A selection of articles on climate topics based on scientific research and studies. From the controversial subjects of climate change and man made global warming to changes in weather patterns.
You can deny climate change as much as you like. The evidence contradicts you. Any logical study takes account of scientific data which can be reproduced. That is the difference between media reports and the global warming reality. Here we have an up-to-date report on the state of one nation, with many others also recognising and acting on how to combat climate change in a coordinated global response.
The extinction of small and large, plant and animal is a daily event now, as climate change increasingly joins the other anthropogenic influences on the species of our planet. Mapping the possibilities and modelling the effects is now finally helping out with the problems, but we still have to conserve, and quickly.
How will Paris be implemented? Will farming be a major player in preserving our environment as we feed more people than ever existed? The questions for future generations will be thorny, but the rainforest is a thorny clue about conserving what we have left!We're looking forward to seeing how the new NGO copes with expansion as the politics of climate mitigation progresses.
The tree swallow has magnificent migrations, like many of its ilk. The Alaskan warming however is more drastic than the rest of the continent, like Arctic regions elsewhere, so how does that influence the swallows phenology?
When the politics of greenhouse gases finally unravel, it wont be our children who come to conclusions about it. It will be more distant descendants who acclaim our restriction of CFCs, but what can they say about the current mess? We need climate champions, and they are rare in some politics. Lets hope they can read (the writing on the wall) at least! Here it is, using a new EMIC simulation that provides accuracy, evidence and good conclusions.
The climate of the Arctic is changing more rapidly than most other regions, but just south of there is the treeline and then the greatest forests left on earth. How will they and their inhabitants change as the warming continues over the next century or so, and are we able to help?
The existence of a water loving species in the middle of a great desert shocked early explorers and has that effect still. Memory, migration and magnificent skills serve the Namibian elephant well, as they probably have for other, long-dead elephant populations in the severest African climates.
When our children ask what 2016 was like, what will we tell them about the likely hottest year that has ever been recorded.? We may be facing the truth about climate change next year, or even earlier.
We know our forests have gone or are going. All you have to do is fly over one of the supposed biodiverse jungly areas. The signs are there for all to see, without any satellite reconnaissance. Professor Peres gives us the whole story, with the background economics in an effort to stop the rot and conserve the little we have left, just as the global warming campaign has finally created a momentum to stop climate change.
Promises, promises. How will we cope with the mitigation measures so far in place?
When can he climate changers and the global de-warmers finally have their way and be able to replace the whole carbon footprints of nations? Well, there is hope in some of the latest renewable investments and this example of pure science that will soon be transferred to a new set of technologies.
It is urgent that we properly approach the global warming problems worldwide. To invest sensibly in low-carbon industry, using the power of our pensions and observe how efficiently government can or cannot carry out the necessary climate change reversals is critical. Meetings such as this Economist-inspired Summit need to propagate concern and action, but are we still just talking instead of doing?
The science of ocean chemistry tells us much more about carbon in the atmosphere and water. Here a major new technique unveils what happens in every reef. The need to encourage people to understand exactly how important these corals are also appears to be a major factor in battling global warming, climate change and this acidification that is changing the oceans.
The lists for leading nations in annual growth dont often include Central Asia. The slow but steady investment in private enterprise and international partnerships with aid have brought some environmental improvements and greater water security in the dry, extreme climates found in the region.
It is impossible to judge exactly how global warming will affect all of us. This includes remote populations of plants and animals, many of which could be important in predicting how climate is changing. We now know just how complex the rainfall, the temperatures, the sea ice and the desertification can become.
The distribution of animals and plants can be absolutely fascinating. While fossils may not interest everybody, the mammals that occupy our earth currently give us a wealth of information. This concerns climate and geological change, as their ancestors, and those who didnt make it, show us the details of the climate changes that concern us very deeply at this moment in time.
As Paris sinks in
and April promises yet further promises, how are the pollution and carbon footprints decreasing over some of the major players in world climate change?
We rarely see political releases of information about pollution in most countries. Here is Australia becoming more transparent about chemicals and in particular herbicides. Now we need such honesty from dam builders, light polluters and, of course, the major climate changers.
What a mess the oceans are becoming. Climate change and surface temperatures currently occupy our thoughts, alongside the acidification so drastically affecting reefs and molluscs. Light pollution on beaches has misled turtle egg-laying habits and now is proved to prevent corals from spawning in this paper. When we finally reduce carbon footprints, it is likely the sea can breathe easier, but human ecologies must soon recover their ethics as far as all of these neglected species are concerned.
elephant in Parisor will it change the mindset there?
Paris is becoming tense as every (sensible) nation negotiates how best to beat pollution and help those affected by global warming and its associated climate change One very large event in the Pacific is about to help us decide what is necessary in the most unpleasant way possible. Perhaps Paris will propel us to a united purpose--- or to ultimate pessimism?
Whats up this week in the Paris Climate Change Conference? We heard less than we wanted last week, but when weve got down to the nitty-gritty, theres some hope for great improvement. Heres one example from both Africa and the Americas. Although afforestation is hardly a headline these days, desertification certainly is and we want to be sure the Great Green Wall across Africa is working. There is certainly money flooding in and trees being planted, but lets see more photographs and people actually on the ground there!
The future is talked about, the climate is changing, but when will we finally stop the rot. Forests are essential but from Japanese furniture to cardboard and toilet paper, they are still being used illogically and incomprehensibly by people who all know better. The time has come to prevent the disappearance of these trees and all the animals that live in, on and around them. This is a desperate time for us and all the other species around forests.
Great research requires a similar amount of attention, as we concentrate on climate change and global warming. One of our most significant assets is the Amazonian forests that absorb more of our carbon dioxide than any other sink
. Here is a possible link to the answers we need to preserve this vitally-important function and our own world as we know it.
When they speak about environmental issues on news programmes, you rarely get such direct information as these youngsters provide here.
Climate change is about to become the issue that many accept as even more important than wars and finances. We are being physically forced into action, despite the fact that almost nobody lives around the Barents Sea or even the Bering Strait.
Lots of animals, their habitats and people were harmed before the production of these photographs. Without these records, we might imagine we were conquering our problems of pollution, climate change and habitat destruction. Not so.
La Niña and El Niño may be major headaches, but their use here in defining how species find mature tropical rainforest useful is major. The manakins have been seen here to use the great forest canopy, its moist conditions and its food supplies as a perfect refuge from El Niños droughts, over many years. If only the human race could find somewhere to shelter from those stormy blasts we can now expect.
Where are we going, as climate begins to dominate the years news? With Ukraine and Syria big on bad behaviour, the concentration needs to shift to the millions threatened by other events. As Lennon (and not Lenin) said, war is over, except it seems to hang on like an unwanted spectre. Global problems should now begin to occupy our collective thoughts.
While the world ponders climate change, Texas, which suffers badly from drought, has been trying to frack its way forward. It now seems these workers will have to return home and that oil is not the future. It has lasted over a century, but the oil executives are now grasping at straws, instead of embracing renewable or at least less polluting energies. New jobs will have to be found, but this is not the first time oil has gone bust!
Both climate and ecosystem research is important, as our ocean temperatures and pH change. It is an acidic and a basic
problem. How will we cope, if even more fish disappear? And there is more to this than just what we eat. The whole atmosphere and our coastal communities are affected .
As the oceans change due to anthropomorphic and climatic change, the whales are perhaps our best way of monitoring their vast areas, even though this study only covers the Gulf of California.
The damage afforded by our emissions on changing the climate are compounded by large-scale pollution of the oceans and overfishing as if they are going out of fashion. And they are! The realisation here is that we are going to lose many more marine plants and animals than we thought, unless the stress of conservation shifts to less-known animals and plants.
Climate change and carbon dioxide emissions are the simple link. The science tells us about all the other greenhouse gases and the links to rainfall in Europe, Asia and South America, drought in Australia, North America and Africa plus the rise in sea levels. That should make the problem seem more urgent, but has it had the required effect on those chosen to perform the actions we all need?
The large whales are now almost considered as close relatives. We all regard them as conserved by our actions, apart from one or two nations. Now the need is to look at the smaller mammals, the almost-extinct, and those creatures who never get a look-in when the IUCN declare others as critically-endangered. Some species such as the whale can now function even as samplers of the species beneath them in the food webs. We can get some idea of other populations progress if we study the diet of certain critical animals. The plant kingdom have already given us information about dim and distant climates and still more will appear as technologies allow us access to information we urgently need about how the Earth works.
Some biodiversity with macaws in the inclusive story and a lovely woolly alpaca here, but the emphasis in South America is on Lima and the key decisions that should be made there this week. Optimism is reported, but how can we be optimistic when there is so much to do, in so many regions, as global warming provides us all with floods, sudden storms and worse !
How do we know how the oceans and winds will deliver when global warming destroys or present climate systems? The answer will depend on how this new information on Arctic sea-ice fits with various modelling experiments. We need to have information on these unexpected floods, violent hurricanes and killer droughts if we are to have any chance of preventing their worst excesses.
The influences of ecology are subtle. So far, few have realised that biodiversity, as noted in South Korea, is key to climate change in many situations. Maintaining our ecosystems should be key in these changing times, but our climate changes continue because we have not resolved the pollution or the degradation issues that we have caused. New ideas and new solutions are essential to combating our climate problems, as Norway (and many others) state categorically.
The UN wants big changes, which it will find difficult to implement. We all agree however with the basic need to follow the logical path towards lowering temperatures and climate risks. There is only one group stopping this inevitable progress, a bit like those who often prevented the progress of the industrial revolution. They did not succeed, so let us all make sure our industrial evolution for the future succeeds quickly! The alternatives are non-existent.
The late Pliocene has a lot in common with our projected temperature rise above two degrees Celsius. Carbon dioxide levels were high then too, so there is comparability which could help us in our quest to get ourselves out of the polluted mess we find ourselves in. The answer is deep down in ocean sediments and tied to glaciation and sea ice !
How well are we doing at restraining the natural forces that threaten us following the effects of anthropogenic global warming? The answer no politician wants is we're not adapting to the blindingly obvious. Cool it, the planet that is. Otherwise we'll emit so much carbon dioxide and methane that the weather will provide the punishment we deserve.
Green grow the rushes, oh, and the worlds crops, despite all the bad weather that is thrown at them. All because of careful and progressive family farmers.
How much research flows out of Madagascar, on the lemurs, chameleons and frogs alone. We have to preserve this island and sustain its people in their struggles with nature, including climate change. The age of introspection is over. This is one planet and we all are one with it just investigate the biodiversity and the climate change conferences mushrooming in response to popular demands.
More on climate change and changing over from fossil fuels? The crunch is indeed coming for all of us. But like those who resisted the idea of global warming itself, will we refuse to get on with the job of adopting new ideas and, more important, dissuading many from polluting so much and failing to change.
The NYC Climate Summit is building up pressure. This press release is a significant document, alongside all the crushing evidence of an out-of-control climate, involving many prominent people who want the politicians to make their own impact. Its from 160 leading environmentalists from 44 countries, and, believe me, we all approve of the action.
When can we expect a conference to make headway against the mass of polluters and their investment in fossil fuels. So far, only threats of storm and drought seem to have had any effect. Maybe the earth itself will persuade us to finally change our ways as we wait for the next disastrous extreme weather event. Hopefully, we can use the next conference to ''make waves'' as the evidence becomes overwhelming.
We can already detect ways in which small creatures are surviving against the odds. The humans and other larger species on islands are next in line to suffer from climate change. Can we help them or do anything at all to mitigate global warming. There is an answer, but do all of our politicians know it?
Sorry, we're boring the pants off the polluters. But we have to report that yet another approach is being made to solving climate change. The UN will draw together influential organisations and people to finally make a push towards redeeming ourselves, after the failures of Copenhagen and Kyoto. The politics seems impossible, but this is one parley that has to be concluded, and rapidly.
Cotton bolls don't get rotten too often-they run out of water, worldwide, where growers struggle to find the technologies and investment they need to combat climate change.
What do we and our children have to look forward to? The weather forecasters and meteorologist have a menu few would enjoy.
There aren't many large forest animals in Europe, but the lack of forest is the main reason for that. Is it possible that more forest losses will take place because of the great storms cause d by climate change, the wildfires caused by global warming or the increased infection of many species by fungi?
Is it crazy to expect tiny pockets of natural communities to hold evidence of past climate change? The evidence is building that they do indeed have genomes full of information on their ancestry.
The Atlantic runs the larger Pacific pressure system? Not quite, but the links between these two great ocean basins are closer than anyone thought.
What happens as business adapts to climate change. Will transport manage to avoid the hazards associated with floods, droughts and the heat? Finally, reports are getting down to detail on what we are going to have to do in the very near future. That is apart from stopping using fossils for fuel!
It isn't just us who suffer badly from climate change and global warming. Although some species are thriving, many, such as the emperor penguin, are subject, both now and in the near future to multiple threats, leading to their extinction.
Will we continue to see these terrible spells of freezing cold weather in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere? It is likely that they will decrease in number, according to the latest research!
After such a long time, it's amazing that the Mediterranean hasn't been swamped by industrial revolutions or the effects of so many wars. Now the ancient writing on the wall is coming true as recent pollution from fossil fuels acidify and warm the troubled waters. What can we all do about our whole earth climate, after the Med, its the Atlantic and then the Pacific. How long can nature hold out against the onslaught of ignorant emissions that we provide?
What a turn up for the book. The Arctic fox didn't evolve from Eurasian or North American relatives. Instead, the climates of the Himalaya and Arctic were at one time similar enough to encourage migration in several animals. This species of fox must now be counted as related to an extinct animal that adapted thousands of kilometres away to mountainous terrain that resembles its present niche.
Air pollution is rarely linked to water pollution, but the strong links will soon be obvious, just as the surface air movement is influenced by the ocean currents and the temperatures of both. While scientific models can tell us what is going to happen as the earth warms, climate change will also be influenced by small so far neglected fluctuations in chemistry such as these pH changes in our oceans, affecting billions of creatures, and of course, us.
When will people, especially governments, believe those who are far better qualified than they are to judge the earth and its workings. When hell freezes over, perhaps? No, I'm sorry, it's when earth becomes hell, as it already has for the victims of increasing climate change.
How many tonnes of carbon does it take to sink a planet? New research is always enlightening us on how the warming of Earth will affect us. Trouble is, the news is always negative, there just isnt much good coming our way, although we are checking out any positive possibilities (sorry, theyre not probabilities).
Indonesian and other forests in the region have disappeared recently at an ever-increasing rate. Apart from major climatic effects, the entrancing species of the forest will soon be gone forever, unless that awful trend can be reversed. We can start by considering wood importation.
Is the incredible damage and loss of life in the Philippines linked to more severe storms as our climate changes? Credibility of any detractors seems lacking, as we wait for even more signals that we need to construct strong solutions at Warsaw, and not wait until Paris in 2015.
What on earth is going on? Well its climate change, my dear, so well deliberately organise a huge World Coal Conference at the same time as the major UN COP19 conference. That will show them what Poland can do!
A debate from Britain on the European predicaments on emissions control. Climate change is guaranteed. How soon can we negotiate a way to get people to act and changing our predicament?
When rivers flowed and heat was bearable, ice still remained on the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica was safe from development. Fond memories!
When the world simply watches and does nothing, it is likely that extreme climatic events will simply get worse. WMO have a report from the last decade of data that requires at least another 10 years to confirm our suspicions. Can we wait?
How will monkeys survive in the mountains if winters become colder? Can species survive climate change when they are living at the edge of their ideal niche?
The likelihood is that various financial cuts will see the end of efficient climate change checks. We need to consider the huge cost of correcting global warming problems can be offset by the relatively minor cost of maintaining proper monitoring.
The Australians might be expected to be a little isolated from the global effects of climate change. Not true, plus they seem to be possibly the most aware of the dangers of selling their coal to Asia while suffering some terrible effects from global warming.
All the fish in the sea couldn't tell you the enormous significance of marine ecosystems and the effects we are just discovering that they have on the atmosphere, climate and of course, global warming. Celebrate the magnificent ocean today!
Certain academics claim that we may not have as severe a rise in temperature as is generally believed. On the other hand, they admit we have no idea what additional factors might be adding to global warming.
It's science against politics against climate effects in a 3-way struggle this week. We all know the winner will be climate, unless some pretty good technology can come to our aid.
Temperatures have continued to rise in places and extremes of climate are increasing. Other temperatures have fallen, but we are starting to understand that is just a side-effect.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) was created on 23rd March 1950 and in 1951 it was designated as being a specialised agency within the United Nations System. There are now 191 members of the worldwide meteorological community. World Meteorological Day is celebrated each year on the anniversayr of WMO's creation. The theme chosen for 2013 is, Watching the weather to protect life and property. This theme highlights the part that WMO plays in the reduction of casualties and damage from weather, climate and water-related hazards.
Reports from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin (NOAA) paper in Science last week point to a drastic change in climate. This opposes the previous view, especially from the US, that climate change was gradual and even negligible..
The three hazards associated with climate change that affect the marine environment are no strangers to air and land either. As temperature has caused ice to melt and currents to change, the oceans have increased in temperature more than the land.
We thought they were immune to climate change, because they appear to be so resilient but baby elephants suffer from small increases in temperature.
The major threat of climatic changes hangs like the sword of Damocles over the heads of many endangered species - and the rest of us.
The interminable expansion of oil palm plantations in the Far East is the cause of carbon emissions, climate change and loss of wildlife habitat.
The clock towards a sea-ice free Arctic is ticking ever more rapidly. And just as quickly, oil and gas companies are rushing to the region to grab newly-exposed resources. That has many environmentalists worried about the threat of spills in this pristine wilderness - and the reckless gamble with a climate change shock.
Changes in the winds between 6-30 miles up in the stratosphere affect the seas and climate, says an American university study.
Lauren-Kristine Pryzant and John F. Bruno have written a book review on: Adapting to a Changing Environment: Confronting the Consequences of Climate Change, outlining what we will have to do as sea-levels rise and coastal areas disappear.
US scientists are today discussing - and sampling - the best foods to keep them cool in hot weather.
The impact of climate change on food security. Too much CO2 and the need for more food due to an increasing population. Plants are the obvious answer.
A record 97% of Greenland's surface ice sheet melted during two weeks in July - the most recorded since records began, according to data from NASA satellites.
New study looks at the species who are climate change winners and losers in the North Sea ecosystem. Scientists have observed that lesser black-backed gulls in the North Sea may be taking advantage of an increased population of a species of crab.
Proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ecofys have published a new paper in the journal 'Nature Climate Change' outlining 21 initiatives to greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
Climate change is likely to cause large areas of the Earth to suffer increased wildfires, while in the rainforest, heavy rainfall could reduce the danger, according to a new study.
Oceanic flora and vegetation like terrestrial forests are carbon sequesters, they store tons of carbon, blue carbon. In the climate change debate the impacts to air have dominated, with water not having featured as a critical medium of impact.
Leatherback turtles have to dig through 80cm of sand after hatching on the beach. Hotter dryer conditions associated with changes in climate are making this increasingly difficult.
A new UK energy bill has been published that aims to increase clean energy generation to combat climate change and minimise price rises.
A geoengineering solution to climate change. Fine titanium dioxide particles transported into the upper atmosphere by giant balloons could help combat climate change, says a UK chemical engineer.
Loss of biodiversity from species extinctions will have a major impact on the planet and could effect the planet as much as climate change or pollution do, according to a new study.
British weather is unpredictable and in spite of what appears to be one of the wettest Aprils on record, water restrictions continue to be in place.
The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) could be heading further north. A changing climate is creating conditions that may allow the Asian tiger mosquito to spread into northern Europe. The invasive mosquito species is associated with transmitting various infectious diseases.
Mammals with greater diversity adapt better to climate change, an American study suggests. The research looked at how mammals adapted to changes in climate across North America over a 56 million year period known as 'deep time'.
Increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere played a bigger part in ending the last ice age than changes in the Earth's orbit, say American researchers.
Yuka, a young mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), was found preserved in the permafrost of Siberia. Was this mammoth killed by lions or humans and why did the mammoth become extinct? Over 10,000 years later, scientists search for answers.
Odyssey 2050 is a computer-animated feature film on climate change set to be released in 2013. Odyssey 2050 aims to educate and motivate young people to take positive action to help protect the environment.
New study on European butterflies looks at the effects of global warming on habitat choice. The research investigates if butterflies are able to respond to climate changes by making use of microclimates in their current habitats.
The way that human evolution has historically adapted to climate change and the prevailing environment and the way that modern humans persistently modify their environment and ignore the consequences of changes to the global climate, thus risking the future existance of the human race.
A new study looks at how water habitats affect the dispersal ability of animals. The hypothesis tested is if dragonflies and damselflies are able to adapt more quickly to recent climate change where the water is still or lentic.
Horse for Courses! Scientific models to project climate change are continuously being developed. New evidence on how mammals body size corresponds to global warming has just been published.
A new study looks at how coral responds to climate change. Living corals at risk are urgent problems for scientists struggling to cope with our growing coral reef conservation problems.
For three species in the family Notthenioidae, a bleak outlook once again threatens. Climate change is about to deal a double evolutionary deal on a group of Antarctic animals that have adapted well to the icy environment only to lose out to global warming.
Mummified 30,000-year-old bison bones have been used to help scientists discover clues about how animals adapt to rapid climate change.
Four massive tropical volcano eruptions started the Little Ice Age as early as 1275AD and caused cooling that lasted 500 years, say scientists.
'No need to panic' when it comes to global warming, exclaimed 16 scientists, in a letter to the Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately that isn't a signal to put away the worry beads. There's barely a climate scientist among the signatories, and their critique relies on the rewarmed leftovers of skeptical claims - long since shown to be wrong-headed. It's time to move beyond the shrieks of the 1% climate change deniers, before the climate itself denies us any chance of holding onto a safe secure future.
Mammals, birds, amphibians and many other groups are exposed to development or climate change threats in isolated parts of the Andes in Amazonian Peru and Bolivia.
The UK CCRA (Climate Change Risk Assessment) has released the first UK focused report on the effects of climate change upon the UK climate and the UK economy.
New research provides insight into the last two decades' weather. Global warming is producing warmer autumns that cause colder winters.
Continuing global threats from climate change, nuclear weapons and wars have caused atomic scientists to move the hands of the Doomesday Clock to five minutes before midnight.
An overview of climate change and the USA in 2011. The EPA and Congress fought bitterly in 2011 to ensure the government did/did not pass carbon permitting policy.
Research by the University of Florida has stated that normal glaciations are completely changing and behaving differently thanks to high levels of carbon dioxide sitting within the Earth's atmosphere.
Four ice cores have been taken from a glacier on top of Mount Ortles by researchers from Columbus, Ohio to try and gain an understanding of past climate and environmental changes in the region.
Many previous predictions of animal and plant extinction due to climate change have not taken the effects of movement and competition into account, say US ecologists.
A report from the Committee on Climate Change shows that gas prices are the main factor in heating bill increases, rather than environmental policies.
High-speed jet stream winds in the upper atmosphere would produce 200-times less renewable energy than previously thought and wreak havock on the climate and weather, German scientists claim.
Paleoclimatologists have been looking at the world's past and warn that the world will face serious consequences if we allow temperatures to hit previously set limits.
The almost linear increase in global mean temperature since 1979 has been mapped out by Grant Foster of Tempo Analytica in the US and Stefan Rahmstorf from the Potsdam institute for Climate Impact Research, thanks to the satellite microwave-sensor imagery, available since that date.
The Brown Argus occurs in southern Britain. It's a butterfly from the family of 'Blues' (It resembles the female Common Blue very closely), widespread in particular habitats. Researchers recently published a paper in Molecular Ecology entitled, ''Evidence for evolutionary change associated with the recent range expansion of the British butterfly in response to climate change.''
World experts from the International Ocean Acidification Reference User Group (RUG) have called for an urgent decision to address the growing problem of ocean acidification. The announcement, along with the IUCN has been made at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The African countries formed a united front in the run-up to COP 17 as the 'African Group', with the aim of charting a unified front on curbing the threat of climate change to the African continent.
A new study and its implications for the research on paleo-environmental issues. Just how accurate can the fossil record be, when it comes to things like weather cycles or the finer points of ecological health in the global environment?
Scientists reconstructing the history of the Arctic ice-cap have shown that today's plummeting sea-ice levels are unprecedented in at least the last 1400 years. Using temperature proxies to track sea-ice levels over past centuries, the paper published in Nature dramatically reinforces how man-made climate change is remaking the Arctic.
Climate change creates more extreme weather, which hits crop yields, drives up prices and pushes millions into poverty - which is why the UN Durban climate change talks must success, says the Oxfam charity.
On the eve of the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) and the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 7) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the South African Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs hosted a pre-COP 17 Summit on the 22nd November 2011.
Tree species migration. Due to climate changes caused by global warming, insect attacks, fires and diseases, a massive migration of trees is underway.
Thanks to increases in computer power it is now possible to produce computer models that were previously impossible. Recent computer modelling that has looked at evidence of Hominin groups has given new insights how these groups evolved and coped with climate change during the last Ice Age.
With the population shooting up, the climate changing and agriculture a mess which loses up to a third of its food production the time to act on food security has come argues a powerful panel of major international scientists.
It was originally thought that climate change would see a much more rapid relocation of land species than of ocean life as the temperature rise in oceans would be slower. However, this way of thinking is beginning to change based on new research that has been published in Science magazine.
Soot from cooking fires has left its black mark in a surprising number of ways - from climate change to weather disruption, melting glaciers to chronic ill-health. But a solution to many of these ills could lie with upgrading traditional open fires with locally produced clean stoves.
Global warming is causing a strange phenomenon in tree species. The warming is causing certain species of trees to die out in regions that they have lived for hundreds of years.
The UK's share of international shipping would be potentially responsible for up to 11.25% of all emissions that are allowed by 2050 as set by the Climate Change Act according to the Committee on Climate Change (CCC). This equates to 18 Mt CO2 out of a total of 160 Mt CO2.
A £30 million package has been launched to provide health and heating benefits to UK residents this winter. UK health chief Andrew Lansley has unveiled a £30 million package to ensure people stay warm and well this winter. The proposals, from the Government, the Met Office and charity Age UK, show how the elderly and vulnerable can be well looked after when cold weather hits.
A new theory about climate change at the end of the Late Cretaceous Epoch. In a recent conversation, one of my friends - let's call him X - argued that we waste too much money in pointless scientific studies. I mean - he said - who cares what killed the dinosaurs? They have been dead for a long time, period.
NASA's new, polar-orbit, weather satellite, the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite was launched this morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base, at 2:48 a.m. PDT aboard a Delta II rocket. It is primarily going to further the US. NOAA meteorologists' knowledge of local weather, replacing the NOAA-19 satellite.
It's been a busy week for the polar bear - global warming is taking them down a notch or two in the size stakes. Meanwhile US federal agents have waded into a polar bear scientific controversy. And back in the US courts, the polar bear is bearing the burden of action on climate change. Is it all getting a bit too hot to handle for the beleaguered bear?
Personally speaking, a new species always delights the soul and two new stingless bees can't get up anyone's nose. David Roubik of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute thinks that changing sea levels brought a 'new' bee to western Panama before Coiba and Rancheria were separated from the mainland, presumably after an Ice Age.
Rising emissions that are signs of progress; climate negotiators insisting they won't negotiate; green pledges backed out of at the drop of a hat - welcome to the wacky world of politician's words and climate change; where nothing is as it seems.
Samples of sediment and water will be extracted by a team from the BAS to help research in numerous fields. Sediment samples can provide a record of climate change and help us to understand the natural processes that can be involved in such a change.
Scientists have now attributed the northern hemisphere's general winter cold recently to solar activity ('sun spots'). In Nature Geoscience, these findings also predict that decadal weather itself can be predicted according to the 11 year solar cycle.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health is sponsoring extensive research to determine the potential ill effects of climate change on public health. Examples of potential climate related illnesses include asthma and other respiratory illnesses, gastrointestinal diseases, heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and deaths related to extreme weather, such as hurricanes, tornadoes and floods.
With its huge surface area climatic influence was obvious and Professor Thomas Lowell is now revealing all in Minneapolis to the Geological Society of America. The title of his paper is ''Glacial Lake Agassiz-Its History and Influence on North America and on Global Systems: In Honor of James T. Teller.''
New research shows that the global rate of photosynthesis is 25% faster than was previously thought, possibly affecting models of global climate change. In a paper published this week in the science journal Nature, a team of Dutch, Australian and American scientists estimate that the rate of global photosynthesis happens faster than scientists previously thought.
A European atlas recording the distribution of all of Europe's 441 butterfly species will be a vital tool to record how climate change is affecting these lovely creatures. The work of 272 field volunteers, say the publishers, has been vital to this grand new publication project.
A previous explanation for the warming that ended the last ice age has been called into doubt. The last ice age was lengthy, taking place over a period of 25,000 years. It covered over a third of the earth and ended over 10,000 years ago. How the glacial period ended has been a matter of dispute, but one accepted theory was that a significant release of carbon dioxide from the ocean was the cause.
Climatic cycles add an additional pressure to that caused by climatic change, trapping species in unfavourable environmental conditions. Examples on land include the deterioration of the body weight of polar bears and the recent overlap of red and arctic fox territories.
So relevant to all life forms and our climate, the sea's salt has now been estimated by NASA's Aquarius/SAC-D satellite observatory. After two and a half weeks, since only August 25th, the preliminary data have been exemplary, providing us with an early view of large-scale ocean patterns.
The conditions in the Arctic are changing so fast it's becoming hard for scientists to predict the future, but a new study from America says that computer models of ice loss are likely to be accurate.
Author and campaigner Bill McKibben talks to The Earth Times about his hopes for Obama and why even Rick Perry might start changing his position on climate change. We need, he believes, to take stock. Our world is running out of time and he urges us to think about what we are doing. The time for action is approaching and, like an evangelist, he wants to take his message to as many people as possible.
Greenhouse gases continue to climb despite Kyoto Protocol. Scientific evidence demonstrates that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from burning fossil fuels, the primary driver of climate change, have continued to rise dramatically, according to a comprehensive report.
The world's dry lands are vanishing from agricultural production at an ever increasing rate just as the burgeoning population means massive increases in the food supply will be needed. The UN is meeting to try and find new, scientific approaches to land management and climate change.
A coalition of conservation groups has announced a new bonds initiative aimed at increasing financial incentives to reduce deforestation of the world's tropical forests. Announced by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) and the Global Canopy Programme (GCP), the initiative calls for governments to enhance forest conservation efforts by purchasing bonds to help fund existing conservation commitments and goals.
Europe's Atlantic fringes have seen significantly warmer waters for the last 30 years and the fish are responding, says a report on fishery studies in the NE Atlantic. More faster-breeding, warmer-loving fish, and fewer cold-water species are part of the 'swings and roundabouts' pattern being picked up by the study published in Current Biology today.
Away from the labs and the computer models, social scientists are turning to indigenous peoples in Alaska as a new measure of the impacts of climate change.
A panel of young scientists convened from around the globe to discuss the vital role of carbon capture in fighting climate change have come up with floating power stations and green cities.
Tropical Storm Lee is likely to cause heavy rain and flooding in areas still cleaning up after Hurricane Irene. Flood warnings have been issued for Pennsylvania, New Jersey and upstate New York. The National Weather Service has issued a flooding notice to Catskills and Schoharie Creek as the storm moves northeast out of Pennsylvania.
With the unrelenting weather extremes in the US swinging to firestorms in Texas, after the floods of Irene, the picture of a climate in chaos is a compelling one. But how much can the cause of individual events such of these, even when gathered in a flurry, be pinned to climate change?
The land of herders and yurts has undergone over two degrees Celsius of warming during the past 70 years. Mongolia, the little-known land sandwiched between China to the south and Siberia to the North is what one expert calls, ''a laboratory for climate change''.
Mitt Romney's kowtowing to the climate skeptic camp is a worrying sign that climate change action will fall victim to mainstream political 'bun fight'. But while the Republican candidate looks increasingly likely to be in bed with the Tea Party denialists, will the Democrat incumbent continue being a no-show for the planet?
For the first time scientists have linked the stability of modern societies to the global climate. Tropical civil conflicts doubled during the hot and dry El Nino cycles between 1950 and 2004. Researchers have proved that the risk of civil conflict doubles in the hotter and drier conditions prevailing in El Nino years.
As high-latitude permafrost thaws following climate change, a new study reveals that released CO2 can accellerate the process. Billions of tonnes of carbon are trapped in this permafrost and this will be released as the permafrost begins to thaw and early predictions were that the growth of the new vegetation would pull more carbon from the atmosphere than the permafrost would release.
Recent comments by US presidential hopefuls have thrown the climate change debate back into center stage. With some Republican candidates withering in their denial of a man-made origin for changes to the climate, will this become a turning point for the debate in the US?
A NASA project has for the first time mapped the glacial flows of Antarctica, providing vital information in the monitoring of climate change. The map they have created shows glaciers as they snake their way from the desolate Antarctic interior to the southern oceans.
A new study in Science shows that the natural world moving three times faster to the poles, away from the tropics, than expected. Climate change is blamed, say the researchers, and not all species can keep up at that rate.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is encouraging the British public to celebrate the cultural and natural heritage of forests and woods, Jessica Allan highlights the importance of their campaign. In global climate change; trees act as carbon sinks, so their loss increases the amount of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere.
Environment Canada becomes a victim of country's budget cuts. The Canadian government is being accused of turning its back on climate change as it is confirmed 776 jobs are to go at Environment Canada. Of the 300 positions within the department to be eliminated they include chemists, biologists and meteorologists, many of which are involved in the research and development of the country's environmental agenda.
A new decision-making framework is providing hope for maintaining biodiversity through shifting species that are affected by climate change. Many species today are struggling to cope with the Earth's rapidly changing climate. As a result biodiversity managers are faced with a major decision on when, if ever, to relocate these species to ensure their survival.
If you were only exposed to the media, you might start to think that all the large companies of the world engage in the struggle against climate change, saving energy, the rainforest and everything else that comes to mind. And the companies' efforts are not even limited to media-related spaces: They have also reached future consumers.
2011 is shaping up to be another year of danger for the Arctic ice cap, with levels of sea-ice cover nudging below those for the record ice-loss of 2007. The final minimum won't be known until September, but the volume of ice is already thought to be lower than any previous year - leaving the climate, and polar bears, as big losers.
Scientists have plans for high-tech procedures to reduce climate change. As climate change creates increasing impacts on our planetary ecosystem and the pace of carbon reduction makes many people fear that we are moving too slowly to avert a catastrophe, some scientists have promoted GeoEngineering as a way to stave off disaster.
An environmentalist observing the steady rotation of the hundreds offshore wind turbines at the coast of Germany's North Sea, stretching from the Dutch border all the way up to the islands of Fohr and Sylt, gets a sense of a peaceful tranquility and hopeful enthusiasm: This could be the future of green energy, one possible way to help fight climate change. Meanwhile, the troubles under the surface of the water usually go unnoticed.
Forests world-wide have maintained their levels of carbon-storing, despite the twin assaults of tropical deforestation and climate change. New tropical forest growth in previously cleared areas, as well in the temperate forests of the US and China, have helped keep an uneasy balance in the carbon accounts of global forested areas - which helps take the edge off of our climate change-threatening emissions.
Warming oceans may be finding it harder to take their share of our CO2 emissions, says an upcoming study out in Nature Geoscience today. The three-decades of North Atlantic data analyzed suggest, for the first time, that climate change is causing the oceans to pass the CO2 buck straight back to us.
Researchers report that flowers are blooming up to two weeks earlier than they did 70 years ago in Alberta because of the weather has become substantially warmer, and this may put the species at risk. Researchers are wary that it may lead to problems for the plant species involved if they are exposed to late-spring frosts.
Scientists have turned to fossils from a previous time of high CO2 concentrations and found that previous temperature predictions have probably been too high. The team studied growth rings in the shells of molluscs and tested other material found in the fossils.
California gray whales may be able to quadruple their numbers to nearer 100,000, say paleontologists looking at how these encrusted denizens of the Pacific survived the last Ice Age. The paper, appearing online in today's edition of PloS ONE, shows that adaptable gray whales can shift their feeding to krill and herring; they could even thrive with rising sea-levels, the paper's authors suggest.
A paper published yesterday, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, suggests that the same coal-powered stations helping to bump up greenhouse gas emissions may be helping to hold temperatures back too. The cooling-sulfates from China's coal-fueled economic boom are being removed to stop local pollution - but could that give global warming an alarming kick upwards?
Warming ocean currents could eat into polar ice-sheets from beneath, increasing the rate at which they flow into the sea, say researchers in a paper out in Nature Geoscience today. Their state-of-the-art climate models suggests a sea-level rise of 36 inches or more is on the cards by 2100.
Windbreaks have several agricultural benefits, but because trees grown in these rigid lines behave differently it's been hard to measure their impact on climate change, until now. American farmers already use windbreaks. They take up a small amount of land, help to protect both crops and livestock from a battering and keep a check on soil erosion too.
Researchers from Sweden say that damage from ozone is likely to badly affect European forests and agriculture by the end of this century, reducing yields. Ozone is very important to life on Earth as any green veterans will remember. In the higher atmosphere - the ozone layer helps keep out harmful ultraviolet solar radiation.
The Crop Society of America warns that action must be taken quickly to help agriculture adapt to changing climate - both by finding new crops and by changing the ways we farm. According to the CSSA, drought will affect production from more than half of the planet's arable land within the next half-century and there is an urgent need to develop crop species and agricultural systems which can make the best use of scarce water.
Wallabies have been shown to make use of helpful green bacteria, as part of their solution to turning grass and leaves into energy, says a new study. They produce 80% less methane than cows or sheep. The latest research from down-under, published in the new Science, may lead to better ways to control livestock emissions, which is the third-largest source of climate-altering methane in the US.
Climate change skeptics have worked up some pretty tall-tales to throw doubt over the need for action on global warming. But given their subtle plausibility, what are the counter-arguments that will show them for the straw-men that they are? The devil has all of the best songs, so they say. And the climate change denial camp have certainly banged out their tunes, to good effect, over the last few years. It's not hard to see why the clamor of the climate skeptics has won more and more of those thronging in the stalls.
Climate Change Minister in Scotland to announce £20m for marine industry. Funding to take marine power devices to the next level of development has been announced by Climate Change Minister Greg Barker on a visit to Pelamis Wave Power at Leith Docks in Edinburgh.
Where we are headed: the transition to a low-carbon way of living. The Wealth of Nature forms a trilogy with The Long Descent and The Ecotechnic Future, by looking closely at how we are squandering our natural wealth and what the consequences of this will be. John Michael Greer is one of the most clear-sighted of authors who are grappling with the multiple crises of peak oil, climate change, pollution, and the social and economic factors which make our leaders' responses to these scourges so difficult.
The news that the fabled North-west passage, across the Arctic, has become a reality for Pacific marine life, is just of many worrying signs reported from Europe's seas for an ongoing marine monitoring project. The shifting fortunes of Europe's seas, under the impact of climate change, is revealed today in a release from Project CLAMER, a collaboration between 17 European marine-study institutes.
It was 5am when I threw my feet over the 11°C heated bed and landed in -3°C mini-stream of water. I fumbled in the dark half-asleep, thinking I'd left the tap open but then tuned back into the thumping sounds of the constant almost 24-hour rains. The unusual occurrence of winter rainstorms had caused the overflow saturating the garden and making its way into the house.
North Carolina's salt-marsh back-waters have helped scientists to show that the 20th century has seen seas rising by more than 8 inches per century a rate unparalleled in 2000 years of data. The results, published today by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, will help climate scientists better constrain future predictions of the ocean's relentless rise as global warming progresses.
Governments need to act quickly and in concert to direct private enterprise towards the clean technologies needed for a greener future says world wildlife charity. Enabling the Transition - Climate Innovation Systems for a Low Carbon Future, calls for concerted action from governments, working together to back the private sector in developing clean technologies.
The Sun seems to be about to enter a period of decreased activity say a team of American scientists who have been moved by the fuss their work has caused to deny that they are predicting a global cooling.
Scientists genetic discovery indicate a hereditary link between migraine sufferers and why women are more susceptible than men. Many sufferers of migraines have long believed environmental factors like heavy weather and lighting can trigger an attack but new research from the US has identified a genetic link.
The snow-pack that feed the major rivers of the Western US, and the water supplies of 70 million people, is fast receding. And a paper on today's ScienceExpress online magazine shows that rate of decline has not been seen in 800 years of records. That has worrying implications for water security in the West, as the globe warms up.
Global warming will start to have an effect within the next two decades say researchers from Stanford University who have used historical climate models to make their predictions. The research is published in the new edition of the journal Climate Change and says warmer summers are on the way unless greenhouse gas concentrations stop increasing.
Water on land can only affect rainfall in certain areas says a new study which could help future planning for droughts and floods. Researchers from Columbia Engineering, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, and Rutgers University have tried to explain the relationship between water on the earth's surface and atmospheric conditions.
London's Regent's Park hears vibrant festival sound-system powered by bicycles. Over the weekend of the 4th and 5th June, thousands of visitors flocked to this huge and very enjoyable Green Fair for its 18th season. The weather on Saturday was particularly sunny, not always guaranteed in Britain!
A project to help indigenous people to help themselves, in adapting to the changes inflicted by climate change, has received a grant today from the International Development Research Council. Tribal groups in Peru, Uganda and the Canadian Arctic will be involved in deciding how to safeguard their health, and future survival, in environments threatened by both global warming and the ecological pillaging of mining, timber and oil industries.
One in 12 humans live in megacities and the leaders of more than 70 of the world's largest settlements have met in Sao Paolo to discuss how they can reduce their impact on the climate.
A new study shows that more effective methods of preventing deforestation are needed. A new study, published in Nature Climate Changehas found that REDD+ is a valuable tool in forest conservation.
Energy production continues to pump more CO2 into the atmosphere and the targets agreed by world leaders to limit warming to 2 degrees are now seriously threatened warns the International Energy Agency.
It was global cooling rather than global warming, but American climate scientists say new evidence points to the catastrophic effects of climate change on a Viking settlement on Greenland.
The frozen waters of the Arctic are again home to confrontation, with Greenpeace successfully attaching a 'survival pod', with a pair of activists, to an oil drilling ship off of Greenland. They are determined to halt an oil exploration program which poses extra risks in the remote Arctic seas - and could help turn up the heat with climate change.
A new study looks at predicted climatic changes in protected areas of California and attempts to identify the future of species and ecosystems with these variations in foresight. Geographically, the disappearing climates occur in the northern California coast and areas of the Mono Basin, Death Valley, and the south-eastern Great Basin.
A new deal aims to involve the indigenous peoples of the Amazon in efforts to protect this vital environment which is one of the front lines in the battle against climate change. The partnership between the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), aims to put the people who actually live in this priceless environment at the heart of protecting it.
Hundreds feared dead, many injured. At least 118 people are dead and hundreds injured after a tornado hit the small city of Joplin, Missouri, on Sunday. With around 1,500 people still unaccounted for, the death toll is expected to rise as rescuers battle severe weather conditions to search through the wreckage.
The UK's Energy and Climate Change Committee gave 'shale gas' the green light in the UK yesterday - with the Chair, Time Yeo, dismissing pollution worries as 'hot air'. Given that regulators in both the US and France are putting 'fracking' in the environmental dock, the decision by the Parliamentary Committee seems decidedly rash.
By helping the developing world embrace off-grid renewable energy schemes, the Western world can fulfil the Millennium Development Goals without putting climate change targets in jeopardy.
Ideas to make your next shopping trip more eco-friendly. We all have to buy stuff from time to time. Weather that is a new car, a new pair of shoes or just a trip to the grocery store there are now plenty of options to shop ethically.
A special report assesses the threats of natural disasters and aims at developing strategies for the management of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, floods and droughts. Speaking from Queenland's Gold Coast, the head of the IPCC, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, explained that there is increasing scientific evidence linking current climate change to extreme weather events.
A research group from Brown University have discovered that rainfall distribution affected the chosen habitat of mammals over 200 million years ago. A team of scientists at Brown University have established that early mammals confined themselves to one area of the continent while early reptiles known as procolophonids lived in another section.
Carbon dioxide may be harmful to the environment, but it seems Europeans also believe it to be harmful to their health! Three quarters of those surveyed even considered CO2 to be ''unhealthy'', while 9% said they thought it was flammable and 18% believed it be a water pollutant, none of which is accurate.
The need to move fast in dealing with the UK's stock of poorly heated houses is highlighted in a report, sponsored by Friends of the Earth, out today. It sees turning cold homes to cozy homes as unlocking benefits for the health and finances of their inhabitants - and as a major boon to help slow down climate change.
Soot and methane are climate-change causing pollutants that need bringing into any new international agreement on slowing global warming. So says a Policy Forum article in today's Science. With Kyoto due to expire in 2012, a replacement mechanism for regulating greenhouse gases is needed fast - and tackling soot and methane could speed up the payback of such an agreement.
The world's two largest economies have announced cooperation on fisheries and greenhouse gases. They hope to stop unregulated fish stocks from going on sale, monitor the management of threatened species and to reduce the toll of protected marine animals like sea turtles.
UK government report identifies how infrastructure needs to plan ahead for extreme weather. The research looked at the potential impact on the UK economy from changes in temperature and the environment if projected changes in the global climate come to fruition.
Major UN report shows global energy usage could become 77 percent renewable by 2050. By 2050, almost 80% of the world's energy could come from renewable sources, says a landmark report commissioned by the UN. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation on May 9th.
The UK's Climate Change Committee threw its weight behind a greater role for nuclear power, in order to achieve renewables targets of 15% by 2020, and 30% by 2030. As part of a broad review of the renewables sector, asked for by the governing Coalition, the road-map set out sees a mix of 'low-carbon' energy sources - but a slow-down in the push for offshore wind farms.
The upcoming Climate Ride bicycle tour will head from New York City to Washington DC from May 13th through the 17th. Connecting two of the most important cities in the US, the five-day ride departs from a Manhattan ferry and ends at an exciting rally held on the steps of the Capitol building in DC.
Harvests of corn and wheat are already wilting under the rising temperatures seen since 1980, says a team from Stanford University. They publish their study results - which looks at what crop yields would have have been without climate change - today in Science Express. In contrast, rice and soya crops, and US farmers in general, are so far weathering the global warming storm - but that may be about to change.
Global warming is unlikely to suck the power out of a US wind farm energy solution. That's the good news to come from a paper in this weeks Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which projects strengthening winds in many areas slated for wind farms. The paper helps to fill in a worrying blank on the possible knock-ons to renewables due to climate change.
The IOC president pledges to make sporting venues more sustainable and reduce their impact on the environment. 2012 will not only mark the year of the next Olympics, hosted by London, it is also the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, better known as Earth Summit, which set the benchmark for expectations and goals for organisations and governments for climate change and the responsibility for impact on the environment.
A new player in Europe's climate change story, as global warming continues its relentless rise, has been suggested by a paper in today's Nature. The 'Agulhas leakage' of warm salty waters from the Indian Ocean, appears to be increasing, says the study - and that could help prevent the predicted slow-down of the North Atlantic Drift.
Developed world countries, such as the US and the EU nations have been happy to claim the climate-change 'high ground', as their emissions stabilized over this last decade. But a new report confirms that this is an accounting illusion - with more emissions being 'exported' to developing countries, who increasingly make the goods consumed by the richer nations.
A number of California cities and counties have received a powerful new web-based tool that is designed to help measure greenhouse gas emissions and address issues related to climate change. Developed by ICLEI, this breakthrough new Online Inventory Tool was created for California's Statewide Energy Efficiency Collaborative (SEEC) to help meet the increasing demands of combatting climate change by saving communities both energy and money.
Latest figures show Australia's carbon emissions are on the rise again. The latest data to be released by Australia's Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency shows that the emissions of carbon for the year of 2010 are 0.5 percent higher than the emissions from 2009.
Sea cow teeth from 50 million years ago are helping scientists to flesh out the climate of the earth during the Eocene, a time when greenhouse conditions reined supreme. Their paper, published today in Science, confirms that very wet conditions extended right down to the tropics, where rainfall rates were much greater than that seen today.
The ozone hole over Antarctica could be causing the tropics to have wetter summers, increasing flooding and landslide risks, according to recent research published today in Science. A team from Columbia University has found that the ozone hole is helping to shift the jet streams south, making parts of the tropics much rainier than they were before. The results imply it is not just greenhouse gases that can change the climate.
The way that US citizens vote is now a major factor in their belief in global warming - with a wide majority of Republicans not seeing climate change as 'here and now', compared to a tiny minority of Democrats who deny that global warming as already upon us. That's the conclusion of a study published in Sociological Quarterly. It shows that the split is widening, and is being driven by a more polarized political debate amongst political leaders, which has pulled the public along in its divisive wake.
An incredibly detailed three dimensional map of the 'green architecture' of the US, including forest canopy heights and vegetation levels down to each hectare, has been released today by the Woods Hole Research Center. The fruit of five years labor, which is freely downloadable, paints a detailed snapshot of the carbon stocks above the soil, one that will aid forest managers, ecologists and climate scientists for years to come.
Tropical forests need our help - can the summit in Congo halt deforestation? The objective of the summit is to ensure sustainable management of forest ecosystems and to contribute to climate regulation. To achieve this, the summit aims to establish a formal agreement between the three tropical forest basins, which will encourage them to share conservation strategies.
A quarter of the Arctic's permafrost coastline is suffering from erosion due to climate change. The impact on settlements, shipping, oil and gas installations and coastal infrastructure is likely to grow. As ice free periods increase due to global warming, there is a direct effect on the fragile polar coastline which is largely composed of frozen permafrost.
Sugarcane in Brazil's cerrado can have a cooling double whammy. It helps to power private transport, with cane ethanol that has fewer greenhouse gas emissions - and now it has been shown to potentially help cool the local climes too. A paper to be published in Nature Climate Change, has measured the effects of switching from other crops and cattle to sugarcane - and the dense thickets of cane are better at reflecting sunlight, and cooling through water loss.
Powered either by hand via an ingenious fold out turbine handle, or by its very own tiny integral solar panel, the uber-functional and eco-friendly Eton SCORPION comes equipped with a whole host of useful gadgets that are designed to make any wilderness excursion safer and more enjoyable for everyone who comes along for the trip. Although it is described as simply a ''multi-purpose solar powered digital weather radio,'' the Scorpion also features a handy LED torch, USB mobile phone charging capabilities, a bottle opener and more.
A new study on the total climate-impact of fossil fuels shows that natural gas is more dangerous to the planet than coal - but that top of the roost for climate-change causing fuels may well be shale gas. This massive new energy resource, being aggressively exploited across the US, has been slated for the waste-water pollution contamination from 'fracking'. Now its image as a 'clean' transitional fuel is in doubt too.
What if you could change the color and tint of your windows and re-circulate the solar energy as electricity? Utilizing natural light by installing more windows allows you to rely less on artificial light sources; however the extra window space can negatively influence interior climate control and stress HVAC systems. A new technology in the glass manufacturing industry allows windows to collect solar energy and be reused. The color and tint of the windows can be controlled as well.
After a game of legislative ping-pong, that saw Congress and Senate on different sides of the role of the EPA in controlling greenhouse gases, the budget agreement on Friday laid to rest - for the moment - the danger that the EPA could lose its powers to help reduce emissions. The agreement on the federal budget avoided both a US governmental and a climate-change action shutdown - but the divisions remain.
Antarctic penguin numbers have more than halved since the 1980's, in tandem with their favourite food. Krill densities are down almost 80%, largely due to climate change reducing winter ice cover in this fast-warming region.
A new World Bank report has found that drainage and degradation of coastal wetlands leads to decreased carbon sequestration and increased amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If coastal wetlands are drained, for example to convert the land for agricultural use, they emit large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere
The study of fossilised mollusks could give scientists an invaluable insight into the way the world will respond to climate change. Researchers at Californian university UCLA say that examining the fossils from 3.5 million years ago has allowed them to build a picture of how the world is reacting to current levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a key contributor to global climate change.
Melting sea ice, brought about by climate change, could be forcing two species of caribou nearer to extinction, according to wildlife campaigners. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has responded to the claims about the Peary caribou and the Barren-ground Caribou by launching a review of their status.
Despite containing half the world's population, and being particularly vulnerable to climate change, most cities are failing to prepare themselves for the anticipated risks. That's the conclusion of a report in this month's Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. The author concludes that a short-term pressures are swamping the long-term planning needed to safeguard cities from events such as tidal-flood surges or heat-waves.
A hard-hitting report has revealed the threat to businesses from damage done to the world's freshwater supplies by problems including climate change. Produced by pressure group WWF and German bank DEG, the report argues that the shortage of freshwater not only hits people but is also posing an increasing threat to businesses who rely on its ready availability.
The Senate voted down yesterday the McConnell measure to coral the EPA, and prevent it from tackling US-sourced greenhouse gas pollution. The vote, split evenly at 50-50, was ten short of the 60 majority needed. That left the EPA free to continue its attempts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from major emitters such as power plants and refineries.
Major studies of the oceans around Europe have led scientists to warn of possible changes in temperatures and sea conditions which will have a major impact on human and marine life. Scientists have raised alarming prospects for the future of the climate of north western Europe as meltwater pours south from the Arctic possibly slowing the warming ocean currents.
Issues surrounding the 1997 Kyoto Protocol remain key to moving ahead with climate change agreements in 2012 and beyond. Aimed at reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are responsible for global warming, since 1997 the Kyoto Protocol has held most developed nations to a set of legally binding commitments that are due to expire in late 2012.
Muddy mangrove swamps hold onto as much 25% of the carbon stored in similarly threatened tropical peat lands - despite covering a much smaller area. So says a paper in Nature Geoscience, which attempts to put a number to stored mangrove carbon for the first time. It reinforces their claim to conservation resources, for those trying to stymie tropical forest losses, and reduce climate-change causing emissions.
UN executive secretary Christiana Figueres discusses the importance of follow-through on agreed-upon measures by governments that attended the Cancun Climate Summit in late 2010. Last year during the talks in Cancun, leaders developed a time frame during which they agreed that they will launch new institutions, technology and funding that is designed to help developing nations handle the challenges of climate change.
A new study, published in the current issue of Nature Geoscience, has been able to measure the rate of Patagonia glacier loss over the last several hundred years. The team of scientists, from Britain and Sweden, has found that current melting rates are ten times faster than newly measured historical rates. With temperatures in the region rising fast, in line with global warming climate model projections, it seems the death of Patagonia's glaciers has man's hand behind it.
The FAO has warned of the ''potentially catastrophic'' future impact on food production in the developing world by 'slow-onset' climate change. But doour governments presently take too much of a short-term approach to such changes? Andhow can we prepare for them to make developing world food production more resilient whilst managing the trade-offs?
Figures released today show the huge task facing the electric car industry in the UK. Environmental pressure group WWF-UK says that at least 1.7 million electric vehicles (EVs) will be needed by 2020 and 6.4 million by 2030 if the UK is to achieve its climate change targets.
EU unveils plans to make cities free from petrol and diesel driven cars by 2050. The European Commission has stated that petrol and diesel should be banned in all European cities in order to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, particularly imported oil, and tackle climate change.
Carbon labelling will help consumers more accurately reflect their green intention says new research and producers will cut energy use and boost their environmental credentials too. Thomas Dietz, a sociology professor from Michigan State University, publishes his research in the new edition of Nature Climate Change and says carbon labelling will help reduce carbon emissions.
Cirrus clouds generated from the contrails of jets may be the cause of more atmospheric warming today than all the CO2 emitted by the aviation industry since the beginning of flight. Aviation is responsible for about 5% of man-made climate change effects, and that proportion could triple by 2050 according to some projections. Least understood is the role of aircraft exhausts in forming clouds.
Scientists have discovered that the movement and melting of icebergs plays an important role in distributing phytoplankton and consequently absorbing and removing carbon dioxide from the oceans. The new findings have major implications for global climate research and management.
Climate change is having a bigger effect than previously thought on bird species. There is no doubt that climate change is affecting many ecological events, such as flowering and reproduction seasons in animals. In the case of birdlife, there is growing evidence that this effect is particularly profound.
Earth Hour annual event to raise the profile of climate change faces criticism. Started in 2007, Earth Hour might be facing a ticking clock. Criticism is growing. There are allegations of ''tokenism'' and that it is an ineffectual response. A darling of large corporations who want to align themselves with a brand to increase their green credibility might be, in themselves damaging what began as an underground zeitgeist.
A new tool has been developed to take the pulse of coral reefs; giving insights into how climate change is impacting their health. An important part of understanding the impacts humans are having on coral reefs is gaining knowledge of their biological productivity. However, in the past measuring how productive coral reefs are has been time-consuming and expensive, requiring ongoing measurement as scientists need to trace the changes in the dissolved oxygen of seawater as it moves over the reef.
A review of Antarctic ice cores by German physicists, leads to an expansion of the accepted hypothesis of climatic history. Researchers have reconstructed temperature fluctuations in Antarctica for the last million years by studying ice cores. Up until now the presumption has been that these fluctuations were triggered by the global effect of climatic changes in the northern hemisphere.
People who live through extreme weather catastrophes are more concerned about climate change and are more willing to adopt greener habits to help tackle it, say environmental behaviour scientists. Researchers at the Universities of Cardiff and Nottingham suggest that when individuals have experienced extreme weather events in their local area, such as flooding, they are more prepared to reduce how much energy they use in an effort to minimise climate change.
Climate-endangered species should be moved to new compatible habitats, in order to prevent extinctions threatened by global warming. So says a conservationist from the University of York. As long as care is taken is selecting suitable new locations, such radical steps should help slow down rising species loss.
May challenge West and China for share of global low carbon market. India's share of the cake, as projected in a new report by The Climate Group is around 6% or $135 billion. This could create 10.5 million green jobs. India's Clean Revolution describes how a low carbon development path is the only one that will guarantee future prosperity for India.
Congress passed, Tuesday, a measure to stop the EPA from acting on climate-change causing greenhouse gases. As the McConnell Amendment moves to the Senate, sections of industry have added their support to it, worrying over the effect on jobs of the EPA powers. But with the world moving to a low-carbon economy, real jobs will come from speeding up the transition in the US - not slowing it down.
A report on the healing potential of Natural Sequence Farming, in repairing wounded carbon and water cycles, has been published in the latest International Journal of Water. Not only can NSF help restore fertility in a sustainable way for the Australian landscape studied - by building up carbon stores in the soil, CO2 is drawn from the atmosphere, so blunting emissions-driven climate change.
Earth Hour was first launched back in 2007 in Sydney, Australia in the fight against climate change and saw more than 2.2 million people and over 2,000 organisations switch off their lights for the hour. Now Earth Hour has become a global movement in sustainability and the 2010 Earth Hour saw over 50 million people in 128 countries being involved in many different ways.
New data illustrates the rapid rate of ozone loss above the Arctic. The ozone is destroyed when products from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are converted into aggressive substances, this happens when they come into contact with extremely cold conditions and there has long been a link between climate change and the loss of the ozone. Filed in environmental issues: ozone/climate change.
Latest Five Year Plan sets ambitious targets to decarbonise China's huge economy. China is not just the world's second biggest economy, it is now the world's biggest climate change gases emitter - according to the World Resources Institute it produced 7,232.8 megatonnes of greenhouse gases in 2007 (the last year we have comparable figures for), surpassing the USA's 6,914.2 megatonnes. Filed in environmental issues: emissions/growth/energy.
The impact of global warming on maize yields in the tropics has not been fully appreciated, according to new research in the inaugural issue of Nature Climate Change. Yields can fall by more than 20% for most areas, when subject to a drought plus a 1 degree C rise in temperature. But the new research also offers a potential avenue for fast-tracking such crop studies, in other climate-change prone areas. Filed in environmental issues: climate change.
The story of how a small group of Swedish school children started a movement that saved a rain forest in Costa Rica. It was just over a year ago the Copenhagen climate talks opened to fervent hopes that the world would finally come together and address the planet's most pressing environmental problems. After a great deal of posturing and rhetoric, it sadly failed to deliver even a fraction of its promises. Filed in environmental issues: rainforests/conservation.
A recent report had warned communities of the impending disruption that will be caused by rising sea levels and stormy conditions. The report, titled 'Impacts of Climate Change on Disadvantaged UK Costal Communitites' examines the current impact that the changing climate has already had on the coastline and predicts the effects that it will have by 2080. Filed in environmental issues: climate change.
Large scale agricultural production is not the answer to food shortages and climate change says a UN report which backs smaller producers and green farming methods. Environmentalists everywhere will welcome the news that the United Nations is backing more ecological agriculture; not just for its green benefits but in order to produce an estimated doubling of yields in areas affected by food shortages. Filed in environmental issues: food/agriculture/climate.
Climate change will have its most dramatic effects on the oceans so it's no surprise that the US Navy are looking at how they will operate in the future. A new report from the National Research Council says that America's navy will have to prepare to operate in the Arctic; expect more humanitarian missions and check whether its coastal facilities are prepared for changing sea-levels.
A constant feature in news headlines is the 'rising cost of living' which encompasses anything from the cost of running a car to the cost of housing and also importantly, the cost of vital essentials such as food. In particular, recent natural occurrences such as draughts and floods have further heightened the price of food. Filed in environmental issues: agriculture/climate change/politics.
Creatures that currently live in warm, shallow waters, can often survive in much harsher environments a team at Southampton University has found. A team at University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Sciences (SOES) used the aptly-named variable shrimp to test there hypothesis that as deep sea creatures were killed off by climate change their places were taken by their neighbours in the shallow water. Filed under environmental issues: Migration/Nature.
A new NASA-funded satellite study of the polar ice sheets shows an alarming accelerating trend of ice loss from both Greenland and Antarctica. Combined with losses from mountain glaciers and ice caps this could result in a global sea level rise of 32cm as early as 2050. Filed in environmental issues: Sea Levels/Climate
Republicans and Democrats battle over the science of climate change. Obama's green agenda could receive a fatal blow today (Thursday) with Republicans wielding the axe on the hill. Republicans look set to remain true to their word when they head to Congress vote on a bill designed to curb the Environment Protection Agency's power to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. Filed under environmental issues: Climate Change/Politics.
Recurring mega-storms hit California every 200 years, and the impact of the next one could be huge, according to a USC economist. At $1 trillion in economic loss, a potential megastorm could easily exceed the damage from the projected San Andreas earthquake - and climate change is boosting their destructive potential.
UK Climate Change Department releases software tool Pathways 2050 to open debate on carbon emissions and energy policy. The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) released Pathways to 2050 on their website. It is a piece of software that allows you to reduce British climate emissions by, for example, electrifying the railways or building more wind turbines.
The comparative geographical long-term effects of global warming, and the issues of responsibility and accountability of those who are arguably the worst offenders. Climate change-related headlines always carry with them a terrible sense of impending doom, and the latest news is no more palatable than the rest. The latest developments highlight the fact that the populations least responsible for the problem of Global Warming are taking the most significant environmental hit.
Tracking cattle methane directly has taken a step forwards, with new research using GPS and laser technology. With scientists able to point fingers at each methane emission in a herd, there is now potential for measuring the best ways to reduce such emissions. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, and reducing releases from cattle is important for knocking back risks from climate change.
As the earth warms through this century forests will move north into tundra regions while Greenland's ice cover will shrink. Forests will spread north into areas of previously bleak tundra and ice cover once thought to be permanent will retreat uncovering new tundra by the end of this century according to climate scientists from University of Nebraska-Lincoln and South Korea.
Researchers have found that the effect of soot - rising from the newly industrialised economies of Asia - could have an even more damaging effect on the climate than CO2 in the Himalayas. Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the Universityof Michiganand NOAA looked at the effect of soot on the Tibetan Plateau in the Himalayasand found that soot is a worse offender in climate change than CO2.
New models of the huge streams of plasma on the surface of the Sun are raising understanding of the complex mechanisms at play. As the solar sunspot cycle picks up speed, and starts sending out new flares towards the Earth, understanding exactly what makes the Sun tick looks to be increasingly important for the stability communications and power systems, as well as of the climate.
Evidence of ancient mega-drought may help to predict future climatory developments. international Scientists from the Los Alamos National Laboratory are to be believed, our hunter-gatherer ancestors were experiencing something of an ecological disaster during this time - a large-scale environmental 'Mega-drought'- which left animal and human lifeforms fighting for survival in an unforgiving climate amidst an agriculturally-redundant landscape.
If you thought Winter 2010 was cold, think again. Over 56,000,000 years ago, our world experienced Arctic conditions which even the warmest, hardiest of UGG boots wouldnt have weathered, but after many years of glacial temperatures the Arctic experienced a sudden change. Global warming occurred in the Arctic many years before it became the go-to cause for modern-day environmental activists.
Monocultures might be the most efficient way to grow but they're also great for the nasties that destroy crops a new report finds. Now scientists have come up with a very good reason for farmers to grow a wider diversity and variety of crops to protect themselves from the changes likely to result from climate change.
Is algae the biofuel of the future? The biodiesel industry faces huge challenges in the coming years. Unless youre in a country such as Malaysia or Indonesia where there's the climate and suitable land to grow plantations for palm oil or similar plant biofuels, then your options are limited.
The House of Rep cuts to IPCC funding risk leaving the US out in the cold. At a time when the fundamental science on global warming has been completely validated, the rest of the world may not wait for the Tea Party to catch up. Last Monday's decision by the Republican-dominated House of Representatives, to take a funding swipe at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is both mistimed and mistaken.
Droughts and dust storms are being predicted by government scientists studying plant growth and soil erosion in the Southwest United States. Scientists from the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the University of California, Los Angeles studied plants and soils in the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks of south east Utah over a 20 year period.
A hotter climate could make some plants move downhill to seek water, suggests new research that challenges the assumption that plants would move uphill to reach cooler elevations. Scientists at the University of Montana, the University of California, Davis, and the University of Idaho are the first to find a widespread downward shift in Californian mountain plants.
With the latest report from the Commerce Department clearing NOAA scientists of any wrong-doing in the Climategate affair, it's time to lay the ghost of those false accusations to rest. The way forward lies in a renewed and open dialogue with the public, to rebuild the trust eroded over the affair. As the reality of global warming continues to bite, the need to tell the story honestly and passionately is more apparent than ever.
News article describing the results of a study, published Mon 21-Feb-2011, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looking at ragweed pollen season and local climate changes. Finds that both pollen season and the frost free period have increased, and that they show strong correlation. Climate change may therefore be increasing misery for hay fever sufferers.
Reefs at Risk Revisited finds that three quarters of the world's coral reefs are under threat. Reefs at Risk Revisited, a World Resources Institute (WRI) project, is a groundbreaking analysis of threats to the world's coral reefs. This comprehensive assessment found that three quarters of the world's coral reefs are under threat from pollution, overfishing and climate change.
Weathercasters can be a trusted source for information on global warming but study finds their faith was rocked by 'Climategate' emails. The men and women who bring us our daily TV weather forecasts had their belief in global warming and faith in climate scientists damaged by the 'Climategate' scandal say researchers at George Mason University.
Studies indicate gender discrepancies in climate change. New research indicates that the gender divide has spilled over into the climate change debate, with a French report suggesting that men are bigger eco-offenders than women.
Even if all the world's factories shut down tomorrow and all the cars were taken off the roads, the planet would still get steadily warmer, scientists have warned. That is according to a team of scientists at the University of Washington who believe that, far from being just one of several possible future scenarios, a warmer global climate is now inevitable thanks to the sheer volume of carbon that has been released into the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution.
Scientists predict that a warming Indian Ocean will create drought conditions in Kenya and Ethiopia. Regular droughts have long been regarded as a feature of eastern Africa, but over the past 20 years the frequency of these droughts has noticeably increased. According to new research published in Climate Dynamics, this is likely to continue as global temperatures continue to rise.
The migratory map of Africa is tipped to change significantly over the next few decades as birds react to the effects of climate change. The Finnish ornithologist Johannes Leche is widely credited with undertaking the first proper study of the migratory patterns of birds, with his pioneering work in the mid-18th century based largely upon the technique of ringing individual animals.
New research in Australia gives real hope that plants can respond to climate change, by rapidly evolving. This is the first study, published in the Journal of Ecology that shows just how widespread this ability is in plants.
We present some business ideas for those of you who think that the future is greener than the present- we can think of some who don't ---. The advice is general and does not apply exclusively to any one nation.
We use the tiger (this is a prime Siberian example) to show up our failure to conserve wild species, but while we monopolise all the food that animals require, we could remember that it is not only their conservation we urgently need to cover. It is also our own indulgences.
How can you describe the threats existing to species, both large and small? Using the highly-threatened primates, we can perhaps see how they have contrived to exist until the current time. Then we can better understand just how we can prevent factors simply wiping them from the face of the earth, often through ignorance, lack of care, prejudice and of course the universal profit motive. Conservation begins in our minds, but demands much more than that.
The future is certainly renewable, but are we too late to prevent future centuries problems of global warming- and the rest! Here are some current US solutions to waste and warming for you to enjoy---there are some ads in this piece but weve allowed them for one blog only.
Need to save money after the spending boom to end them all? Here are 2 sets of opinions on how to pull out the plugs at night at least.
When dolphins are 'rescued' in various countries, the car given seems to be ill-considered. We are simply looking at the success rate which is reported to be low, in most places. They could even end up in commercial aquarium shows, but they certainly rarely make it back to the sea.
