps which will retard its economic growth which is the only way to deliver the vast majority of its people from poverty.
news.bbc.co.uk: India, China under pressure at G8
China puts economy before climate

More G8 news:
www.cnn.com: U.S.-Russia tensions, climate in focus as G8 meets
news.bbc.co.uk: US-Russia row looms over G8 talks
www.reuters.com: U.S.-Russia tensions, climate in focus as G8 meets
environment.guardian.co.uk: I can persuade George Bush on climate change - Blair

Massacres and paramilitary land seizures behind the biofuel revolution
London, June 5, 2007 - Armed groups in Colombia are driving peasants off their land to make way for plantations of palm oil, a biofuel that is being promoted as an environmentally friendly source of energy.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Massacres and paramilitary land seizures behind the biofuel revolution

Miliband goes to US to deliver ultimatum on climate change
London, June 5 2007 - A senior British minister warns today that the US should sign up to UN targets for reducing climate change.
environment.independent.co.uk: Miliband goes to US to deliver ultimatum on climate change
comment.independent.co.uk: Frank Field: Start the fightback to save our planet
environment.guardian.co.uk: Britain to urge US climate goal

Frank Field: Start the fightback to save our planet
London, June 5 2007 - Churchill's Churchill's strategy to win the Second World War was to prioritise those actions that had to be taken that day. Today we fight an equally important war - the war against global warming. Cool Earth, the charity that today opens its doors for business, offers individuals a chance to begin the fight-back for our planet.
comment.independent.co.uk: Frank Field: Start the fightback to save our planet

Vatican to build solar panel roof
London, June 5 2007 - Pope Benedict XVI is to become the first pontiff to harness solar power to provide energy for the Vatican, engineers say.
news.bbc.co.uk: Vatican to build solar panel roof

Research Finds That Earth's Climate is Approaching 'Dangerous' Point

Antarctica lost much more ice to the sea than it gained from snowfall according to a NASA survey done between 1992 and 2002. It also had a corresponding rise in sea level. The survey documented for the first time extensive thinning of the West Antarctic ice shelves. Credit: NASA/SVS

Washington, May 30 / June 4 2007 - NASA and Columbia University Earth Institute research finds that human-made greenhouse gases have brought the Earth’s climate close to critical tipping points, with potentially dangerous consequences for the planet.
Lead author James Hansen, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, concludes: “If global emissions of carbon dioxide continue to rise at the rate of the past decade, this research shows that there will be disastrous effects, including increasingly rapid sea level rise, increased frequency of droughts and floods, and increased stress on wildlife and plants due to rapidly shifting climate zones.”
Hansen's boss, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, said in a radio interview that while global warming is changing Earth's climate, he's not convinced that it is "a problem we must wrestle with."
The NASA chief -- whose agency has come under fire in Congress for cutting several programs designed to monitor climate change -- also says it's "rather arrogant" for people to take the position that today's climate is the optimal one.
environment.independent.co.uk 03062007: 'Global warming is three times faster than worst predictions'
www.ens-newswire.com 01062007: Earth's Climate Approaches Dangerous Tipping Point
www.nasa.gov 05302007: Research Finds That Earth's Climate is Approaching 'Dangerous' Point
pubs.giss.nasa.gov: Dangerous human-made interference with climate: a GISS modelE study (pdf 6,1 mb)
www.sfgate.com 01062007: Head of NASA downplays global warming
pravda.ru 01062007: NASA chief says global warming may not be a concern, but scientists criticize comments
www.npr.org: NASA Chief Questions Urgency of Global Warming
www.npr.org: NASA Scientist Hansen Critiques Bush's Strategy
www.panda.org / Climate Witness: Robert Swan, Antarctica
www.sciencedaily.com: Earth's climate close to tipping point

China puts economy before climate
Beijng, June 3/4 2007 - China says its first and overriding priority in tackling climate change is to maintain economic development.
environment.guardian.co.uk: China puts economy before climate
news.bbc.co.uk: China puts economy before climate
www.reuters.com: China says climate policy must make room for growth

Brazil rejects Bush move on climate change talks
London / Brasilea, June 3 2007 - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has flatly rejected President Bush's proposals for parallel global negotiations to combat climate change, insisting that countries come to agreement at the United Nations, and not under US leadership.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Brazil rejects Bush move on climate change talks

Australia PM pledges climate plan
Canberra, June 3 2007 - Australian Prime Minister John Howard has announced a shift in policy on climate change, promising to set up a carbon trading scheme to cut pollution.
news.bbc.co.uk: Australia PM pledges climate plan

EU 'must walk its climate talk'
London / Brussels, June 3 2007 - EU institutions need to put their own house in order before it can be seriously considered as the global leader in the battle against climate change, argues Green MEP Caroline Lucas. In this week's Green Room, she says a start would be the end of the monthly "merry-go-round" between Brussels and Strasbourg.
news.bbc.co.uk: EU 'must walk its climate talk'

UN urges protection of animals from climate change
The Hague, June 3 2007 - A senior United Nations official urged a 171-nation U.N. wildlife forum on Sunday to take action to help protect animals from climate change.
www.reuters.com: UN urges protection of animals from climate change

US climate plans meet mixed response
London, June 1st 2007 - US President George W Bush has seized the initiative on climate change in a move that pleased some fellow world leaders but infuriated his environmental critics.
news.bbc.co.uk: US climate plans meet mixed response
www.reuters.com / EU: Bush climate plan "the classic U.S. line"
environment.independent.co.uk: Bush makes 'empty' climate change pledge
environment.guardian.co.uk: Bush kills off hopes for G8 climate change plan

Kola "a nuclear bomb"
Oslo, June 1 st 2007 - The vast amount of radioactive waste that is the legacy of Russia's nuclear-powered submarines has been known to be a looming environmental disaster - now it can be far worse.
Research now indicates that the enormous tanks holding discarded submarine fuel rods in the Andreeva Bay may explode at any time, creating a nuclear nightmare for Northern Europe.
Norway and other Western authorities have argued for years that the stockpile of highly radioactive nuclear waste on the Kola peninsula poses an environmental hazard to the local population and for Norway.
www.aftenposten.no: Kola "a nuclear bomb"

Experts Call for Action on Climate Change
Hong Kong, May 31 2007 - More than 300 meteorologists, environmental engineers, scientists and representatives from 26 countries or regions appealed to people of the world to take immediate action to mitigate impacts brought by global warming.
www.china.org.cn: Experts Call for Action on Climate Change

Cleaning up

London, May 31st 2007 - The current row over climate change sounds all too familiar. Germany, host of this year's G8 summit, is trying to get the world to agree on what to do when the Kyoto protocol on curbing greenhouse gases runs out in 2012. America, which dislikes the tough targets that the Europeans want the world to sign up to, is proposing separate negotiations between the world's big emitters. Environmentalists accuse it of trying to sidetrack the issue. The line-up is much like the one that led to America's withdrawal from the Kyoto agreement in 2001.
www.economist.com: Cleaning up

US urges new greenhouse gas goals
Washington, May 31 2007 - US President George W Bush has urged countries to agree on long-term goals for greenhouse gas emissions.
He said he would hold meetings bringing together the US and 14 other major emitters, including developing nations, to set targets by the end of 2008.
news.bbc.co.uk: US urges new greenhouse gas goals
edition.cnn.com: Bush urges 15 nations to set global emissions goal
www.reuters.com: Bush wants global meeting on climate change

World's great apes face disaster, says Leakey

The great apes are in peril because of climate change, conservation experts say

London, May 31 2007 - Hunting, disease, logging and demand for biofuels cited among prime threats. One of the world's most prominent conservation experts yesterday issued a rallying cry to save the great apes, man's closest biological cousins, which are under serious threat of extinction.
environment.guardian.co.uk: World's great apes face disaster, says Leakey
news.bbc.co.uk: Great apes 'facing climate peril'
Related:
news.bbc.co.uk: Upright walking 'began in trees'
www.reuters.com: Orangutan study suggests early walking on two legs
Back to Top

What if the Oil Runs Out?
May 29 2007 - Though the government is planning a massive expansion of transport networks, it has never considered this question. Motorised transport is a form of time travel. We mine the compressed time of other eras – the infinitisimal rain of plankton onto the ocean floor, the settlement of trees in anoxic swamps – and use it to accelerate through our own. Every tank of fuel contains thousands of years of accretions. Our future depends on the expectation that the past will never be exhausted.
www.monbiot.com: What if the Oil Runs Out?

Lucrative Fish and Timber Face UN Trade Limits
Amsterdam, May 29 2007 - The Hague hosts a UN meeting to regulate global trade in endangered species of plants and animals from June 3 to 15. Fish and chips, coral jewelry and wooden musical instruments will take center stage at the wildlife forum next week that seeks to curb the billion-dollar trade in endangered marine and tree species.
www.planetark.com: Lucrative Fish and Timber Face UN Trade Limits
www.planetark.com: CITES, Regulator of Trade in Wild Creatures
www.cites.org: CITES conference to consider new trade rules for marine, timber and other wildlife species

Organic movement faces split over air-freighted food
London, May 29 2007 - For the conscientious, food shopping poses many ethical dilemmas: are organic bananas better than Fairtrade or English tomatoes preferable to imports?
Britain's booming organic movement has been wrestling with one such dilemma for years and the debate has become so heated it can no longer be ignored. From today, the country's organic farmers, suppliers and shoppers are being asked for an answer to an awkward question: is it acceptable to air-freight organic food?
environment.independent.co.uk: Is it acceptable to air-freight organic food?

Moscow swelters in record heat
Moscow, (Russia), May 29 2007 - Moscow sweltered in a record heat wave that saw passengers stranded in lifts, emergency meetings on power cuts, and a spike in drownings as Muscovites sought relief in local rivers, ponds and fountains.
www.physorg.com: Moscow swelters in record heat
www.planetark.com: Drought Kills 400,000 ha in Ukraine
www.planetark.com: Ukraine Drought Threatens Grain Crop, Quotas Loom

Elephant robs motorists in India
New Delhi, (India), May 28 2007 - An elephant in eastern India has sparked complaints from motorists who accuse it of blocking traffic and refusing to allow vehicles to pass unless drivers give it food.
edition.cnn.com: Elephant robs motorists in India

New museum says dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark

Man and dinosaur lining up to enter Noah's ark.

Petersburg, Ky (USA) May 27 2007 - Like many modern museums, the newest U.S. tourist attraction includes some awesome exhibits -- roaring dinosaurs and a life-sized ship. But only at the Creation Museum in Kentucky do the dinosaurs sail on the ship -- Noah's Ark, to be precise.
www.reuters.com: New museum says dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark
www.nytimes.com: Adam and Eve in the Land of the Dinosaurs

Can Shanghai turn green and grow?
London / Shanghai 27 May 2007 - Shanghai has been transformed into a global city - but its rapid growth has produced pollution, traffic jams and overcrowding.
news.bbc.co.uk: Can Shanghai turn green and grow?

'Noah's Ark' of 5,000 rare animals found floating off the coast of China
London / Shanghai 26 May 2007 - Endangered, hunted, smuggled and now abandoned, 5,000 of the world's rarest animals have been found drifting in a deserted boat near the coast of China. The cargo of the abandoned vessel was destined for restaurants. The illegal trade drives species closer to extinction.
www.guardian.co.uk: 'Noah's Ark' of 5,000 rare animals found floating off the coast of China

Biologist Rachel Carson: Heroine of the green movement
London, May 26 2007 - Rachel Carson was a shy biologist who, with one book, changed history. Paul Vallely celebrates the centenary of the woman who first warned the world of the perils of environmental pollution.
news.independent.co.uk: Biologist Rachel Carson: Heroine of the green movement

Anxiously watching a different world
London / Shanghai 26 May 2007 - Climate and other changes draw new interest and new misunderstandings to the Canadian north.
www.economist.com: 'Anxiously watching a different world'

Climate Monitoring Station: Moon-based Observatories Proposed
Michigan 26 May 2007 - Global climate change is driven by an imbalance between incoming energy from the sun and outgoing energy from Earth. Without understanding the climate system's inputs and outputs - its so-called energy budget - it is impossible to tease out the relative contributions of natural and human-induced influences and to predict future climate.
www.sciencedaily.com: Climate Monitoring Station: Moon-based Observatories Proposed

Combating Climate Change: Farming Out Global Warming Solutions
Michigan 25 May 2007 - Changes to agricultural practice and forestry management could cut greenhouse gas emissions, buying time to develop alternative technologies
www.sciam.com: Combating Climate Change: Farming Out Global Warming Solutions

Japan calls for 50% reduction in emissions by 2050
Tolyo, May 24 2007 - Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, unveiled ambitious plans today to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050 that would include the world's biggest emitters, the US and China.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Japan calls for 50% reduction in emissions by 2050

Did a comet hit the Great Lakes region and fragment human populations 12,900 years ago?
Portland (Oregon), May 24 2007 - Multi-institutional 26-member team of researchers propose a startling new theory: that an extraterrestrial impact, possibly a comet, set off a 1,000-year-long cold spell and wiped out or fragmented the prehistoric Clovis culture and a variety of animal genera across North America almost 13,000 years ago.
Driving the theory is a carbon-rich layer of soil that has been found, but not definitively explained, at some 50 Clovis-age sites in North America that date to the onset of a cooling period known as the Younger Dryas Event. The sites include several on the Channel Island off California where University of Oregon archaeologists Douglas J. Kennett and Jon M. Erlandson have conducted research.
www.physorg.com: Did a comet hit the Great Lakes region and fragment human populations 12,900 years ago?
news.nationalgeographic.com: Comet Wiped Out Early North American Culture, Animals, Study Says

Climate Change unities the Arctic and Small Island Developing States
Belize, May 24 2007 - The societies of the Arctic and Small Island Developing States are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change in similar ways. Many Strong Voices brings the two regions together to take collaborative and strategic actions on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
www.manystrongvoices.org: Climate Change in the Arctic and Small Island Developing States

Eco-warriors plan massive disruption at Heathrow
London, May 24 2007 - Thousands of green campaigners are planning to cause massive disruption at Heathrow airport.
"Eco-warriors" say they will set up a Greenham Common-style protest camp near the perimeter fence.
They intend to use it as a base to disrupt flights at the peak of the tourist season in an attempt to focus attention on climate change and global warming.
www.dailymail.co.uk: Eco-warriors plan massive disruption at Heathrow

Noah's Ark Rebuilt to Show Climate Change Threat
Mount Ararat, May 24 2007 - Noah's Ark, built to save humanity and the animal kingdom in the face of a great flood, is being reconstructed in model form on Mount Ararat as a warning to mankind to act now to prevent global warming.
www.planetark.com: Noah's Ark Rebuilt to Show Climate Change Threat
Johan's ark opens doors (in dutch)

Nuclear power 'must be on agenda'
London, May 24 2007 - Nuclear power is needed to help reduce carbon emissions and to ensure that the UK has secure energy supplies in the future, the prime minister has said.
A blueprint for a new generation of power stations was revealed yesterday as Tony Blair committed Britain to a nuclear component in energy supply.
The Government announced a five-month consultation exercise on its plans for new nuclear plants by the private sector but a private consultants' report for the Department of Trade and Industry raised suspicions that the consultation is a sham.
news.bbc.co.uk: Nuclear power 'must be on agenda'
news.independent.co.uk: Blair commits to nuclear future as plans for five new power plants are revealed
environment.guardian.co.uk: Prime sites for nuclear power stations identified

One-sixth of Europe's mammals face extinction
Gland (Switserland), May 22 2007 - One-sixth of Europe's mammal species are threatened with extinction, according to a comprehensive survey by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Unless the trend is reversed, conservationists fear that the European Union will not be able to meet its self-imposed target of halting biodiversity loss by 2010.
www.nature.com: One-sixth of Europe's mammals face extinction
www.iucn.org: One in six European mammals threatened with extinction shows new assessment by the World Conservation Union

Alarming acceleration in CO2 emissions worldwide
Stanford, CA, USA, May 21 2007 - Between 2000 and 2004, worldwide CO2 emissions increased at a rate that is over three times the rate during all of the 1990s. The accelerating growth rate is largely due to the increasing energy intensity of economic activity and the carbon intensity of the energy system, with increases in population and in per-capita gross domestic product. The increases in energy and carbon intensity constitute a reversal of a long-term trend toward greater energy efficiency and reduced carbon intensities.
www.carnegieinstitution.org: Alarming acceleration in CO2 emissions worldwide
www.sciam.com: Despite worldwide concern, carbon dioxide emissions have tripled in the past few years, according to a new study
www.theage.com.au: Can climate change get worse? It has
www.pnas.org: Global and regional drivers of accelarating CO2 emissions (pdf)
www.globalcarbonproject.org: Global and regional drivers of accelarating CO2 emissions (pdf + ppt)

The 2010 Climate Change Challenge
New York, May 21 2007 - With less than three years remaining, the 2010 target to reverse the rate of biodiversity loss looks increasingly elusive. If anything, the rate of extinction is accelerating. In 2005 the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment concluded that 60 per cent of the world's ecosystems are in decline. Last year, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species revealed that two out of five species known to science could face extinction, including one in eight birds, a quarter of all mammals and one-third of amphibian species.
www.unep.org: The 2010 Climate Change Challenge
www.cbd.int: International Day of Bio Diversity

Renewable energy: The tide turns
London, May 20 2007 - Senior cabinet ministers are pushing for Britain to be the first nation in the world to get much of its power from the tides, as part of a massive new expansion for renewable energy. The Environment Secretary, David Miliband, Welsh Secretary Peter Hain and Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling want a giant £14bn barrage to be built across the Severn.
news.independent.co.uk: Renewable energy: The tide turns

Brown's vision for a nuclear Britain
London, May 20 2007 - Gordon Brown is to face down sceptics in his party and give the go-ahead for a new generation of nuclear power stations, which will be built across the country.
In a move immediately condemned by environmental organisations, the Prime Minister-elect will give the green light to the plans that will show that he is backing Tony Blair's support of the nuclear industry.
observer.guardian.co.uk: Brown's vision for a nuclear Britain

Climate and the UN: A new bid for control?
New York, May 18 2007 - At a recent United Nations debate, the UK argued that the Security Council should take a central role in responding to climate change.
news.bbc.co.uk: Climate and the UN: A new bid for control?

Earth's natural defences against climate change 'beginning to fail'
London, May 16/18 2007 - The earth's ability to soak up the gases causing global warming is beginning to fail because of rising temperatures, in a long-feared sign of "positive feedback," new research reveals today.
Climate change itself is weakening one of the principal "sinks" absorbing carbon dioxide - the Southern Ocean around Antarctica - a new study by the University of East Anglia (UEA) has found.
news.independent.co.uk: Earth's natural defences against climate change 'beginning to fail'
news.bbc.co.uk: Polar ocean 'soaking up less CO2'
www.eurekalert.org: Climate change affects Southern Ocean carbon sink
www.enn.com: Study Shows Southern Ocean Saturated with Carbon Dioxide
comm.uea.ac.uk: Climate change affects Southern Ocean carbon sink
earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Southern ocean carbon sink weakend
www.nature.com: Polar ocean is sucking up less carbon dioxide

C40 climate summit a huge success. Seoul to host next meeting
New York / London, May 17 2007 - On the final day of the C40 Large Cities leadership summit the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, Chair of the C40 called on national government to empower and enable cities to tackle climate change in a joint communiqué agreed by all attending cities.
www.london.gov.uk: C40 climate summit a huge success. Seoul to host next meeting

Global climate body: Peatland degradation more significant than deforestation
Wageningen, 16 2007 - IPCC finally acknowledges the impact of degraded peatlands on climate change. For long the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have not highlighted the huge annual carbon dioxide emissions from degraded peatlands in both their reports as well as in their policies. This has now changed.
www.wetlands.org: Global climate body: Peatland degradation more significant than deforestation

The Last Temptation of Al Gore
May, 16 2007 - Let's say you were dreaming up the perfect stealth candidate for 2008, a Democrat who could step into the presidential race when the party confronts its inevitable doubts about the front runners. You would want a candidate with the grass-roots appeal of Barack Obama—someone with a message that transcends politics, someone who spoke out loud and clear and early against the war in Iraq. But you would also want a candidate with the operational toughness of Hillary Clinton—someone with experience and credibility on the world stage.
www.time.com: The Last Temptation of Al Gore

Climate messages are 'off target'
London, May 15 2007 - "The wrong tone can hamper efforts to effect change", Prof Hulme says. "Alarmist messages about global warming are counter-productive."
Professor Mike Hulme, of the UK's Tyndall Centre, has been conducting research on people's attitudes to media portrayals of a catastrophic future.
He says strong messages designed to prompt people to change behaviour only seem to generate apathy.
news.bbc.co.uk: Climate messages are 'off target'
news.bbc.co.uk / Mike Hulme: Chaotic world of climate truth

Hansen’s 1988 projections
Washington / London, May 15 2007 - At Jim Hansen's now famous congressional testimony given in the hot summer of 1988, he showed GISS model projections of continued global warming assuming further increases in human produced greenhouse gases. This was one of the earliest transient climate model experiments and so rightly gets a fair bit of attention when the reliability of model projections are discussed. There have however been an awful lot of mis-statements over the years - some based on pure dishonesty, some based on simple confusion. Hansen himself (and, for full disclosure, my boss), revisited those simulations in a paper last year, where he showed a rather impressive match between the recently observed data and the model projections. But how impressive is this really? and what can be concluded from the subsequent years of observations?
www.realclimate.org: Hansen’s 1988 projections
History of the greenhouse

Evangelicals split on global warming
Washington / London, May 15 2007 - BBC Washington correspondent Matt Frei goes to Virginia to take a look at how the issue of climate change is dividing America's evangelical movement.
news.bbc.co.uk: Evangelicals split on global warming

Making buildings behave better

Join the Climate Change Fan Club

May 14th 2007 - Unless you were a specialist in the matter you probably didn't rush to read the report of the third working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), when it came out earlier this month. A pity. It focused on the economics of mitigating climate change, and it came up with some striking news for town and city types.
www.economist.com: Making buildings behave better

U.N. Climate Expert Hopeful on Environment Policies
Geneva, London, May 14 2007 - Growing public concern at global warming could help put pressure on governments to cut heat-trapping carbon emissions, the top U.N. climate change expert said on Monday.
www.enn.com: U.N. Climate Expert Hopeful on Environment Policies

Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming
London, May 14 2007 - The accelerating destruction of the rainforests that form a precious cooling band around the Earth's equator, is now being recognised as one of the main causes of climate change. Carbon emissions from deforestation far outstrip damage caused by planes and automobiles and factories.
In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. Stopping the loggers is the fastest and cheapest solution to climate change. So why are global leaders turning a blind eye to this crisis?
news.independent.co.uk / Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming

US seeks G8 climate text changes
London, May 14 2007 - The US is trying to block sections of a draft agreement on climate change prepared for next month's G8 summit, according to documents seen by the BBC. Washington objects to the draft's targets to keep the global temperature rise below 2C this century and halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
news.bbc.co.uk: Murdoch: US seeks G8 climate text changes

Millions face forced migration from climate change says Christian Aid
London, May 14 2007 - The effects of climate change could make at least one billion people homeless between now and 2050, says the charity Christian Aid. The group expects climate change to deepen an already worsening global migration crisis.
news.bbc.co.uk / Millions face forced migration from climate change says Christian Aid
environment.guardian.co.uk: Climate change to force mass migration

Bottled Water Has High Environmental Costs
Washington, May 14 2007 - Bottled water, the world's fastest growing beverage, carries a heavy environmental cost, adding plastic to landfills and putting pressure on natural springs, the author of a new report said on Thursday.
/www.planetark.com: Bottled Water Has High Environmental Costs

Murdoch: I'm proud to be green
London, May 13 2007 - In one of the most unexpected conversions since Saul of Tarsus hit the road to Damascus, Rupert Murdoch is turning into a green campaigner. He is making the whole of his worldwide operations carbon neutral and setting out to "educate and engage" his readers and viewers about global warming.
news.independent.co.uk: Murdoch: I'm proud to be green

Green market forces
New York, May 12th 2007 - Carbon-trading schemes would provide many benefits, if only their failings were tackled...
www.economist: Green market forces

Ten-year warming window closing
New York, May 11 2007 - Climate change may have passed a key tipping point that could mean temperatures rising more quickly than predicted and it being harder to tackle global warming, research suggests.
www.smh.com.au: Ten-year warming window closing
environment.guardian.co.uk: Surge in carbon levels shows vegetation struggling to cope

Climate swings have brought great CO2 pulses up from the deep sea
New York, May 11 2007 - A study released today provides some of the first solid evidence that warming-induced changes in ocean circulation at the end of the last Ice Age caused vast quantities of ancient carbon dioxide to belch from the deep sea into the atmosphere. Scientists believe the carbon dioxide (CO2) releases helped propel the world into further warming.
The study, done by researchers at the University of Colorado, Kent State University and Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, appears in the May 10 advance online version of the leading journal Science.

www.ldeo.columbia.edu: Climate swings have brought great CO2 pulses up from the deep sea

Stifling summers forecast by Nasa for US east coast
New York, May 11 2007 - Researchers at Nasa have warned that unless growth in greenhouse gas emissions can be successfully curbed, large areas of the eastern United States, from Washington DC to Florida, can expect to suffer through catastrophically hotter summers within just a couple of generations.
www.giss.nasa.gov: NASA Study Suggests Extreme Summer Warming in the Future
news.independent.co.uk: Stifling summers forecast by Nasa for US east coast
newsday.com: Warming underestimated
www.ldeo.columbia.edu: New Study Shows Climate Change Likely to Lead to Periods of Extreme Drought in Southwest North America

U.N. calls climate debate 'over'
New York / United Nations May 10 2007 - (UPI) - Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former chief of the U.N. World Health Organization who also is a former prime minister of Norway and a medical doctor has declared an end to the climate-change debate.
Brundtland, one of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's three new special envoys on climate change, also headed up the 1987 U.N. World Commission on Environment and Development where the concept of sustainable development was first floated.
"This discussion is behind us. It's over," she told reporters. "The diagnosis is clear, the science is unequivocal -- it's completely immoral, even, to question now, on the basis of what we know, the reports that are out, to question the issue and to question whether we need to move forward at a much stronger pace as humankind to address the issues."
www.upi.com: Climate debate 'over'
www.planetark.org: Suspicions Among Nations Hold Back Climate Pacts

Global rush to energy crops threatens to bring food shortages and increase poverty, says UN
New York / London, May 9 2007 - The global rush to switch from oil to energy derived from plants will drive deforestation, push small farmers off the land and lead to serious food shortages and increased poverty unless carefully managed, says the most comprehensive survey yet completed of energy crops.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Global rush to energy crops threatens to bring food shortages and increase poverty, says UN
www.economist.com: The craze for maize

Green groups dismayed as flights soar to record high
London, May 9 2007 - Aviation growth is soaring to an all-time high, raising the prospect of a huge increase in the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. For the first time, more than 2.5 million commercial flights will be made around the world in a single month, with 2.51 million scheduled for May, says the flight information company OAG. This beats the previous record of 2.49 million flights last August.
news.independent.co.uk: Green groups dismayed as flights soar to record high
news.bbc.co.uk: Sky's the limit for India flight boom

UN-FCCC should address peatland loss
Bonn, May 8 2007 - Wetlands International is presenting its findings and proposals regarding peatland degradation and the resulting CO2 emissions to the scientific body of the UN Convention on Climate Change at its meeting in Bonn. So far, the convention and its bodies have ignored these emissions. Rapid action should be taken to establish incentives to stop this newly recognised disaster.
www.wetlands.org: UN-FCCC should address peatland loss
www.wetlands.org: Dutch Minister Cramer: exclude all bio-fuels from peatlands

UN program to fight global warming is target of criticism
London, May 8 2007 - China, the biggest beneficiary of the program designed to help developing countries combat global warming, is no longer so poor, while African countries are largely ignored.
The Clean Development Mechanism, has become a kind of Robin Hood, raising billions of dollars from rich countries and giving them to poor countries to curb emissions of global warming gases. But the biggest beneficiary is no longer so poor: China, with $1.2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, got three-fifths of the money raised last year.
www.iht.com: UN program to fight global warming is target of criticism

Action Alert: Call for Fast Tracking of New Strengthened Kyoto II Agreement
Bonn, May 8 2007 - Given the science and evident abrupt climate changes, Kyoto successor agreement must be negotiated now that emphasizes mandatory emissions reductions for all major industrial economies.
www.climateark.org: 'Action Alert: Call for Fast Tracking of New Strengthened Kyoto II Agreement'
www.planetark.com: 'UN Urges Climate Action; Nations Split on Tactics'

Study ties coral disease to warmer oceans
Miami, May 8 2007 - Warmer sea temperatures are linked to the severity of a coral disease, according to a study on Australia's Great Barrier Reef that offers a dire warning about global warming's potential impact on the world's troubled reefs.
www.cnn.com: Study ties coral disease to warmer oceans

Climate change 'can be tackled'
London / Bangkok, May 4 2007 - Experts at a UN climate change summit agree that emissions can be limited with small impacts on economies.
Humans need to make sweeping cuts in greenhouse gas emissions over the next 50 years to keep global warming in check, but it need only cost a tiny fraction of world economic output, a major U.N. climate report said on Friday.
Delegates approved the world's first roadmap for stemming mounting greenhouse gas emissions, laying out an arsenal of anti-warming measures that must be rushed into place to avert a disastrous spike in global temperatures.
The delegates agreed the world can avoid the catastrophic consequences of global warming by drastically reducing its reliance over the next few decades on the burning of coal, oil and other fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases. Their report also advocates significantly reducing the deforestation of the planet.
Delegates resisted pressure from China to tone down language on cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases.
www.science.com: 'Price Tags for Fighting Climate Change'
www.nature.com: 'Tackling greenhouse gases looks to be affordable'
www.sciam.com: 'Climate Change Is Happening, Effects Will Be Severe, Now What Will It Cost to Fix It?'
news.nationalgeographic.com: 'Global Warming Can Be Stopped, World Climate Experts Say'
environment.guardian.co.uk: 'World must act to avoid devastating global warming'
news.independent.co.uk: 'Climate change can be halted, UN concludes
www.cnn.com: Deal reached on climate change
news.bbc.co.uk: 'Climate change 'can be tackled'
www.reuters.com: 'Beating global warming need not cost the earth: U.N.
www.time.com: Global Warming Report: Convincing Asia

IPCC confirms that cost-effective policies and technologies could greatly reduce global warming
Bangkok, May 4 2007 - A new assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that the world community could slow and then reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) over the next several decades by exploiting cost-effective policies and current and emerging technologies.
www.unep.org: IPCC confirms that cost-effective policies and technologies could greatly reduce global warming

9th Session of IPCC Working Group III and 26th Session of IPCC
Bangkok, May 4 2007 - The ninth session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III (WGIII) met at the UN Conference Centre in Bangkok, Thailand, from 30 April to 4 May 2007, followed by the 26th session of the IPCC on Friday, 4 May. Nearly 300 participants attended the meeting, including Lead Authors and representatives from governments, UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, industry and academia. The meeting resulted in the acceptance of WGIII's contribution to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), titled "Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of Climate Change," including approval of the Summary for Policy Makers (SPM) and acceptance of the underlying report and technical summary.
www.iisd.ca: 9th Session of IPCC Working Group III and 26th Session of IPCC

The world goes to town
London, May 3rd 2007 - After this year the majority of people will live in cities. Human history will ever more emphatically become urban history, says John Grimond in the Economist.
www.economist.com: The world goes to town

The rich world's policy on greenhouse gas now seems clear: millions will die
Bangkok / London, May 1 2007 - (George Monbiot) - Our governments have set the wrong targets to tackle climate change using outdated science, and they know it.
politics.guardian.co.uk: The rich world's policy on greenhouse gas now seems clear: millions will die
www.monbiot.com: Giving Up On Two Degrees

U.S. balks at new climate report
Bangkok, April 30 2007 (AP) - The United States and China want to amend a major report by U.N.-sponsored climate researchers to play down its conclusion that quick, affordable action can limit the worst effects of global warming, according to documents reviewed Monday by The Associated Press.
news.yahoo.com: U.S. balks at new climate report

Experts Meet on UN Report: Warming Can be Slowed
Bangkok, April 30, 2007 - After two gloomy United Nations reports on global warming, scientists and governments on Monday begin looking at how to fight climate change with green groups saying the time for bickering is over.
www.planetark.com: Experts Meet on UN Report: Warming Can be Slowed
www.planetark.com: Reports by the UN Climate Panel
www.planetark.com: Main Conclusions of UN Climate Panel's Third Report

Bush Administration ‘cool’ to European proposal on warming
At a US-European Union summit on Monday 30 April, the Bush Administration is rejecting language committing it to keep global warming below the recognized “danger level” of 2°C. Recent efforts by German Chancellor and current EU Council President Angela Merkel to secure support were rebuffed despite intense diplomatic discussions.
www.panda.org: Bush Administration ‘cool’ to European proposal on warming

High temperatures felt across the globe
London, April 27, 2007 - As exceptionally high temperatures continue across India, three more lives have been claimed in the eastern city of Calcutta. Whilst rural areas have been given some light relief from the heat following a downpour yesterday evening, residents of the city are still suffering as temperatures reach 39C (102F).
www.bbc.co.uk: High temperatures felt across the globe
www.metoffice.gov.uk: Records broken as temperatures rise
news.independent.co.uk: Overheating Britain: April temperatures break all records
www.climateark.org / United Kingdom: April hottest on record

UN: We have the money and know-how to stop global warming
London, April 27, 2007 - Global climate change experts will this week lay out a detailed plan to save the planet from the catastrophic effects of rising temperatures. Climate change could be stopped in its tracks using existing technology, but only if politicians do more to force businesses and individuals to take action.
guardian.co.uk / UN: We have the money and know-how to stop global warming

Ocean's 'Twilight Zone' May Be a Key to Understanding Climate Change
Friday April 27, 2007 - A major study sheds new light on the role of carbon dioxide once it's transported to the oceans' depths. The research indicates that instead of sinking, carbon dioxide is often consumed by animals and bacteria and recycled in the "twilight zone," a dimly lit area 100 to 1,000 meters below the surface. Because the carbon often never reaches the deep ocean, where it can be stored and prevented from re-entering the atmosphere as a green-house gas, the oceans may have little impact on changes in the atmosphere or climate.
www.physorg.com: Ocean's 'Twilight Zone' May Be a Key to Understanding Climate Change

Protect God's creation: Vatican issues new green message for world's Catholics
Rome, Friday April 27, 2007 - The Vatican yesterday added its voice to a rising chorus of warnings from churches around the world that climate change and abuse of the environment is against God's will, and that the one billion-strong Catholic church must become far greener.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Protect God's creation: Vatican issues new green message for world's Catholics

Germany Also Faces Extreme Weather Due to Global Warming
Berlin, April 25 (Deutche Welle) - German meteorologists say that the country must start preparing for extreme weather that could cause numerous deaths due to global warming.
Germany has already heated up by 0.9 degrees Celsius in the past century. Germany can expect heavy storms and intense heat waves that cause numerous deaths, said Wolfgang Kusch, head of Germany's state-run meteorology service DWD, announcing the results of the meteorologists' observations.
www.dw-world.de: 'Germany Also Faces Extreme Weather Due to Global Warming'
www.planetark.org: 'Climate Winners, Losers Must Adapt'

Summer in April! German farmers pray for rain
Munich, April 24 - With cherry trees and fields of rapeseed in full bloom and the ground dry and dusty, farmers in Germany are worrying about their crop. Midsummer has turned up in mid-April and it's taking its toll on farmers.
in.news.yahoo.com: Summer in April! German farmers pray for rain

China accepts fears over climate – but will not cut growth
Beijing, April 24, 2007 - China has admitted that global warming will have a massive impact on its environment but it is ready to take only limited action to reduce its soaring carbon emissions.
www.timesonline.co.uk: China accepts fears over climate – but will not cut growth
www.physorg.com: Nuclear power not the solution for China
environment.guardian.co.uk: China speeds towards 'biggest greenhouse gas producer' title
www.cbsnews.com: China Vs. Earth

U.N. panel to lay out steps on warming
Bangkok, April 24, 2007 - After two reports predicting a warmer Earth where life is fundamentally changed, a U.N.-sponsored scientific panel next month will issue a third study describing how a united world can avert the worst, by embracing technologies ranging from nuclear power to manure controls.
www.enn.com: U.N. panel to lay out steps on warming

Six steps to hell
London, April 23, 2007 - By the end of the century, the Earth could be more than 6C hotter than it is today, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We know that would be bad news - but just how bad? How big a rise will it take for the Alps to melt, the oceans to die and desert to conquer Europe and the Americas? Mark Lynas sifted through thousands of scientific papers for his new book on global warming.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Six steps to hell

Annan: Climate Change Threat to Humanity
Oslo, April 21, 2007 - The greatest threat facing humanity is climate change, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday, and praised a Norwegian initiative to reduce the country's net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.
www.climateark.org: Annan / Climate Change Threat to Humanity

How to save the planet
London, April 19, 2007 - According to some eco-extremists, the only way to really make a difference is to stop breeding and let the human race die out.
Close your eyes and imagine that it's the year 3000. For the first time since the dinosaurs, large animals rule Planet Earth. In the ruins of its former civilisation, a forlorn species called mankind finds itself marooned on the brink of extinction.
news.independent.co.uk: How to save the planet

Plan B Budget For Saving Civilization
Washington, April 19, 2007 - "Mobilizing to save civilization means restructuring the economy, restoring the economy's natural support systems, eradicating poverty, and stabilizing population," writes Lester Brown, President of Earth Policy Institute, in Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble. We have the technologies, economic instruments, and financial resources to do this. The United States has the resources to lead this effort.
www.enn.com: Plan B Budget For Saving Civilization

Ethanol vehicles pose significant risk to health, new study finds
Stanford, April 19, 2007 - Using ethanol-based fuel instead of gasoline would likely increase the ozone-related death rate in Los Angeles by 9 percent in 2020, according to a new study by atmospheric scientist Mark Jacobson.
Ethanol is widely touted as an eco-friendly, clean-burning fuel. But if every vehicle in the United States ran on fuel made primarily from ethanol instead of pure gasoline, the number of respiratory-related deaths and hospitalizations likely would increase, according to a new study by Stanford University atmospheric scientist Mark Z. Jacobson.
news.stanford.edu: Ethanol vehicles pose significant risk to health, new study finds

China to Become Top CO2 Emitter in 2007 or '08
London, April 19, 2007 - China will overtake the United States as the world's biggest emitter of heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) either this year or next, the chief economist at the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, said on Wednesday.
www.planetark.com: China to Become Top CO2 Emitter in 2007 or '08 - IEA
www.iea.org

Study Suggests Ethanol May Cause More Smog, Deaths
Washington, April 18, 2007 — Switching from gasoline to ethanol -- touted as a green alternative at the pump -- may create dirtier air, causing slightly more smog-related deaths, a new study says.
www.enn.com: Study Suggests Ethanol May Cause More Smog, Deaths (AP)

Climate change controversies: a simple guide

London, April 18, 2007 — The Royal Society has produced an overview of the current state of scientific understanding of climate change to help non-experts better understand some of the debates in this complex area of science.
www.royalsoc.ac.uk: Climate change controversies: a simple guide

Security Council takes on global warming
New York, April 16/17, 2007 — The Security Council is holding its first ever debate on climate change on Tuesday.
The debate was initiated by Britain, which holds this month's council presidency, and will concentrate on the risks that climate change could pose to world security.
news.bbc.co.uk: Security Council takes on global warming
news.bbc.co.uk: First climate debate divides UN
news.bbc.co.uk: U.N. Security Council holds climate debate
www.reuters.com: UK puts climate change in UN Council, China objects
environment.guardian.co.uk: Climate change threatens security, UK tells UN

Warming Could Put U.S. in Hot Water
Washington, April 17, 2007 - As the world warms, water — either too little or too much of it — is going to be the major problem for the United States, scientists and military experts said Monday. It will be a domestic problem, with states clashing over controls of rivers, and a national security problem as water shortages and floods worsen conflicts and terrorism elsewhere in the world, they said.
www.time.com: Warming Could Put U.S. in Hot Water

Death in the rainforest: fragile creatures give the world a new climate warning
April 17, 2007 - A protected rainforest in one of the world's richest biodiversity hotspots has suffered an alarming collapse in amphibians and reptiles, suggesting such havens may fail to slow the creatures' slide towards global extinction.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Death in the rainforest: fragile creatures give the world a new climate warning

Green, Life-Giving and Forever Young
April 17, 2007 - Show somebody a painting of a verdant, botanically explicit forest with three elk grazing in the middle and ask what the picture is about, and the average viewer will answer, “Three elk grazing.” Add a blue jay to the scene and the response becomes, “Three elk grazing under the watchful eye of a blue jay.”
www.nytimes.com: Green, Life-Giving and Forever Young

Rallies nationwide urge Congress: Step it up on climate
New York, April 16, 2007 — Americans worried about climate change gathered Saturday on ski slopes and in cities for a nationwide day of demonstrations aimed at drawing attention to global warming.
www.cnn.com: Rallies nationwide urge Congress: Step it up on climate
www.iht.com: The power of green

Ministers aim to turn every secondary school 'green'
London, April 16, 2007 — Every new secondary school will be "green" under a radical initiative being planned by the Government.
The Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, has won £100m from Chancellor Gordon Brown's comprehensive spending review to ensure all new secondary schools are designed to be carbon neutral or at the very least substantially reduce carbon emissions.
education.independent.co.uk: Ministers aim to turn every secondary school 'green'

A new tree line
Apr 12th 2007 - A climate model suggests that chopping down the Earth's trees would help fight global warming.
www.economist.com: A new tree line

Monster warning to protect oceans
London, April 12, 2007 — The landing of a colossal squid by New Zealand fishermen earlier this year offered a rare glimpse into the mysterious world deep beneath the waves. Scientist Mark Norman uses this week's Green Room to argue that it also shows how marine life is being destroyed before it is understood.
news.bbc.co.uk: Monster warning to protect oceans

Group Pays More than $3,000 To Liberate 300 Lobsters
Portland, April 12, 2007 — Three hundred lobsters have a new lease on life thanks to an anonymous group that secured their release in Maine.
www.enn.com: Group Pays More than $3,000 To Liberate 300 Lobsters

Galapagos Islands 'facing crisis'
Quito / London, April 11/12, 2007 - Ecuador's President Rafael Correa has declared the Galapagos Islands, home to dozens of endangered species, at risk and a national priority for action.
news.bbc.co.uk: Galapagos Islands 'facing crisis'
news.independent.co.uk: The cradle of evolution: Under siege and under threat

Climate change threatens UNESCO World Heritage sites
New York, April 11, 2007 - The threats posed by climate change to natural and cultural sites on UNESCO's World Heritage List are outlined in a new UNESCO publication, "Case Studies on Climate Change and World Heritage". The report features 26 examples - including the Tower of London, Kilimanjaro National Park and the Great Barrier Reef - case studies that are representative of the dangers faced by the 830 sites inscribed on the World Heritage List.
www.unesco.org: Climate change threatens UNESCO World Heritage sites

Little Time to Avert Big Temperature Rise
Oslo, April 11, 2007 - Fighting global warming will be inexpensive but governments have little time left to avert big, damaging temperature rises, a draft United Nations report shows.
The draft, due for release in Bangkok on May 4, indicates warming is on track to exceed a 2 Celsius (3.6 F) rise over pre-industrial times, regarded by the European Union as a threshold for "dangerous" change to nature.
www.planetark.com: Little Time to Avert Big Temperature Rise

Selling off the rainforest - a modern-day scandal
London, April 11, 2007 - Vast tracts of the world's second-largest rainforest have been obtained by a small group of European and American industrial logging companies in return for minimal taxes and gifts of salt, sugar and tools, a two-year investigation will disclose today.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Selling off the rainforest - a modern-day scandal

Tigers fading fast in last stronghold
London, April 10, 2007 - Hope is fading in the fight to save the tiger in India, the animal's last stronghold, according to Indian conservationists. Resurgent poaching and feeble official protection have combined to put the animal, India's national symbol, on the road to extinction, say the country's leading tiger experts in a BBC documentary.
news.independent.co.uk: Tigers fading fast in last stronghold

Save Our Selves...
Gore pins hopes on Live Earth environment concerts
London, April 10, 2007 - (Reuters) - Environmental campaigner Al Gore hopes the Live Earth concerts on July 7 will do for climate change awareness what Live Aid did for Africa.
The former U.S. Democratic presidential candidate is spearheading efforts to get the world of pop music to back his crusade to avert what he calls a "planetary emergency", and already has Madonna and the Red Hot Chili Peppers on board.
"The Live Earth concerts on July 7 of this year will be the largest musical event in world history and the beginning of the biggest change we've ever had to make," Gore told Reuters in a recent interview to promote the concerts.
www.reuters.com: Gore pins hopes on Live Earth environment concerts
environment.guardian.co.uk: Madonna and Red Hot Chili Peppers on Live Earth line-up
news.independent.co.uk: Carbon cost of climate change concert criticised

Is global warming actually worse than Al Gore suggests?
The 90 Percent Solution
New York / Washington, April 10, 2007 - One of the criticisms of Al Gore’s message on climate change is that he exaggerates the imminence of the threat—implying, for instance, that sea levels may rise more quickly than scientists feel comfortable saying. But a few people think Gore is actually sugarcoating the catastrophe predictions.
newsweek.msn.com: The 90 Percent Solution

It's Not Just Climate Change that is killing the Earth and your children's future
April 10, 2007 - Climate change is the collapse of the global atmospheric system's processes and patterns and represents a massive environmental challenge to maintaining a habitable Earth. Yet climate is but one of several planetary scale ecological crises that threaten existence and are occurring now concurrently.
earthmeanders.blogspot.com: It's Not Just Climate Change

Climate takes aim
April 10, 2007 - Attention is now turning to the developing world, where those least equipped to handle it will bear the brunt of global warming.
www.nature.com: Climate takes aim

Changing Climes: Global Warming Impacts Appearing Around the Globe
Brussels, April 9, 2007 - The second report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reveals that global warming impacts are already advancing, and will get worse
www.sciam.com: Changing Climes: Global Warming Impacts Appearing Around the Globe
www.sciam.com: Dust Bowl 2.0: Is the Southwest Drying Up?

Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future
London, April 9, 2007 - Information chips implanted in the brain. Electromagnetic pulse weapons. The middle classes becoming revolutionary, taking on the role of Marx's proletariat. The population of countries in the Middle East increasing by 132%, while Europe's drops as fertility falls. "Flashmobs" - groups rapidly mobilised by criminal gangs or terrorists groups.
www.guardian.co.uk: Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future

Next task: 'Repairing' the climate
London / Brussels, April 7, 2007 - Now comes the hard part of global warming — fixing it — say scientists looking ahead to the release of the next major climate-change report.
www.usatoday.com: 'Repairing' the climate

How the worst effects of climate change will be felt by the poorest

London / Brussels, April 7, 2007 - Humanity will be divided as never before by climate change, with the world's poor its disproportionate victims, the latest United Nations report on the coming effects of global warming made clear yesterday.
Existing divisions between rich and poor countries will be sharply exacerbated by the pattern of climate-change impacts in the coming years, predicted in the study from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
news.independent.co.uk: How the worst effects of climate change will be felt by the poorest

IPCC outlines strategies for responding to the impacts of human-caused climate change
Brussels, 6 April 2007 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has finalized a new report that assesses the current and future impacts of global warming and explores opportunities for proactively adapting to them. Emissions cuts, sustainable development and early measures to adapt could reduce humanity’s vulnerability.
www.unep.org: IPCC outlines strategies for responding to the impacts of human-caused climate change

Latest IPCC report highlights need for integrated climate/human behavior models
Brussels, April 6, 2007 - Adapting to the global climate change impacts outlined in the IPCC's Working Group 2 Report, "Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability", will require new evaluation tools to help choose the best way forward, according to the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), an international network of environmental scientists.
www.eurekalert.org: How to choose choose the best way forward
www.igbp.kva.se: Full press release

Political Heat Over the Planet
Brussels, April 6, 2007 - Climate change is the very definition of a global problem — its causes and effects cross all national boundaries, and so must its remedies.
But if human activity in burning fossil fuels is the cause of global warming, as the consensus now holds, then human activity in the political and diplomatic realm may also prove be the greatest obstacle to an effective global response to the problem.
That much was clear in Brussels on Friday in the struggles over the latest report of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
www.time.com: Political Heat Over the Planet

All washed up
Brussels, April 6 2007 - 'We were right, all along.' That is the thrust of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
In 2001 it predicted that global warming would lead to many ills, including greater numbers of extinctions, growing shortages of water, higher incidence of tropical diseases, and lower yields from agriculture, fishing and forestry in some places.
Now the scientists who write the reports say they have much stronger evidence that such calamities are indeed occurring—faster, in many cases, than they originally thought.
www.economist.com: As the evidence of global warming proliferates, so do the nasty consequences

Warming 'ruining society, nature'
Brussels, April 6 2007 - (CNN) - Top climate experts issue the bleakest U.N. assessment yet on global warming, warning it will cause faster and wider damage than previously forecast, ranging from hunger in Africa and Asia to extinctions and rising ocean levels.
edition.cnn.com: Warming 'ruining society, nature'
edition.cnn.com: Anger over global warming report

Bleakest warning issued on climate
Brussels, April 6 2007 - (Reuters) - Top climate experts issued their bleakest forecasts yet about global warming on Friday, ranging from hunger in Africa to a thaw of Himalayan glaciers in a study that may add pressure on governments to act.
www.reuters.com: Bleakest warning issued on climate
www.reuters.com: Children bear brunt of climate warming
www.reuters.com: Goa, going, Gone : Asia tourism faces climate chaos

Scientists in war of words over global warming
Brussels, April 6 2007 - Scientists and diplomats are haggling over the fine print of an alarming report that will today warn how global warming will warm seas, melt glaciers and change weather patterns.
news.independent.co.uk: Scientists in war of words over global warming report
www.nytimes.com: Late Changes Made Report More Dire, and Less
www.iht.com: Global politics shift as experts say warming is setting in

Panel: Global warming a threat to Earth
Brussels, April 6 2007 - An international global warming conference approved a report Friday warning of dire threats to the Earth and to mankind — from increased hunger to the extinction of species — unless the world adapts to climate change and halts its progress.
Agreement came after an all-night session during which key sections were deleted from the draft and scientists angrily confronted government negotiators who they feared were watering down their findings.
"It has been a complex exercise," said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Several scientists objected to the editing of the final draft by government negotiators but in the end agreed to compromises. However, some scientists vowed never to take part in the process again.
news.yahoo.com: Global warming a threat to Earth

Scientists issue bleak forecast for warming world
Brussels, April 6 2007 - The world's scientists today issued a grim forecast for life on earth when they published their latest assessment of the impacts of climate change.
A warming world will place hundreds of millions of extra people at greater risk of food and water shortages and threaten the survival of thousands of species of plants and animals, the scientists said.
Floods, heat waves, famines, storms and droughts are all expected to increase, with people in poorer countries suffering the worst effects.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Scientists issue bleak forecast for warming world

Effects of climate change tallied up
Brussels, April 6 2007 - Increased drought, flood and disease 'will hit poorest hardest'.
www.nature.com: Effects of climate change tallied up

Worse to Come From Global Warming
Brussels, April 6 2007 - The U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released today in Brussels has a familiar ring. As the climate disasters headlined recently--intense hurricanes, drought in the American West, Arctic thawing--become commonplace in a greenhouse world, plants, animals, and people will suffer. That has been the presumption, but the latest report from the IPCC projecting greenhouse impacts calculates mounting costs that will fall the heaviest on the world's poor.
sciencenow.sciencemag.org: Worse to Come From Global Warming

Billions face climate change risk
London / Brussels, April 6 2007 - Billions of people face shortages of food and water and increased risk of flooding, experts at a major climate change conference have warned.
news.bbc.co.uk: Billions face climate change risk

New Study Shows Climate Change Likely to Lead to Periods of Extreme Drought in Southwest North America
Brussels, April 6 2007 - How anthropogenic climate change will impact the arid regions of Southwestern North America has implications for the allocation of water resources and the course of regional development.
www.ldeo.columbia.edu: New Study Shows Climate Change Likely to Lead to Periods of Extreme Drought in Southwest North America

Acidic Oceans Threatening Sea Life, UN Panel Says
Sydney, April 6 2007 - Rising carbon dioxide emissions are making the world's oceans more acidic, particularly closer to the poles, heralding disaster for marine life, a major U.N. report on climate change impacts says.
www.enn.com: Acidic Oceans Threatening Sea Life, UN Panel Says

Global Warming Happens: But is it "Catastrophic"?
Oslo, April 5 2007 - Likely headlines predicting a global warming "catastrophe", "disaster" or "cataclysm" after a UN report due on Friday risk sapping public willingness to act by making the problem seem too big to tackle, some experts say.
www.planetark.com: Global Warming Happens: But is it "Catastrophic"?

Climate change: time to prevent biggest disaster in history

The Great Barrier Reef in Australië is one of the most endangered habitats on earth. One of the world's natural wonders is threatened by warming waters, which causes coral bleaching. Aerial view of Hardy Reef, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Australia. (Foto:wwf)

Brussels, April 4 2007 - Climate change is poised to become the biggest disaster in human history - wiping out huge swathes of the planet's biodiversity, while bringing misery to millions of people.
As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) prepares to release its latest report, on Friday 6 April, which is expected to paint a frightening picture of a planet on the brink of humanitarian and environmental disaster, WWF calls for world governments to control CO2 emissions before climate change devastates the planet.
Keith Allott, head of WWF-UK's Climate Change Programme said: "There is no time left for procrastination. Climate change is right here, right now and it is killing people and wiping out the very biodiversity that sustains us all. The science tells us that the effects of climate change are already being felt at both regional and global level - and it's going to get a lot worse. This is a global emergency and we need an urgent global response."
www.wwf.org.uk: Time to prevent biggest disaster in history
www.panda.org: Natural wonders feel the heat
news.yahoo.com: UN panel poised for bleak report on climate
cnn.com: Delegates' debate on climate change report 'going slow'
news.bbc.co.uk: Warming 'already changing world'

"Worst stuff is not going to happen because we can't be that stupid"
Draft of climate report maps out 'highway to extinction'
Washington / Brussels, April 3 2007 - A key element of the second major report on climate change being released Friday in Belgium is a chart that maps out the effects of global warming, most of them bad, with every degree of temperature rise.
From the micro to the macro, from plankton in the oceans to polar bears in the far north and seals in the far south, global warming has begun changing life on Earth, international scientists will report.
There's one bright spot: A minimal heat rise means more food production in northern regions of the world.
However, the number of species going extinct rises with the heat, as does the number of people who may starve, or face water shortages, or floods, according to the projections in the draft report obtained by The Associated Press.
www.cnn.com: Draft of climate report maps out 'highway to extinction'
www.physorg.com: Warming Will End Some Species
www.planetark.org/reuters: Impacts of Climate Change
www.reuters.com: Impacts of Climate Change
www.climateark.org: Climate change destruction 'to accelerate'
www.physorg.com: Abrupt climate change more common than believed
www.climateark.org: We have passed the tipping point
www.cosmosmagazine.com: U.N. to issue grim climate impact warming

Tropical losers, northern winners from warming?
Oslo, April 3 2007 - Northern nations such as Russia or Canada may be celebrating better harvests and less icy winters in coming decades even as rising seas, also caused by global warming, are washing away Pacific island states.
www.reuters.com: Tropical losers, northern winners from warming?

Urban air pollution 'more dangerous than Chernobyl'
London, April 3 2007 - Air pollution in major cities may be more damaging to health than the radiation exposure suffered by survivors of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, according to a report published today.
www.guardian.co.uk: Urban air pollution 'more dangerous than Chernobyl'

Tide of suffering
London, April 2nd 2007 - The rich world created the climate change threat. It must help the rest deal with the consequences. But, as the threat posed by global warming intensifies, northern governments are building up their climate change fortifications.
From lower Manhattan to the Thames estuary, flood defences are being strengthened to protect people from rising sea levels.
Meanwhile, millions of the world's poorest people facing the prospect of more droughts, storms and floods are being left to sink or swim with their own resources.
www.guardian.co.uk: Tide of suffering

Controversial Seal Hunt Delayed 2nd Year Due to Ice Breakup

St. Lawrence, April 2 2007 - Thin ice is killing baby seals in Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence by the thousands and forcing the delay of the area's annual harp seal hunt for the second year in a row.
The ice conditions this year are so poor that the hunt should be cancelled altogether, says the nonprofit International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
news.nationalgeographic.com: Controversial Seal Hunt Delayed 2nd Year Due to Ice Breakup

Britons unwilling to change despite climate threat
London, April 2 2007 - Few people are making significant changes to their lifestyle to counter climate change despite a widespread acceptance of its dangers, according to new research.
www.independent.co.uk: Britons unwilling to change despite climate threat

The Sheep Albedo Feedback
New Zealand, April 1 2007 - The already-reeling "consensus" supposedly linking climate change to CO2 is about to receive its final coup-de-grace from a remarkable new result announced in a press conference today by Dr. Ewe Noh-Watt of the New Zealand Institute of Veterinary Climatology. "We have seen the future of climate -- and it is Sheep."
www.realclimate.org: The Sheep Albedo Feedback

WWF: "This is a disgrace for Britain"
Emissions soar from UK generators
London, March 28, 2007 - (BBC) - Carbon dioxide emissions from Britain's power stations have grown markedly in recent years, a report has concluded.
news.bbc.co.uk: Study: Emissions soar from UK generators

If we want to save the planet, we need a five-year freeze on biofuels
London, March 27, 2007 - (BBC) - Oil produced from plants sets up competition for food between cars and people. People - and the environment - will lose. It used to be a matter of good intentions gone awry. Now it is plain fraud. The governments using biofuel to tackle global warming know that it causes more harm than good.
news.guardian.co.uk: f we want to save the planet, we need a five-year freeze on biofuels

Study: Global warming may create 'novel' climates
New York, March 27, 2007 - (CNN) - Some climates may disappear from Earth entirely, not just from their current locations, while new climates could develop if the planet continues to warm, due to worst-case warming scenario, a study says.
www.cnn.com: Study: Global warming may create 'novel' climates
www.guardian.co.uk: Global warming study warns of vanishing climates
100-Year Forecast: New Climate Zones Humans Have Never Seen
Warming to Create Previously Unknown Climates, Study Says
www.eurekalert.org: New modeling study forecasts disappearance of existing climate zones

Taiwan Finds Huge Methane Hydrate Gas Reserves
Taipei, March 26, 2007 - (Reuters) - Taiwan has found massive deposits of gas hydrate off its southwestern coast that might be enough to meet the island's energy needs for the next 60 years, the chief scientist of the project said on Monday.
www.planetark.com: Taiwan Finds Huge Methane Hydrate Gas Reserves

World Must Pay Poorer Nations to Keep Forests
Jakarta, March 26, 2007 - (Reuters) - A major UN conference on global warming in December should target setting up a system to pay developing nations such as Indonesia and Brazil to keep their forests, an influential climate change expert said on Friday.
www.planetark.com: World Must Pay Poorer Nations to Keep Forests

Open skies pact 'will worsen climate change'
London, March 22 2007 - Plans to open up transatlantic aviation and generate an extra 26 million air passengers over five years will undermine Europe's push to combat climate change, campaigners warned yesterday.
news.independent.co.uk: Open skies pact 'will worsen climate change'

Source of hot European summers determined
Paris, March 22 2007 - French-led research suggests shortages of winter rainfall over southern Europe precede hot summers further north on the European continent.
www.climateark.org: Source of hot European summers determined

Environmentalists in uproar as Iceland pays the price for green energy push
Karahnjukar, Iceland , March 21, 2007 - Europe's largest wilderness is paying the price of Iceland's decision to market cheap, "green", renewable electricity to the world, as a massive new smelter nears completion.
news.independent.co.uk: Environmentalists in uproar as Iceland pays the price for green energy push

Food crops already feel the heat as the world warms, study finds
Stanford, March 20, 2007 - Over a span of two decades, warming temperatures caused annual losses of roughly $5 billion for major food crops, according to a study published March 16 in the online journal Environmental Research Letters.
news-service.stanford.edu: Food crops already feel the heat as the world warms, study finds

Rivers run towards 'crisis point'
March 16, 2007 - Some of the world's major rivers are reaching crisis point because of dams, shipping, pollution and climate change, according to the environment group WWF.
news.bbc.co.uk: Rivers run towards 'crisis point'

'We should be scared stiff'

March 16, 2007 - Renowned scientist James Lovelock thinks mainland Europe will soon be desert - and millions of people will start moving north to Britain.
environment.guardian.co.uk: 'We should be scared stiff'
11282006: Gaia scientist Lovelock predicts planetary wipeout
'The Revenge of Gaia' Books & Debate

Crops feeling the heat
Livermore, Ca/USA, March 16 2007 — Warming temperatures since 1981 have caused annual losses of roughly $5 billion for the major cereal crops, a study has found.
www.llnl.gov: Crops feeling the heat

German scientist: Some benefits to warming
March 16, 2007 - One of Germany's leading climate change researchers said global warming will bring some benefits.
www.sciencedaily.com: German scientist: Some benefits to warming

Global 'Sunscreen' Has Likely Thinned, Report NASA Scientists
March 15, 2007 - A new NASA study has found that an important counter-balance to the warming of our planet by greenhouse gases – sunlight blocked by dust, pollution and other aerosol particles – appears to have lost ground.
earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Global 'sunscreen' has likely thinned, report NASA scientists

Britain's heaths and moors hold the key to reducing carbon emissions
London, March 15, 2007 - The heather moorlands of Britain are considered by scientists to be a vital weapon in the struggle against climate change, removing carbon from the air as they grow and storing it in their wet, peaty terrain.
But scientists at York University's Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) warned yesterday that the moorlands had become a "timebomb" in the fight against global warming as the combination of a warming climate and bad land management are drying them out, releasing carbon on an industrial scale.
www.independent.co.uk: Britain's heaths and moors hold the key to reducing carbon emissions

Britain will lead the world towards combating climate change
Global warming: The climate has changed
London, March 14, 2007 - Prime Minister Tony Blair hails the 'historic day' in the battle against climate change. The British Government has become the first in the world to commit itself to legally binding reductions in carbon dioxide emissions but will come under strong pressure to agree to bigger cuts when its landmark Climate Change Bill goes though Parliament.
www.independent.co.uk: Global warming: The climate has changed
www.independent.co.uk: Britain will lead the world towards combating climate change

Push to Fix Ozone Layer and Slow Global Warming
Hong Kong, March 14, 2007 -
An unusual coalition of industrial and developing countries began pushing Wednesday for stringent limits on the world’s most popular refrigerant for air-conditioners, as evidence mounts that the refrigerant harms the earth’s ozone layer and contributes to global warming.
www.nytimes.com: Push to Fix Ozone Layer and Slow Global Warming

Politicians bid for the green vote
London, March 11, 2007 - A frantic race to play the winning "green card" will take place in Westminster this week, as Britain's three main political parties focus on the environment and global warming as the main battleground of the next general election.
www.independent.co.uk: Politicians bid for the green vote

The Buried Treasure in Dome A
London, March 8, 2007 - Air bubbles trapped in the Antarctic ice sheet could yield precious information about Earth's climate more than a million years ago. But to access this record, scientists first have to climb one of the coldest peaks on Earth.
www.nature.com: The Buried Treasure in Dome A

Born to die: Climate change disrupting life cycles with fatal results
London, March 8, 2007 - The behaviour of Britain's wildlife is raising alarm about the seriousness of climate change as animals' breeding patterns are thrown into confusion. The second mildest winter on record has resulted in mammals, reptiles, birds and insects emerging from shelter far too early.
news.independent.co.uk: Climate change disrupting life cycles with fatal results

Merkel warns of difficult steps on climate change
Berlin, March 7, 2007 - A deal on cutting carbon emissions will be the first of a series of difficult steps for European Union nations in the fight to tackle global warming, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned in a newspaper interview published Wednesday.
www.eux.tv: Merkel warns of difficult steps on climate change
www.iht.com: EU chief Barroso appoints new panel of experts to advise on energy, climate change
www.reuters.com: EU climate meeting foreshadows German G8 push

'Escape routes' to north planned for wildlife
Edinburgh, March 7, 2007 - Scotland's wildlife faces a "long march" north to escape global warming and there will be casualties along the way, Scotland's leading conservation body has warned. Scottish Natural Heritage is to explore ways of helping the country's animals and plants on their epic journey, so they can spread from areas that become too warm, too wet or too dry over the coming years. Roads, railways, towns and large open areas represent physical barriers for many kinds of wildlife...
news.scotsman.com: 'Escape routes' to north planned for wildlife

Could a bag really save the world?

London, March 6 2007 - It's made of cream canvas, costs a fiver, and is just fine for those little shopping trips. So how has it become this year's must-have fashion accessory - the latest symbol of clued-up, plugged-in people power? The Independent rummages for the truth about the 'We Are What We Do' bag.
news.independent.co.uk: I'm not a plastic bag.

Miliband: 'Time for a green industrial revolution'
London, March 5, 2007 - Britain needs a new industrial revolution to transform itself into the low carbon economy needed to make radical cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, will say today.
news.independent.co.uk: Miliband: 'Time for a green industrial revolution'

Why Channel 4 has got it wrong over climate change
London, 04 March 2007 - Guardia's science editor condemns Chanel 4's latest foray into the debate on global warming.
guardian.co.uk: Why Channel 4 has got it wrong over climate change

Global warming threatens Scottish puffin paradise

London, 03 March 2007 - One of Britain's largest puffin colonies is being wiped out by an invasive plant that is thriving in warmer temperatures brought about by climate change.
news.independent.co.uk: Global warming threatens Scottish puffin paradise
www.ceh.ac.uk: Invasion of Scottish seabird islands by tree mallow

UN chief warns on climate change
New York, March 2, 2007 - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that climate change poses as much of a danger to the world as war. Ban Ki-moon urged the US to lead the way in tackling climate change.
news.bbc.co.uk: UN chief warns on climate change

It's not just about climate
New York, March 2, 2007 - Concerns over climate change should not obscure other environmental issues such as the rapid loss of species, argues Ahmed Djoghlaf, head of the UN biodiversity convention. There is much to be gained, he says, by treating the different issues together.
news.bbc.co.uk: It's not just about climate

If we don't change our ways, you'll be left with a laptop and a dead planet."
The Ugly American Environmentalist
Buenos Aires, March 1, 2007 - Douglas Tompkins wants to save the planet, but many Argentines wish he'd start somewhere other than their country.
news.bbc.co.uk: It's not just about climate

UN: 'Civilization must rise to the challenge'

New York, February 28 2007 - An international panel of scientists presented the United Nations with a sweeping, detailed plan on Tuesday to combat climate change -- a challenge, it said, "to which civilization must rise."
Failure would produce a turbulent 21st century of weather extremes, spreading drought and disease, expanding oceans and displaced coastal populations, it said.
"The increasing numbers of environmental refugees as sea levels rise and storm surges increase will be in the tens of millions," panel co-chair Rosina Bierbaum, a University of Michigan ecologist, told reporters.
The plan is part of the report Confronting Climate Change: Avoiding the Unmanageable and Managing the Unavoidable, presented by the United Nations Foundation and Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society.
www.cnn.com: Climate plan: Civilization must rise to the challenge
www.newscientist.com: United Nations' scientists join climate change chorus
www.enn.com: Scientists Offer Plan to U.N. for Civilization to Rise to Climate Challenge
www.unfoundation.org: Confronting Climate Change: Avoiding the Unmanageable and Managing the Unavoidable
www.sigmaxi.org: Scientists Present Roadmap for Reducing Climate Change Risks
www.sigmaxi.org: Global Warming Debate Over, Time to Act Now
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London plans to be world's greenest city
London, February 27, 2007 - The British capital set out on Tuesday to become the greenest city in the world with a radical climate action plan to cut carbon emissions by 60 percent within 20 years in the battle against global warming.