Global Warming

"NO-TAKE zones" might protect coral reefs against overfishing, but no signpost can counter the effects of global warming.Coral bleaching - the loss of colour when coral tissue expels its symbiotic algae - is triggered by very high ocean temperatures and can be fatal. Climate change might make it more common.To look at the effect of 1998's global coral bleaching, Nicholas Graham at Newcastle University, UK, and his team studied reef fish at 66 sites in the Indian Ocean, including no-take zones that ban fishing."These areas weren't desi ...

But business opposition preventing action in General AssemblyIf Maryland doesn't work to combat and adapt to climate change, the state risks problems from heat-related illnesses, harm to crops and livestock, a shake-up of which species of plants and animals survive here and damaged wetlands and coasts, according to a report released today.Preventing the worst effects of climate change will require conserving energy, protecting the coastline and cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, according to the report by the state Commission on C ...

TOKYO - The Japanese government plans to propose in U.N. talks that developing countries be obliged to join their industrialized counterparts in cutting greenhouse gas emissions under a new international framework to combat global warming to come into force in 2013, according to government sources.The government has submitted five documents related to the proposal to the secretariat of a special working panel meeting to be held in Accra beginning Thursday under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.In the proposal to be pres ...

Global warming and past forest management are making forests in the western United States more susceptible to fire while large wildfires, like two in Utah last year, are blamed with making climate change worse and putting unnatural stress on ecosystems, according to a report released Thursday.In the National Wildlife Federation's 2008 "Increased Risk of Catastrophic Wildfires: Global Warming's Wake-Up Call for the Western United States," the report claims global warming is increasing the risk of fires via rising temperatures, drier co ...

Rising sea levels and more frequent storms and flooding caused by climate change will increase the number of heat-related deaths in cities and cause billions of dollars in losses to New Jersey tourism, transportation and real estate, a report released today says.Researchers forecast that by 2100, sea levels in New Jersey will have risen by 2 to 4 feet, enough to move the shoreline 240 to 480 feet inland and put $106 billion in real estate in coastal counties at risk.The greatest danger faces the state's heavily developed barrier islan ...

Scientists at Durham University (UK) are working on new ways of storing CO2 emissions underground to help in the fight against global warming.The University has launched the Carbon Storage Research Group, which will be led by the newly-created position of Professor of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Energy.Researchers aim to find efficient and reliable ways of gathering CO2 from fossil-fuel fired power plants and storing it in former oil and gas fields or aquifers indefinitely so it cannot add to global warming.The new professors ...

The British television watchdog agency has rebuked the country's Channel 4 for "unfair treatment" of several scientists and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in "The Great Global Warming Swindle," a controversial documentary that aired last year and had been seen around the world on the Internet and DVD.But the agency, the Office of Communication, concluded in a report issued Monday that the program, while containing "intemperate" characterizations of the dominant scientific view that humans are the main for ...

Green campaigners are being blamed for vandalising a number of 4x4 cars in Marston, Oxford, on Thursday night. The owners of six vehicles found that tyres had been let down and warning letters plastered to the windscreens.'Driving an SUV is an unacceptably selfish act in the face of this global emergency,' the notes state. 'Your destructive vehicle and scores of others across Oxford have been disabled as part of a wider struggle to avert a global emergency.'A Land Rover Discovery, two Honda CRVs, a Mitsubishi Shogun, a Subaru and a Mi ...

Earth scored another Top 10 finish in June - climate wise.It was the eighth warmest June on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Wednesday.And the first six months of the year were the ninth warmest since record keeping began in 1880, NOAA's National Climatic Data Center reported.The planets average temperature for June was 60.8 degrees Fahrenheit, 0.9 degrees warmer than average for the month.For the January to June period, the combined global land and ocean surface temperature was 57.1 degrees, which ...

Non-native flora and fauna encouraged by climate change could cause the river Thames's ecosystem to collapse, a report by charity WWF warns today. The Thames Vulnerability Assessment Report predicts a decline in native plants and animals as well as a drop in fish levels.Researchers say Chinese mitten crabs, zebra mussels and Asiatic clams are the biggest threats.The report also says the lush green landscape along parts of the Thames will become arid and dusty, although there will be a huge increase in f loods.Dr Tom Le Quesne, WWF UK ...

Al Gore is going to love this one. A new study, released yesterday, suggests that it's not just polar bears, ice caps, and farmers who ought to be on edge about global warming. Rising temperatures may leave Americans with a deluge of kidney stones as well.That might sound like voodoo scare science, but it's actually well accepted that kidney stone formation accelerates in warm climates. Sweating removes fluid from the body, which increases the salt concentration of the urine and the rate at which stones develop.The authors predict tha ...

A spokesman for a Russian scientific institution says global warming is causing Arctic sea ice to melt earlier than it normally does, forcing the evacuation of a research station in the Western Arctic.Sergei Balyasnikov of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute said Monday that the North Pole-35 station and its 21 researchers will be pulled out this week instead of late August.He said a nuclear icebreaker will take a research vessel to the station that is currently drifting between the Franz Josef Land archipelago and the Novaya ...

A study released today suggests that rising global temperatures could lead to an increase in kidney stones. This research was also presented at the 103rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) held earlier this year in Orlando, FLNewswise - A study released today suggests that rising global temperatures could lead to an increase in kidney stones. This research was also presented at the 103rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) held earlier this year in Orlando, FL. If ...

Ever wonder how Al Gore, the United Nations, and company continue to get away with their claim of a "scientific consensus" confirming their doomsday view of global warming? Look no farther than Wikipedia for a stunning example of how the global-warming propaganda machine works.As you (or your kids) probably know, Wikipedia is now the most widely used and influential reference source on the Internet and therefore in the world, with more than 50 million unique visitors a month.In theory Wikipedia is a "people's encyclopedia" written and ...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Global warming will sow destruction across Russia and ex-Soviet states, a report said on Tuesday after the world's richest countries issued targets on harmful emissions that environmentalists criticised as too soft.The 52-page report -- written by green group WWF and British charity Oxfam -- described a grim picture of social, ecological and economic collapse in the world's biggest country and its former empire unless the world took urgent action."This diagram shows infrastructure collapse. When the temperature rise ...

TOYAKO, Japan - World leaders embraced for the first time on Tuesday an ambitious but nonbinding goal of slashing greenhouse-gas emissions in half by midcentury to stave off global warming. Unimpressed environmentalists called the effort too slow and too uncertain.Leaders of some of the world's richest nations praised the agreement, which endorsed President Bush's insistence that fast-developing countries like China and India join in the effort. But one environmental critic suggested that by 2050 those leaders would be forgotten and " ...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Global warming will sow destruction across Russia and ex-Soviet states, a report said on Tuesday after the world's richest countries issued targets on harmful emissions that environmentalists criticized as too soft.The 52-page report -- written by green group WWF and British charity Oxfam -- described a grim picture of social, ecological and economic collapse in the world's biggest country and its former empire unless the world took urgent action."This diagram shows infrastructure collapse. When the temperature rise ...

TOYAKO, Japan - President Bush encountered resistance on his climate-change policy as he and other world leaders sought to strike a balance between framing a deal on global warming while coping with inflation and slumping economic growth.Building a consensus was not proving easy for him as the Group of Eight economic powers planned to turn its attention Tuesday to global warming, soaring food and fuel costs and world conflicts.Beyond the climate-change standoff, Bush's proposal to base a missile defense system in Eastern Europe was re ...

This January-deep summer in Antarctica-explorer Jon Bowermaster suffered through a five-day stretch of torrential rains on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. The same cannot be said for thousands of downy penguin chicks.Epic rains are unusual in Antarctica, even in summer, said Bowermaster, who had been in the region on an expedition funded in part by the National Geographic Society's Expeditions Council.With daytime temperatures above freezing, the rains soaked young Adélie and gentoo penguins not yet equipped with water- ...

U.S. scientists say they've discovered submerged trees have the potential to be used as carbon credits since they can store carbon for thousands of years.University of Missouri researchers discovered trees submerged in freshwater aquatic systems store carbon for significantly longer than trees that fall in a forest. If a tree is submerged in water, its carbon will be stored for an average of 2,000 years, said Associate Professor Richard Guyette, director of the university's Tree Ring Laboratory. If a tree falls in a forest, th ...

Lower yields, more pests, faster-growing weeds will be just some of the effects of climate changeThe global food supply, as recent events have shown all too clearly, is threatened by many problems. Some of them are man-made; some are natural. The natural ones tend to be obvious-droughts, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes-and, in the past year alone, they have been notably devastating. Searing droughts in Australia and central Europe have squandered wheat supplies; more recently, Cyclone Nargis destroyed rice stocks for millions of peopl ...

Sen. Ben Cardin and Maryland environmentalists vowed to continue the fight for an aggressive global warming bill - even as the Senate effectively killed the measure for this year."This legislation will come back. I do believe this bill will be passed in 2009," said Cardin, D-Md., standing on the beach at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation headquarters in Annapolis.More than 1,200 environmentalists signed Cardin's petition showing support for the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, which requires substantial reductions in greenhouse gase ...

Rohrabacher Says Remark On Environment Joke Blown Out Of ProportionNEWPORT BEACH, Calif -- Rep. Dana Rohrabacher went to the floor of the U.S House of Representatives last week to say that his recent comparison of global warming to "dinosaur flatulence" was a joke blown out of proportion, it was reported Sunday.The controversial Orange County Republican said anyone who thinks he was being serious is mistaken. But his Democratic opponent in the fall election slammed him for disbelieving science, the Daily Pilot reported.In a floor spee ...

NEW YORK - A French skyscraper climber has been taken into custody after scaling the New York Times building in midtown Manhattan to draw attention to global warming.During his ascent, Alain Robert unfurled a banner about global warming. Construction workers cheered.Police took him into custody at the top of the new 52-story tower, designed by Renzo Piano.In February, the daredevil, who's nicknamed "Spiderman," scaled a 42-floor building in Brazil.Robert's Web site says he has climbed more than 70 skyscrapers around the world. ...

BALTIMORE, June 4 (UPI) -- A U.S. economist praises Congress for planning to fight global warming, but he says the plan being considered would hasten environmental calamity.Peter Morici, former chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission, is concerned about the Warner-Lieberman bill pending in the Senate. It would limit U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 to 2005 levels, and reduce those by 70 percent in 2050."Unfortunately, by encouraging energy-intensive American industries to flee to developing countries, this bill ...

Alliance chief warns of growing risk of instability linked to energy shortagesNATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has warned of five emerging threats facing the alliance.BRUSSELS, Belgium - NATO must expand its role in the coming decade to prepare for new threats provoked by the impact of global warming, energy shortages and the spread of nuclear technology, the alliance's top diplomat warned Tuesday.Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance must look beyond the day-to-day running of its operations in Afghanis ...

A side-effect of changing weather patterns is beach pollution caused by downpoursAn increasing number of summer downpours is threatening to foul water quality at many of the country's beaches, say environmentalists.The number of beaches with clean water has been on the increase of the past two decades, but 2007 had the highest number of reported pollution days at beaches since 1991, according to the Environment Ministry's Agency for Spatial and Environmental Planning.Releasing its annual list of the country's approved 'blue flag' beac ...

JUPITER - Armed with a digital camera, two borrowed cellphones and some blank sheets of paper, dozens of residents on Saturday urged the county's congressional candidates to do more to stop global warming and protect the environment.The group, gathered at the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, wrote letters, posed for picture petitions and left phone messages for local congressmen and candidates.The environmental group Greenpeace organized the effort as part of its national campaign to end global warming. The group has called on Congress to in ...

Scientists say they have invented a machine that can suck carbon dioxide out of the air - potentially creating a vital weapon in the war against global warming.The blueprint for the CO2 'scrubber' raises the prospect of a generation of machines which would help reduce the billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere by the use of fossil fuels.The team of US scientists now plans to build a prototype which would capture one tonne of CO2 from the air every day.Though the idea is considered a holy grail in the b ...

Yale University scientists reported that they may have resolved a controversial glitch in models of global warming: A key part of the atmosphere didn't seem to be warming as expected. Computer models and basic principles predict atmospheric temperatures should rise slightly faster than, not lag, increases in surface temperatures. Also, the models predict the fastest warming should occur at the Tropics at an altitude between eight and 12 kilometers. However, temperature readings taken from weather balloons and satellites have, accordin ...

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) - A new report says climate change could worsen a litany of problems plaguing the Great Lakes. Troubles range from low water levels to depleted fish populations.The report was released by the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, which represents more than 100 advocacy groups.The U.S. Senate is preparing to debate global warming legislation next week. Coalition leaders say that could generate funding for Great Lakes cleanup efforts.But even if the measure passes, advocates say the lakes will absorb some e ...

Global warming will likely drain more water from the Great Lakes and pose added pollution threats to the region's vulnerable ecosystem, environmental groups said in a report issued on Wednesday.Climate change could further reduce scant ice cover observed in recent winters, increasing evaporation rates and dropping water levels in the five lakes that collectively make up 20 percent of the world's surface fresh water.Last year, Lake Superior water levels receded to their lowest in 77 years before rebounding, and the report by the Healin ...

On the issue of global warming, the 2008 Minnesota Legislature didn't do much. But a couple of bills did make it through the legislative session. They flew under the radar, and they sound like small steps, but they could eventually make a difference. St. Paul, Minn. - The next time you reach for that spray can to clean your computer keyboard, you might want to take a few seconds to read the contents. A lot of these cleaners contain chemicals like hydroflourocarbons -- HFCs -- that, pound for pound, are much more potent greenhouse gase ...

A coalition of conservative evangelical leaders wants to enlist 1 million Christians to sign a statement questioning whether human-caused global warming is a real threat.The "We Get It!" campaign is the latest development in an ongoing disagreement among evangelicals about climate change."Our stewardship of creation must be based on biblical principles and factual evidence," the statement says. "We face important environmental challenges but must be cautious of claims that our planet is in peril from speculative dangers like manmade g ...

Washington, May 25 : Capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) and burying it away underground, which has on paper been described as one of the most effective in cutting down on greenhouse gases, is moving closer to reality.According to a report in Discovery News, the process, known as carbon capture and storage (CCS), has already been given the green signal by the US Department of Energy (DOE), with a funding of 126 million dollars for two large-scale carbon storage projects in California and the Midwest.The DOE had previously announced 253.7 m ...

M. Night Shyamalan has spooked movie-goers for the past 15 years with a variety of scenarios, playing off the fear generated by ghosts, aliens and even Adrian Brody disguised in a bizarre wolf costume. So as the movie industry strives to appeal to the masses and keep with the times, it isn't too surprising that he's moved to milk global warming for all the terror and despair it's worth.Shyamalan's new global-warming-inspired film The Happening will open in theaters globally Friday the 13th of June. It sounds like the run-of-the-mill a ...

ScienceDaily (May 24, 2008) - The results of several scientific studies conducted since 1993 have confirmed a 3.2 cm sea level rise. Although this variation might appear negligible, it has in fact turned out to be twice as high as that recorded over the whole of the previous century. This increase in sea level is a consequence of global warming. When sea temperature rises, the sea expands and therefore occupies a greater volume. This phenomenon is now well known to scientists, but other processes that have received less research atten ...

PELLSTON, Mich. - Chain saws scream in a northern Michigan forest, but it's not the familiar sound of lumberjacks.This time the tree killers are environmental researchers. They hope that years from now the aspens they remove will be replaced with a healthy mix of maples, oaks, beeches and pines - which should soak up more carbon dioxide from an ever warmer world.The scientists hope to take a 100-acre section of the University of Michigan Biological Station research forest closer to the state it was in before logging, when it was domin ...

WASHINGTON (May 22, 2008) - A report released today by researchers at Tufts University, commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), presents two ways of estimating the costs of inaction on climate change, both leading to staggering bottom lines. A comprehensive estimate, based on state-of-the-art computer modeling, finds that doing nothing on global warming will cost the United States economy more than 3.6 percent of GDP - or $3.8 trillion annually (in today's dollars) - by 2100. On the other hand, a detailed, bottom ...

San Francisco Bay area air regulators to charge businesses fees for greenhouse gas emissionsSAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Air pollution regulators in the San Francisco Bay area have voted overwhelmingly to approve new rules that impose fees on businesses for emitting greenhouse gasses.A spokeswoman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District says the agency's board of directors voted 15-1 on Wednesday to charge companies 4.4 cents per ton of carbon dioxide they emit.Experts say the fees, which cover nine counties in the Bay Area, are the ...