Climate Change

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CLIMATE CHANGE:

Whether the earth is warming or cooling, either way the climate is changing.

The question is what are we able to do about it, or should we just cope?

Global Warming
Articles on CO2 Reduction

Global Warming Web Sites
http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/default.asp
http://www.carbonfund.org/carbon/index.php
http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu
http://www.climatechoices.org
http://www.globalcool.org

This is an extensive database of those who deny global warming and who pays them:
http://www.desmogblog.com/global-warming-denier-database

http://www.ledlights.org/Global-Warming provides a vast collection of resources
on global warming causes, effects and preventive measures for global warming.

Articles on This Page
New Study: "Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast"
Carbon Dioxide Pollution Increasing
Global Warming Newsletter
Climate Stewardship Act
HOT, HOT, HOT!
Dwindling Glaciers
20 Simple Steps to Reduce Global Warming
OZONE CAUSES ASTHMA IN ATHLETIC KIDS
WARMING TROPICS SHOW REDUCED CLOUD COVER
CENTURY OF HUMAN IMPACT WARMS EARTH'S SURFACE
RISING CO2 HAMPERS FERTILIZERS
ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOLS BRIGHTEN CLOUDS
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS COULD DAMAGE OZONE LAYER
GLOBAL WARMING COULD DISPLACE STATE BIRDS
THIN POLAR BEARS CALLED SIGN OF GLOBAL WARMING
GLOBAL CLIMATE SHIFT FEEDS SPREADING DESERTS
WARMING CLIMATE SPAWNS DISEASE EPIDEMICS
ALASKAN GLACIER MELT ACCELERATES SEA LEVEL RISE
GLOBAL WARMING IS CHANGING TROPICAL FORESTS
GLOBAL WARMING THREATENS OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS
ANTARCTIC MARINE LIFE VULNERABLE TO CLIMATE CHANGE
CLIMATE RELATED PERILS COULD BANKRUPT INSURERS
Global Warming Affects Coastal Marine Species
ARCTIC SEA ICE MAY VANISH THIS CENTURY
ICE CORE ANALYSIS SHOWS WESTERN CANADA WARMING
Rising CO2 Could Cause Contradictory Effects
ARCTIC ICE MELTING AT RECORD RATE
Climate Change Could Come Fast and Furious
2002 HEADING FOR NO. 2 SPOT IN CLIMATE RECORDS
HUNDREDS OF SPECIES PRESSURED BY GLOBAL WARMING
WARMING OCEANS LINKED TO FOUR YEAR DROUGHT
GLOBAL WARMING DRIVING PIKA LOSSES
Methane Eruptions Could Fuel Global Warming
Satellites Help Monitor Warming Coral Reefs
Black Soot Increases Global Warming
HALF U.S. CLIMATE WARMING DUE TO LAND USE CHANGES
Energy Facts Contradict Bush Global Warming Plan
Reaping the whirlwind
Study Finds Atmosphere Boundary Rising, Humans Responsible
Global Warming Upending Your Ski Season?
ISN'T IT A LITTLE COLD FOR GLOBAL WARMING?
CLIMATE CHANGE COULD PROMPT WIDE-SPREAD EXTINCTION
STUDY DETECTS HUMAN INFLUENCE IN NORTH AMERICAN CLIMATE CHANGE
Upcoming Ice Age?
SCIENCE: Photos prove that glaciers are dwindling
Mountain climbers decry vanishing glaciers
Global Warming and Oceans
Global Warming March
Melting at Both Ends
Reduce Your Global Warming Pollution
Trees for the Future
An Inconvenient Truth
Eco Hero
Dry Water
Past Decade Still Sees Rapid Emissions Growth

"President Bush said today that Social Security could be going bankrupt. He said the good news is that it won't happen for at least 50 years and by that time you won't even have to worry about Social Security because the temperature of the Earth will be 158 degrees."

-Jay Leno on the Tonight Show

"New technologies will change how we live and how we drive our cars which all will have the beneficial effect of improving the environment and in my judgment we need to set aside whether or not greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects and focus on the technologies that will enable us to live better lives and at the same time protect the environment."

-- President Bush, in response to Al Gore's documentary on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth"

"I think we have a problem on global warming. I think there is a debate about whether it's caused by mankind or whether it's caused naturally, but it's a worthy debate. It's a debate, actually, that I'm in the process of solving by advancing new technologies, burning coal cleanly in electric plants, or promoting hydrogen-powered automobiles, or advancing ethanol as an alternative to gasoline."

-- President Bush on how he is solving global warming in an interview with People magazine

Weather events are not climate change.

Evidence for warming of the climate system includes observed increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.[13][14][15][16][17] The most common measure of global warming is the trend in globally averaged temperature near the Earth's surface. Expressed as a linear trend, this temperature rose by 0.74 ± 0.18 °C over the period 1906–2005. The rate of warming over the last half of that period was almost double that for the period as a whole (0.13 ± 0.03 °C per decade, versus 0.07 °C ± 0.02 °C per decade). The urban heat island effect is estimated to account for about 0.002 °C of warming per decade since 1900.[18] Temperatures in the lower troposphere have increased between 0.13 and 0.22 °C (0.22 and 0.4 °F) per decade since 1979, according to satellite temperature measurements. Temperature is believed to have been relatively stable over the one or two thousand years before 1850, with regionally varying fluctuations such as the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age.[19]

Estimates by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and the National Climatic Data Center show that 2005 was the warmest year since reliable, widespread instrumental measurements became available in the late 19th century, exceeding the previous record set in 1998 by a few hundredths of a degree.[20][21] Estimates prepared by the World Meteorological Organization and the Climatic Research Unit show 2005 as the second warmest year, behind 1998.[22][23] Temperatures in 1998 were unusually warm because the strongest El Niño in the past century occurred during that year.[24] Global temperature is subject to short-term fluctuations that overlay long term trends and can temporarily mask them. The relative stability in temperature from 2002 to 2009 is consistent with such an episode.[25][26]

Temperature changes vary over the globe. Since 1979, land temperatures have increased about twice as fast as ocean temperatures (0.25 °C per decade against 0.13 °C per decade).[27] Ocean temperatures increase more slowly than land temperatures because of the larger effective heat capacity of the oceans and because the ocean loses more heat by evaporation.[28] The Northern Hemisphere warms faster than the Southern Hemisphere because it has more land and because it has extensive areas of seasonal snow and sea-ice cover subject to ice-albedo feedback. Although more greenhouse gases are emitted in the Northern than Southern Hemisphere this does not contribute to the difference in warming because the major greenhouse gases persist long enough to mix between hemispheres.[29]

The thermal inertia of the oceans and slow responses of other indirect effects mean that climate can take centuries or longer to adjust to changes in forcing. Climate commitment studies indicate that even if greenhouse gases were stabilized at 2000 levels, a further warming of about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) would still occur.[30]

# ^ Trenberth, Kevin E.; et al. (2007). "Chapter 3: Observations: Surface and Atmospheric Climate Change" (PDF). IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press. p. 244. http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg1/ar4-wg1-chapter3.pdf.

Global Warming Newsletter
http://deulco.co.za/bionewsletter

CLICK HERE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND CALCULATE YOUR CO2 EMMISSIONS
http://www.deulco.co.za/Make_a_Difference.php

Radio
Listen to discussions and commentary on global warming:
Progressive Talk Radio
http://www.am1090seattle.com

"The astonishing fact is that each of us can have an immediate impact on the production of greenhouse gases, and if enough of us act together in these minor ways, the cumulative effect will be dramatic. And they all save money, which is one of the rather striking things about reducing your carbon footprint -- the standard way of measuring the CO2 emissions each person is responsible for Ladies and Gentlemen, this little booklet is the future -- a more ingenious, more satisfying, and less wasteful future. Welcome to it."

-- From "Fifty Ways to Help Save the Planet" in Vanity Fair's first-ever Green Issue.

The Climate Stewardship Act

Higher temperatures threaten dangerous consequences: drought, disease, floods, and the loss of precious endangered species. And amid the threat from rising oceans and extreme weather, global warning's effects have already begun.

But solutions are in sight: We know where most heat-trapping gases come from: power plants and vehicles. And we know how to curb their emissions: modern technologies and stronger laws.

The Climate Stewardship Act is the first step forward in Countering the Climate Crisis. This is a bill that makes sensible and affordable reductions in greenhouse gas pollution, and provides flexible solutions as a way of curbing costly environmental, public health, and economic damages.

Dwindling Glaciers
In 1910, Glacier National Park had 150 glaciers. Today, just 37 remain. At the current pace at which temperatures are rising, they will all be gone by 2030! You can read more about the dramatic destruction of Glacier National Park at http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/march/glacier.

A Pentagon-commissioned report revealed that global warming is not just an "environmental" issue; it is an immensely important geo-political issue with national security ramifications. http://actionnetwork.org/ct/qp1G_Cp1_aUF/

HOT, HOT, HOT! Predictions of how climate change will damage global agriculture are already proving true. So say scientists working on an advance crop yield forecasting system through the European Commission. Thanks to this year's relentless heat wave in Europe, crop losses have been eerily fitting those predicted by computer models. "It's dangerous to push these things under the carpet because we need to start planning now for the impacts of climate change," said Dr. Jorgen Olesen of the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences. http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/climate_change_crops.cfm

20 Simple Steps to Reduce Global Warming

Whenever you save energy--or use it more efficiently--you reduce the demand for gasoline, oil, coal, and natural gas. Less burning of these fossil fuels means lower emissions of carbon dioxide, the major contributor to global warming. Right now the U.S. releases about 40,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per person each year. If we can reduce energy use enough to lower greenhouse gas emissions by about 2% a year, in ten years we will "lose" about 7000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per person.

Here are 20 simple steps that can help cut your annual emissions of carbon dioxide by thousands of pounds. The carbon dioxide reduction shown for each action is an average saving.

HOME APPLIANCES

1.Run your dishwasher only with a full load. Use the energy-saving setting to dry the dishes. Don't use heat when drying.
Carbon dioxide reduction: 200 pounds a year.

2.Wash clothes in warm or cold water, not hot.
Carbon dioxide reduction (for two loads a week): up to 500 pounds a year.

3.Turn down your water heater thermostat; 120 degrees is usually hot enough.
Carbon dioxide reduction (for each 10- degree adjustment): 500 pounds a year.

HOME HEATING AND COOLING

4.Don't overheat or overcool rooms. Adjust your thermostat (lower in winter, higher in summer).
Carbon dioxide reduction (for each 2-degree adjustment): about 500 pounds a year.

5.Clean or replace air filters as recommended. Cleaning a dirty air conditioner filter can save 5% of the energy used.
Carbon dioxide reduction: About 175 pounds a year.

SMALL INVESTMENTS THAT PAY OFF

6.Buy energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs for your most-used lights.
Carbon dioxide reduction (by replacing one frequently used bulb): about 500 pounds a year.

7.Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket (but only if the water heater is over 5 years old and has no internal insulation).
Carbon dioxide reduction: Up to 1000 pounds a year.

8.Install low-flow shower heads to use less hot water.
Carbon dioxide reduction: Up to 300 pounds a year.

9.Caulk and weatherstrip around doors and windows to plug air leaks.
Carbon dioxide reduction: Up to 1000 pounds a year.

10.Ask your utility company for a home energy audit to find out where your home is poorly insulated or energy-inefficient.
Carbon dioxide reduction: Potentially, thousands of pounds a year.

GETTING AROUND

11.Whenever possible, walk, bike, carpool or use mass transit.
Carbon dioxide reduction (for every gallon of gasoline you save): 20 pounds.

12.When you buy a car, choose one that gets good gas mileage.
Carbon dioxide reduction (if your new car gets 10 mpg more than
your old one): about 2500 pounds a year.

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

13.Reduce waste: Buy minimally packaged goods; choose reusable products over disposable ones; recycle.
Carbon dioxide reduction (if you cut down your garbage by 25%): 1000 pounds a year.

14.If your car has an air conditioner, make sure its coolant is recycled whenever you have it serviced.
Equivalent carbon dioxide reduction: Thousands of pounds.

HOME IMPROVEMENTS

15.Insulate your walls and ceilings; this can save about 25% of home heating bills.
Carbon dioxide reduction: Up to 2000 pounds a year.

16.If you need to replace your windows, install the best energy-saving models.
Carbon dioxide reduction: Up to 10,000 pounds a year.

17.Plant trees next to your home and paint your home a light color if you live in a warm climate, or a dark color in a cold climate.
Carbon dioxide reduction: About 5000 pounds a year.

18.As you replace home appliances, select the most energy-efficient models.
Carbon dioxide reduction (if you replace your old refrigerator
with an efficient model): 3000 pounds a year.

SCHOOLS, BUSINESS, AND COMMUNITIES

19.Reduce waste and promote energy-efficient measures at your school or workplace. Work in your community to set up recycling programs.
Carbon dioxide reduction (for every pound of office paper recycled): 4 pounds.

20.Be informed about environmental issues. Keep track of candidates' voting records and write or call to express concerns.
Carbon dioxide reduction (if we vote to raise U.S. auto fuel efficiency): Billions of pounds.

CENTURY OF HUMAN IMPACT WARMS EARTH'S SURFACE

WASHINGTON, DC, January 24, 2002 (ENS) - Human activity has raised Earth's surface temperature during the last 130 years, finds a study published this month by the "Journal of Geophysical Research."

Dr. Robert Kaufmann of Boston University's Center for Energy and Environmental Studies and Dr. David Stern of the Australian National University's Centre for Resource and Environmental Study analyzed historical data for greenhouse gas concentrations, human sulfur emissions, and variations in solar activity between 1865 and 1990. The greenhouse gases studied included carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chloroflurocarbons 11 and 12.

Using the statistical technique of cointegration, the scientists compared these factors over time with global surface temperature in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Cointegration techniques are not confused by variables that tend to increase or decrease over time or contain some poor measurements.

This is the first study to make a statistically meaningful link between human activity and temperature, independent of climate models, Kaufmann said.

The researchers found that eliminating any one variable - greenhouse gases, human sulfur emissions, or solar activity - made the errors larger. All of those factors taken together are needed to explain changes in Earth's surface temperature.

They also learned that the impact of human activity has been different in the two hemispheres. In the north, the warming effect of greenhouse gases was offset by the cooling effect of sulfur emissions, making the temperature effects difficult to observe.

In the southern hemisphere, where human sulfur emissions are lower, the effects are easier to see, the team wrote.

"The countervailing effects of greenhouse gases and sulfur emissions undercut comments by climate change skeptics, who argue that the rapid increase in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases between the end of World War II and the early 1970s had little effect on temperature," said Kaufmann.

During this period, Kaufmann said, "the warming effect of greenhouse gases was hidden by a simultaneous increase in sulfur emissions. But, since then, sulfur emissions have slowed, due to laws aimed at reducing acid rain, and this has allowed the warming effects of greenhouse gases to become more apparent."

Doubling the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide from its preindustrial level - which is expected to happen over the next century - will increase will increase northern hemispheric temperature by 2.3 to 3.5 degrees Celsius (4.1 to 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit), the team said. In the southern hemisphere, the increase will be between 1.7 and 2.2 degrees Celsius (3.1 and four degrees Fahrenheit).

During the last ice age, more than 15,000 years ago, Earth's global temperature was only three to five degrees Celsius (five to nine degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than it is now.

* * *

OZONE CAUSES ASTHMA IN ATHLETIC KIDS

SACRAMENTO, California, February 1, 2002 (ENS) - A decade long study of California children has produced the strongest evidence to date that ozone, found in smog, can cause asthma in children.

The study, funded by the California Environmental Protection Agency's Air Resources Board (ARB) and conducted by the University of Southern California (USC), concludes that children who compete in sports in communities with more heavily polluted air are more likely to be diagnosed with asthma than other children.

Children in communities with high average ozone levels who compete in three or more team sports have a three to four times higher risk of developing the respiratory illness than non-athletic kids, the researchers report in the February 2 issue of "The Lancet." The more sports children participate in, the greater the effect.

"This research suggests that contrary to conventional wisdom, ozone is involved in the causation of asthma," said Dr. Rob McConnell, associate professor of preventive medicine at USC's Keck School of Medicine and lead author of the study.

Previous studies have shown that ozone can aggravate existing cases of asthma. The new ARB-USC study, however, points to ozone as a cause of asthma in young people who did not have the disease before.

"We've known for some time that smog can trigger attacks in asthmatics," said ARB chair Dr. Alan Lloyd. "This study has shown that ozone can cause asthma as well."

Although asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood, and the disease has been becoming more common for several decades, this is the first study to examine athletic activity, air pollution and the development of new onset asthma.

"Identifying potential causes of asthma is very important because eliminating the causative factors can prevent this life threatening disease," said Dr. John Peters, Hastings Professor of Preventive Medicine at the Keck School.

Athletes get a higher dose of pollutants to the lung, because they must breathe fast and deep. In addition, most sports are played outside, where ozone concentrations rise higher than they do indoors.

McConnell cautioned parents to be cognizant of air pollution levels when their children are exercising outdoors.

"The bottom line is this: exercise is really healthy for children, for many reasons, and children should be encouraged to play team sports," McConnell said. "But, on days when air pollution levels are expected to be high, children should limit prolonged outdoor exertion. Air quality forecasts can be found in newspapers, and on days when unhealthy air quality is predicted, state agencies send alerts to schools. If ozone is causing asthma then, ultimately, the solution is to reduce the levels of ozone."

The research is part of the USC led Children's Health Study, an extensive investigation into pollution and kids' respiratory health. More information on the Children's Health Study is available at: http://arbis.arb.ca.gov/research/chs/chs.htm

WARMING TROPICS SHOW REDUCED CLOUD COVER

HAMPTON, Virginia, February 1, 2002 (ENS) - Global warming reduced cloud cover over the tropics in the 1990s, researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Thursday.

More sunlight entered the tropics and more heat escaped to space in the 1990s than in the 1980s, because less cloud cover blocked incoming radiation and trapped outgoing heat, the researchers said after examining 22 years of satellite measurements.

"Since clouds were thought to be the weakest link in predicting future climate change from greenhouse gases, these new results are unsettling," said Dr. Bruce Wielicki of NASA's Langley Research Center. Wielicki is the lead author of the first of two papers about this research appearing in today's issue of the journal "Science."

"It suggests that current climate models may, in fact, be more uncertain than we had thought," Wielicki added. "Climate change might be either larger or smaller than the current range of predictions."

The observations capture changes in the radiation budget - the balance between Earth's incoming and outgoing energy - that controls the planet's temperature and climate.

A research group at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) developed a new method of comparing the satellite observed changes to other meteorological data.

"What it shows is remarkable," said Wielicki. "The rising and descending motions of air that cover the entire tropics, known as the Hadley and Walker circulation cells, appear to increase in strength from the 1980s to the 1990s. This suggests that the tropical heat engine increased its speed."

The faster circulation dried out the water vapor that is needed for cloud formation in the upper regions of the lower atmosphere over the most northern and southern tropical areas. Less cloudiness formed allowing more sunlight to enter and more heat to leave the tropics.

Several of the world's top climate modeling research groups tried to reproduce the tropical cloud changes in their computer models. The climate models failed the test, predicting smaller than observed variability by factors of two to four.

"It's as if the heat engine in the tropics has become less efficient using more fuel in the 1990s than in the 1980s," said Wielicki. "We tracked the changes to a decrease in tropical cloudiness that allowed more sunlight to reach the Earth's surface. But what we want to know is why the clouds would change."

The results also indicate the tropics are much more variable and dynamic than previously thought.

"The question is, if this fluctuation is due to global climate change or to natural variability," said Anthony Del Genio, a scientist at GISS and coauthor of the companion paper. "We think this is a natural fluctuation, but there is no way to tell yet."

While the current 22 year radiation budget record - the longest and most accurate ever compiled - is still too short to pinpoint a cause, the recorded change acts as a standard by which to measure future improvements in cloud modeling.

"A value of this research is it provides a documented change in climate and a target for climate models to simulate," said Del Genio.

More information is available at: http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/ceres/ASDceres.html

RISING CO2 HAMPERS FERTILIZERS
DAVIS, California, February 5, 2002 (ENS) As carbon dioxide levels rise, plant life around the globe may lose the ability to incorporate certain forms of nitrogen, like those found in most fertilizers, says a plant physiologist at the University of California, Davis.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations have risen by more than 30 percent during the past two centuries. For many years, scientists believed these rising levels of carbon dioxide would benefit plants, because CO2 is one of the essential ingredients in photosynthesis, the process by which green plants use sunlight to manufacture the chemical energy they need. In laboratory experiments, plants first responded to a doubling of atmospheric CO2 levels by assimilating 30 percent more carbon. But within a few days or weeks, this accelerated rate of carbon processing dropped back to just 12 percent greater than normal.

"The results from our study indicate that carbon dioxide inhibition of nitrate assimilation contributes to this phenomenon and suggest two physiological mechanisms that may be responsible," said lead author Arnold Bloom, a professor in the UC Davis vegetable crops department.

Farmers and gardeners often apply nitrogen rich fertilizers to their crops, because nitrogen is key to producing proteins and nucleic acids such as DNA in plants. Bloom and his colleagues have been studying how crop plants respond to being fertilized with two different forms of nitrogen: nitrate and ammonium. In their new study, which appears in today's issue of the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," the researchers found that nitrate fertilizer is not as efficient as ammonium fertilizer when atmospheric CO2 levels are higher than normal.

After growing wheat seedlings with either nitrate or ammonium under varying concentrations of CO2, the team discovered that elevated levels of CO2 inhibited the processing of nitrate in the wheat leaves in two ways. First, plants place a higher priority on storing and processing CO2 than they do nitrogen, so when carbon dioxide levels rose, some of the chemicals needed to assimilate the nitrate were already tied up in assimilating CO2. Second, to make use of nitrate, the plants have to convert nitrate into nitrite and then move the nitrite into structures within their cells called chloroplasts, which are the center for photosynthesis. Bloom's research indicated that elevated levels of CO2 interfered with the overall process of photosynthesis by blocking this transfer.

"We expect that the data from this study will have real world implications for crop production," Bloom said. "In well drained soils generally devoted to wheat production, nitrate is the common form of nitrogen available in the soil. This study suggests that a shift to increase ammonium availability might be needed."

As atmospheric CO2 levels continue to rise, nitrate sensitive plant and tree species in the wild could be at a competitive disadvantage to species that are either able to convert nitrate into amino acids in their roots or use ammonium as their predominant nitrogen source, Bloom added. This could change the distribution of plants in natural ecosystems.

The study was funded by the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.

ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOLS BRIGHTEN CLOUDS

UPTON, New York, March 5, 2002 (ENS) - Aerosols - tiny particles of chemicals and other pollutants - make clouds reflect more sunlight, which could help cool Earth's climate, a new report suggests. This brightening effect must be considered by climate researchers working to assess the magnitude of global climate change, argue scientists studying the phenomenon.

For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-05-06.html

VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS COULD DAMAGE OZONE LAYER
GREENBELT, Maryland, March 5, 2002 (ENS)

Future volcanic eruptions, creating sulfuric acid clouds, may add to the ozone destroying power of polar stratospheric clouds, say researchers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

An ozone hole could form over the North Pole after future major volcanic eruptions, argues the cover story in today's edition of the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." Since the 1980s, a seasonal ozone hole, characterized by severe loss of ozone, has appeared over the continent of Antarctica. However, scientists have not yet observed, on an annual basis, as severe a thinning of the protective ozone layer in the atmosphere over the Arctic. The ozone layer shields life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. A northern ozone hole could be significant since more people live in Arctic regions than near the South Pole.

"A 'volcanic ozone hole' is likely to occur over the Arctic within the next 30 years," said Azadeh Tabazadeh, lead author of the paper and a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center. "If a period of high volcanic activity coincides with a series of cold Arctic winters, then a springtime Arctic ozone hole may reappear for a number of consecutive years, resembling the pattern seen in the Antarctic every spring since the 1980s," Tabazadeh added. "Unlike the Antarctic where it is cold every winter, the winter in the Arctic stratosphere is highly variable."

NASA satellite and airborne observations show that significant Arctic ozone loss occurs only following very cold winters, according to Tabazadeh. Large volcanic eruptions pump sulfur compounds into the Earth's atmosphere. These compounds form sulfuric acid clouds similar to polar stratospheric clouds made of nitric acid and water. The clouds of nitric acid and water form in the upper atmosphere during very cold conditions and play a major part in the destruction of ozone over Earth's poles.

Following eruptions, volcanic sulfuric acid clouds would boost the ozone destroying power of polar stratospheric clouds, the researchers said. "Volcanic aerosols also can cause ozone destruction at warmer temperatures than polar stratospheric clouds, and this would expand the area of ozone destruction over more populated areas," Tabazadeh said.

"Nearly one-third of the total ozone depletion could be a result of volcanic aerosol effects at altitudes below about 17 kilometers (11.5 miles)," the researchers wrote. "Climate change combined with aftereffects of large volcanic eruptions will contribute to more ozone loss over both poles," Tabazadeh concluded. "This research proves that ozone recovery is more complex than originally thought."

GLOBAL WARMING COULD DISPLACE STATE BIRDS

WASHINGTON, DC, March 11, 2002 (ENS) - Global warming could shift the ranges of many songbirds - leaving some U.S. states without their official state birds, warns a new study. Climate models project that the range of some state birds could shrink or shift entirely outside of the states they represent, including Baltimore orioles in Maryland, purple finches in New Hampshire, and California quail in California.

For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-11-06.html

THIN POLAR BEARS CALLED SIGN OF GLOBAL WARMING

WASHINGTON, DC, May 16, 2002 (ENS) - Hungry polar bears are one of the early signs that global warming is impacting Arctic habitat, suggests a new study from World Wildlife Fund. The report reviews the threats faced by the world's 22,000 polar bears and highlights growing evidence that human induced climate change is the number one long term threat to the survival of the world's largest land based carnivores.

For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2002/2002L-05-16-07.html

GLOBAL CLIMATE SHIFT FEEDS SPREADING DESERTS

NEW YORK, New York, June 17, 2002 (ENS) - Over the next 20 years some 60 million people in northern Africa are expected to leave the Sahelian region if desertification there is not halted, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today. June 17 is the day set aside each year by the UN as World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, twin problems that must be solved if world hunger is to be relieved, Annan said.

For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-17-03.asp

WARMING CLIMATE SPAWNS DISEASE EPIDEMICS

WASHINGTON, DC, June 25, 2002 (ENS) - The changing, warming climate around the globe is triggering unprecedented numbers of disease outbreaks in both land and ocean based wildlife populations in habitats ranging from coral reefs to rainforests. Ecologists and epidemiologists express concern over this rising trend in a new report in the June 21 issue of the journal "Science."

For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-25-06.asp

ALASKAN GLACIER MELT ACCELERATES SEA LEVEL RISE
By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, DC, July 19, 2002 (ENS) - In one more piece of evidence that the Earth's climate is warming rapidly, a new study published today in "Science" magazine has found that Alaska's glaciers are melting more quickly than previously believed.

GLOBAL WARMING IS CHANGING TROPICAL FORESTS

PANAMA CITY, Panama, August 7, 2002 (ENS) - Human activities are changing the global climate, and these changes are having far reaching effects on tropical forests, according to scientists from around the world gathered here last week for the Association for Tropical Biology annual meeting.

For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/aug2002/2002-08-07-01.asp

GLOBAL WARMING THREATENS OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS

WASHINGTON, DC, August 14, 2002 (ENS) - Climate change will create increasing challenges to U.S. coastal and marine ecosystems over the next century, warns a new report from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Temperature changes, altered patterns of rain and snowfall, and rising sea level are expected to upset the delicate balance of fragile coastal ecosystems.

For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/aug2002/2002-08-14-06.asp

ANTARCTIC MARINE LIFE VULNERABLE TO CLIMATE CHANGE

CAMBRIDGE, UK, September 10, 2002 (ENS) - Global warming is changing the life patterns of marine species in Antarctica as fast, if not faster than anyplace on Earth, say scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Thousands of Antarctic marine species, adapted to constant temperatures for millions of years, now appear to be uniquely vulnerable in the face of predicted temperature change, new research reveals.http://ens-news.com/ens/sep2002/2002-09-10-04.asp

CLIMATE RELATED PERILS COULD BANKRUPT INSURERS

ZURICH, Switzerland, October 7, 2002 (ENS) - Climate change is causing natural disasters that the financial services industry must address, a group of the world's biggest banks, insurers and re-insurers warned today. They estimated the cost of financial losses from events such as this summer's devastating floods in central Europe at $150 billion over the next 10 years. http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2002/2002-10-07-02.asp

Oxygen Deprivation

" In all serious diseases we find a low oxygen state...Low oxygen in the body is a sure indicator for disease...Hypoxia, or lack of oxygen in the tissues, is the fundamental cause for all degenerative disease."

-- Dr. Steven Levine, World Renowned Molecular Biologist

The fossil record shows us the earth's atmosphere was 40% oxygen. You'll be shocked to know it's dwindled to
just 12%! Prior to 1905 virtually no one had cancer. Today, one third of Americans have cancer and within the next five
years it's estimated that half of the American population will have some form of cancer. That's one in two people living today!

"The growth of cancer cells is initiated by a relative lack of oxygen. Cancer cannot live in an oxygen rich environment."

-- Dr. Otto Warburg, Nobel Prize Medical Researcher

Add these to the list of oxygen reducers...

o Stress: produces adrenalin causing the body to lower its oxygen reserve.
o Junk food: low in oxygen it causes the body to use oxygen to oxidize preservatives and free radicals.
o Drinking coffee, alcohol, and colas: high caloric content makes the body use oxygen to oxidize and metabolize these beverages.

No vitamin, mineral or herb can properly metabolize when the body is in a state of oxygen deprivation.

Global Warming Affects Coastal Marine Species

DAVIS, California, November 7, 2002 (ENS) - Warmer winter temperatures may allow invasive species to become established and even dominate marine communities, according to new research by a marine biologist from the University of California at Davis. A second study by researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, also suggests that global warming affects different coastal species in different ways.

"The spread of exotic species and climate change are serious threats to the environment, yet little research has addressed the interaction of these two factors," said assistant professor John Stachowicz. "Our findings suggest that global warming may help invasive species establish in new territory, accelerating the homogenization of the world's ecosystems."

Since 1991, Stachowicz and colleagues have monitored the offspring of sea squirts, or ascidians, on the Connecticut coast. Comparing this 12 year record with corresponding surface water temperatures, the authors found that:

After warmer winters, introduced species arrived earlier and in greater numbers than natives.
After the warmest winter studied, introduced species outnumbered natives two to one.
After the coldest winter studied, native species were five times as abundant as introduced species.

Stachowicz's study, "Linking climate change and biological invasions: Ocean warming facilitates non-indigenous species invasions," will be published online this week by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS) at: http://www.pnas.org/papbyrecent.shtml

A second study published last week in the journal "Science" indicates that global warming may change marine ecosystems at certain northern shoreline sites within the next three to five years. This is partly due to the timing of the tides, the researchers said.

"Because they are assumed to live very close to their thermal tolerance limits, organisms inhabiting the rocky intertidal zone have emerged in recent years as potential harbingers of the effects of climate change on species distribution," explain the authors, three of whom are from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Coauthor Carol Blanchette, a researcher with the Marine Science Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said that neither air nor water temperatures alone are good proxies for body temperatures in intertidal organisms. Multiple climatic factors drive body temperature and the pattern of exposure to these conditions is influenced by shifts in the tidal cycle with latitude.

The researchers put temperature recorders, modified to match the temperatures of living mussels, in mussel beds at eight sites spanning 14 degrees of latitude ranging from northern Washington to Point Conception, California and measured temperatures over the course of a year. They found that Lompoc Landing, California, one of the more southern sites, was very similar in temperature to Tatoosh Island, Washington - the northernmost site where instruments were deployed. In several cases the animals in southern sites are submerged in the afternoon.

"As a result, even if terrestrial climatic conditions become progressively hotter as one moves south along the West Coast, as they likely do, animals at southern sites may be afforded considerable protection by being submerged during the hottest parts of the day," explain the authors.

The article states that "an examination of tidal height predicts that maximum exposure at many northern Washington sites will occur in 2003. Indeed, large mussel mortality events occurred in the summer of 2002 in both Washington and Oregon. These results suggest that, all other factors being equal, the relative level of thermal stress observed between these sites will vary markedly over time."

ARCTIC SEA ICE MAY VANISH THIS CENTURY

WASHINGTON, DC, December 2, 2002 (ENS) - Perennial sea ice - the floating ice that remains year round near the Arctic Circle - could vanish entirely by the end of this century, warns a new study by researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The NASA study concludes that sea ice is now melting about nine percent faster than prior research had indicated, due to rising temperatures and interactions between ice, ocean and the atmosphere.

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2002/2002-12-02-06.asp

ICE CORE ANALYSIS SHOWS WESTERN CANADA WARMING

TORONTO, Ontario, Canada, December 2, 2002 (ENS) - Western Canada is warming up, and will continue to grow warmer at the same time as snow accumulates ever deeper on the ground, says a Canadian-Swiss research team. Analysis of an ice core drilled from Canada's highest mountain indicates that western Canada has experienced significant climate change over the past 150 years, according to their scientific study published in the journal "Nature."

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2002/2002-12-02-10.asp

Dry Water
Read about a new product to sequester CO2 from the atmosphere:
http://www.gizmag.com/dry-water-stores-carbon-dioxide/16138/

Rising CO2 Could Cause Contradictory Effects

PALO ALTO, California, December 6, 2002 (ENS)- Multiple environmental changes, not just increased carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, must be considered in assessing the impacts of climate change on ecosystems, conclude researchers at Stanford University. The research, conducted in a grassland at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve in California by scientists of Stanford University, the Carnegie Institution and The Nature Conservancy, concluded that elevated atmospheric CO2 reduces plant growth when combined with other expected consequences of climate change, such as higher atmospheric temperatures, increased precipitation or increased nitrogen deposition. Findings from the three year study appear in today's issue of the journal "Science."

Stanford researcher Nona Chiarello and Nature Conservancy scientist Rebecca Shaw analyze plant growth at one of 36 plots in the Jasper Ridge Global Climate Experiment. The plots are given high levels of water, heat, carbon dioxide and nitrogen in different combinations to simulate predicted global climate change in the next hundred years. Previous experiments in global environmental change have studied the impact of just one or two environmental factors at a time, such as elevated atmospheric CO2, atmospheric warming or both. The Jasper Ridge study examined an unprecedented four realistic environmental changes at once, including warming, precipitation, nitrogen deposition and carbon dioxide.

Results from the multiple factor study show marked differences from simple combinations of single factor responses.

                      "This research indicates that you won't be able to predict ecosystem
                      responses to multiple environmental changes based on the responses
                      to single environmental changes," said Rebecca Shaw of The Nature
                      Conservancy and the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global
                      Ecology, and the paper's first author.

                      Christopher Field, a professor in Stanford's Department of Biological
                      Sciences, director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global
                      Ecology Field, and a co-author of the "Science" study, noted that
                      most previous studies looked at the effects on CO2 "on plants in pots
                      or on very simple ecosystems and concluded that plants are going to
                      grow faster in the future."

                      "We got exactly the same results when we applied CO2 alone," Field
                      noted, "but when we included other realistic environmental changes -
                      warming, changes in nitrogen deposition, changes in precipitation -
                      the addition of CO2 actually suppressed plant growth."

                      The study suggests that carbon sequestration by plants and soils, one
                      major strategy for slowing global warming, may be less effective than
                      has been estimated. Some scientists and policy makers have been
                      hopeful that more CO2 in the atmosphere would lead to enhanced
                     plant productivity, enhanced plant productivity would take more
                      CO2 out of the air, and the CO2 would be stored or sequestered in
                      the plants.

                      But the results of Shaw and colleagues suggest that this fertilizing
                      effect of CO2 may be less than expected, and even absent under
                      some circumstances. Under some environmental conditions in the
                      Jasper Ridge experiments, increased CO2 suppressed, rather than
                      enhanced, plant production.

                      "The results of this study demonstrate that we can't rely on natural,
                      unmanaged ecosystems to save us by pulling CO2 out of the
                      atmosphere." said Shaw. "These results do not imply that carbon
                      sequestration as a mitigation tool to slow rising concentrations of
                      greenhouse gases lacks value, but that we may need to be more
                      aggressive and selective about where we rely on carbon
                      sequestration if we are to slow global warming."

                      Co-author Harold Mooney, the Paul S. Achilles Professor of
                      Environmental Biology at Stanford, cautioned that "there is still a lot
                      to learn about the factors that regulate global climate change."

                      "But we also know a lot already, more than enough to engage in a
                      serious discussion about action to reduce CO2 emissions from
                      burning fossil fuels and clearing forests," Mooney added.

ARCTIC ICE MELTING AT RECORD RATE

WASHINGTON, DC, December 9, 2002 (ENS) - More ice melted from the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet this year than ever before recorded, report scientists from the University of Colorado. The same team found that the extent of Arctic sea ice reached the lowest level in the satellite record in 2002, offering further evidence that climate change is already altering the Arctic.

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2002/2002-12-09-06.asp

Climate Change Could Come Fast and Furious

                      SAN FRANCISCO, California, December 9, 2002 (ENS) - The
                      effects of global climate change could be more abrupt and more
                      catastrophic than many scientists have predicted, warns a Penn State
                      climatologist.

                      Debate in the U.S. over climate change often focuses on whether
                      things will be as bad as some scientists say they will be. Dr. Richard
                      Alley of Penn State says the more important question may be
                      whether researchers are confident that things will be as good as they
                      are predicting.

                      "I am not an alarmist," said Dr. Alley, the Evan Pugh professor of
                      geosciences at Penn State. "Essentially, the Intergovernmental Panel
                      on Climate Change is very good and is doing a very good job."

                      The IPCC is under the auspices of the World Meteorological
                      Organization and operates through the United Nations Environmental
                      Programme.

                      "What some policy makers are seeing as information on climate
                      change looks nicer than what is likely to happen," Alley said Saturday
                      at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San
                      Francisco. He was the Cesare Emiliani Lecturer at the conference.

                      Alley's concern is that what most policy makers hear is an executive
                      summary of an executive summary. This diluted, abstracted
                      information almost always shows a smooth curve of predicted climate
                      changes.

                      Alley, who chaired the National Research Council's Panel on Abrupt
                      Climate Change, is concerned that changes will be quicker and larger
                      than now predicted. The curve will be rough on a daily, monthly or
                      yearly basis, rather than the smooth curve that appears for predicted
                      aggregate data.

                      "If there is one thing we are almost positive of, it is that nature never
                      does anything smoothly," Alley said. "Scientists like to work from
                      models and our current models are really pretty good, but we find
                      that models do not make changes as big as nature did in the past.
                      Models are not as sensitive to change as nature is."

                      Given that the future could be quite challenging, it would be wise for
                      policy makers to start looking for ways that people can adapt when
                      climate changes, Alley said. He noted that there is ample historic
                      evidence of human groups who refused or were unable to adapt to
                      climatic changes, and their societies collapsed or failed, while other
                      groups adapted to the new environment and coped and sometimes
                      thrived.

                      Congress, federal agencies and even local governments who must
                      deal with these changes when they happen should look at ways to
                      plan for changes in water supply, crop production, heating oil
                      demand, flood control and other things likely to be affected by
                      climate change, Alley said. These groups should establish
                      contingencies to meet problems with scarcity of resources before
                      there is competition for these resources, he advised.

                      "Likely we will be surprised no matter how good our models are,"
                      Alley concluded, "and the IPCC and other governmental groups
                      need to plan for this surprise and deal with resource conflicts in a
                      progressive way."

2002 HEADING FOR NO. 2 SPOT IN CLIMATE RECORDS
By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, December 11, 2002 (ENS) - Temperature data for the first 11 months of the year show that the average global temperature is on the rise. The new data indicates that 2002 will go down in the recordbooks as the second warmest year to date, exceeded only by 1998, since recordkeeping of global temperatures began in 1867.
http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2002/2002-12-11-10.asp

HUNDREDS OF SPECIES PRESSURED BY GLOBAL WARMING

STANFORD, California, January 2, 2003 (ENS) - Hundreds of plant and animal species around the world are feeling the impacts of global warming, although the most dramatic effects may not be felt for decades, according to new research from a Stanford University team. They predict that a rapid temperature rise, together with other environmental pressures, "could easily disrupt the connectedness among species" and lead to numerous extinctions.

http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2003/2003-01-02-01.asp

WARMING OCEANS LINKED TO FOUR YEAR DROUGHT

CAMP SPRINGS, Maryland, February 4, 2003 (ENS) - Droughts that spread across the United States, southern Europe and southwest Asia over the past four years may have been linked by a common thread: ocean conditions created by a warming climate. A new study suggests that cold sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific and warm sea surface temperatures in the western tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans worked together to cause widespread drying.
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2003/2003-02-04-06.asp

GLOBAL WARMING DRIVING PIKA LOSSES

WASHINGTON, DC, February 25, 2003 (ENS) - The pika - a small mammal that makes its home on the talus slopes of western mountains in North America - may be one of the first animals to fall victim to global warming, new research suggests. A study published this month shows that global warming may have contributed to local extinctions of American pika populations in the Great Basin area, between the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains.
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2003/2003-02-25-06.asp

Methane Eruptions Could Fuel Global Warming WOODS HOLE, Massachusetts, February 26, 2003 (ENS) -

New research suggests that warming oceans could cause "intense eruptions" of methane from the sea floor, leading to "catastrophic" global warming. Scientists have found new evidence indicating that during periods of rapid climate warming, methane gas has been released from the seafloor in intense eruptions. In a study published in the current issue of the journal "Science," Kai-Uwe Hinrichs and colleagues Laura Hmelo and Sean Sylva of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) provide a direct link between methane reservoirs in coastal marine sediments and the global carbon cycle, an indicator of global warming and cooling.

Molecular fossils from methane consuming bacteria found in sediments in the Santa Barbara Basin off California deposited during the last glacial period - 70,000 to 12,000 years ago - indicate that large quantities of methane were emitted from the seafloor during warmer phases of the last ice age. Methane, one of the major greenhouse gases, is stored on the seafloor as an ice like solid known as methane hydrate.

Previous evidence for such massive eruptions was based on isotopic properties of calcite shells of foraminifera, microscopic marine animals called forams. Because a variety of factors could lead to very similar signals in their shells, that evidence has remained controversial. The preserved molecular remnants found by the WHOI team result from bacteria that fed exclusively on methane and indicate that large quantities of this powerful greenhouse gas were present in coastal waters off California. The team studied samples that were deposited between 44,000 and 37,000 years ago.

"For the first time, we are able to clearly establish a connection between distinct isotopic depletions in forams and high concentrations of methane in the fossil record," said Hinrichs, an assistant scientist in the Institution's Geology and Geophysics Department. "The large amounts of methane presumably released during one event about 44,000 years ago suggest a mechanism different from those underlying the emissions at warmer periods, i.e. slow decomposition of methane hydrate triggered by warming of bottom waters," Hinrichs continued. "The sudden release of these enormous quantities of methane was probably caused by landslides and melting of the methane hydrate."

Since there was already indirect evidence of methane eruptions in the Santa Barbara Basin area, Hinrichs and colleagues looked for fossil remnants of bacteria that would have flourished only under high concentrations of methane. In a 44,000 year old sediment sample, a distinct type of biomarker representing bacterial communities that oxidize methane in the absence of oxygen provided evidence for an abrupt, catastrophic release of methane, presumably trapped as hydrate below the sea floor.

The WHOI team's data, from sediment cores taken by the Ocean Drilling Program off southern California, show that substantial quantities of methane were released at least several times during the past 60,000 years, leading to periodic fluctuations in the levels of methane in deep waters in the Santa Barbara Basin. The researchers say increased bottom water temperatures could mobilize or release large amounts of methane hydrate in shallow waters. According to some current estimates, there are about 10,000 billion tons of methane stored beneath the ocean and on continents.

In comparison, the contribution of humans to the atmosphere's inventory of greenhouse gases by fossil fuel burning amounts to about 200 billion tons of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide. If even a small portion of the stored methane were to escape into the atmosphere, the resulting greenhouse warming would be catastrophic.

"It was a surprise to find this sort of evidence," said Hinrichs, who was looking for evidence indicating mechanisms other than methane. "Although this research tells us something about the amount of methane consumed by bacteria in the ocean, it doesn't tell us anything about methane emissions into the atmosphere because neither forams nor methane biomarkers record the portion of methane that escaped out of the ocean." "But one thing is for sure," he said, "our results clearly show that relatively minor environmental changes can have a major impact on sensitive coastal regions with yet unknown consequences for climate and biota."

Hinrichs plans to look for similar evidence elsewhere to determine whether this process, as a driver of climate variation, happened simultaneously at other locations around the world. This work, he said, is just the beginning of better understanding of the role of methane in the carbon cycle and ultimately on climate on geologic time scales.

"We have a very poor understanding of the biogeochemical mechanisms that control production, destruction and accumulation of methane in sediments underlying the ocean," Hinrichs said. "We need to understand the big picture of what drives methane and the carbon cycle and the actual impact of methane emissions from hydrates on climate."

Satellites Help Monitor Warming Coral Reefs

                      SILVER SPRING, Maryland, February 26, 2003 (ENS) -
                      Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
                      (NOAA) are using satellite data to monitor the long term effects of
                      heat stresses on several coral reefs throughout the world.

                      While the scientists have been monitoring the stresses for some time,
                      NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information
                      Service is now providing an operational product called "Degree
                      Heating Week".

                      A Degree Heating Week is designed to indicate the accumulated
                      stress experienced by coral reefs. For example, if the current
                      temperature of a reef site exceeds the maximum expected
                      summertime temperature by one degree Celsius, then the site
                      receives a rating of one DHW.

                      If the current temperature at the site is two degrees Celsius above the
                      maximum expected summertime temperature or one degree above
                      for a period of two weeks, the site would receive a rating of two
                      DHWs, and so on.

                      "Degree Heating Weeks (DHW) have been available experimentally
                      for some time," said Dr. Alan Strong, coordinator of Coral Reef
                      Watch at NOAA Satellites and Information. "Turning operational
                      means that coral reef managers and stake holders will now have up
                      to date, accurate, and reliable information on the status of their reefs
                      and may be able to take active measures to prevent further damage if
                      their site has a high DHW rating."

                      Using satellite derived information, DHWs monitor the cumulative
                      thermal stress of several coral reefs throughout the globe, including
                      Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Galapagos, the Bahamas, and others.
                      The extent and acuteness of thermal stress - key predictors of coral
                      bleaching - contribute to coral reef degradation worldwide.

                      Coral reefs compose a large and integral part of the coastal ocean,
                      supporting a variety of sea life and providing resources of significant
                      economic importance. Coral bleaching, caused by high water
                      temperatures, occurs as coral tissue expels zooxanthellae, a
                      symbiotic algae essential to coral survival that lives within the
                      structure of the coral.

                      NOAA Satellites and Information will provide continuous technical
                      support on a 24 hour, seven day basis, and will maintain a website
                      which will be updated twice a week. The agency is the nation's
                      primary source of space based meteorological and climate data.

                      NOAA Satellites and Information operates the nation's environmental
                      satellites, which are used for weather and ocean observation and
                      forecasting, climate monitoring and other environmental applications.
                      Applications include monitoring sea surface temperature, fire
                      detection, and measuring atmospheric ozone levels.

Black Soot Increases Global Warming

                      NEW YORK, New York, May 15, 2003 (ENS) - Black carbon particles of
                      soot are more plentiful in the world's atmosphere and contribute more to
                      climate change than was previously assumed by the Intergovernmental Panel of
                      Climate Change (IPCC), a team of university and government researchers has
                      found. They conclude that soot contributes about twice as much to warming
                      the climate than had been estimated by the IPCC.

                      The researchers, led by scientists from Columbia University and the National
                      Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), concluded if these
                      microscopic soot particles are not reduced at least as quickly as light colored
                      pollutants, the world could warm more quickly. Both soot and the light colored
                      particles, most of which are sulfates, pose problems for air quality around the
                      world.

                      The findings appear in the latest issue of the "Proceedings of the National
                      Academy of Sciences." The study is authored by James Hansen, Makiko
                      Sato, and others from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)
                      and Columbia University, New York; Oleg Dubovik, Brent Holben and Mian
                      Chin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland; and
                      Tica Novakov, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California.

                      "There is a pitfall, however, in reducing sulfate emissions without
                      simultaneously reducing black carbon emissions," Hansen said. Since soot is
                      black, it absorbs heat and causes warming, he explains. Sulfate aerosols are
                      white, reflect sunlight, and cause cooling. At present, the warming and cooling
                      effects of the dark and light particles partially balance.

                      Sato, Hansen and colleagues used global atmospheric measurements taken by
                      the Aerosol Robotic Network, a global network of more than 100 sun
                      photometers that measure the amount of sunlight absorbed by aerosols, fine
                      particles in the air, at wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared.

                      The scientists compared the network data with Chin's global aerosol computer
                      model and a GISS climate model, both of which included sources of soot
                      aerosols consistent with the estimates of the Intergovernmental Panel of
                      Climate Change, a group of some 2,500 scientists from around the world.

                      The researchers found the amount of sunlight absorbed by soot was up to four
                      times larger than previously assumed. This larger absorption is due in part to
                      the way the tiny carbon particles are incorporated inside other larger particles -
                      absorption is increased by light rays bouncing around inside the larger particle,
                      the scientists said.

The larger absorption is attributable also to previous underestimates of the
amount of soot in the atmosphere.

                      Black carbon or soot is generated from traffic, industrial pollution, outdoor
                      fires and household burning of coal and biomass fuels. Soot is a product of
                      incomplete combustion, especially of diesel fuels, biofuels, coal and outdoor
                      biomass burning.

                      Emissions are large in areas where cooking and heating are done with wood,
                      field residue, cow dung and coal, at a low temperature that does not allow for
                      complete combustion. The resulting soot particles absorb sunlight, just as dark
                      pavement becomes hotter than light pavement, the research team explains.

                      The research was funded by NASA's Earth Science Enterprise which is
                      working to understand the Earth as an integrated system and to apply science
                      to improve the prediction of climate, weather, and natural hazards using the
                      unique vantage point of space.

HALF U.S. CLIMATE WARMING DUE TO LAND USE CHANGES

          COLLEGE PARK, Maryland, May 28, 2003 (ENS) - The growth of cities and industrial agriculture
          is responsible for more of the rise in temperature across the United States than scientists
          previously believed, according to a new study by scientists at the University of Maryland. They
          found that land use changes may account for up to half of the observed surface global warming.
            http://ens-news.com/ens/may2003/2003-05-28-01.asp

Energy Facts Contradict Bush Global Warming Plan

                      WASHINGTON, DC, June 30, 2003 (ENS) – A new study of data
                      released by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) indicates that
                      President Bush's global warming plan will allow more greenhouse gas
                      pollution to occur at a faster rate than if the nation maintained the pollution
                      trends of the past five years.

                      The National Wildlife Federation analysis, “Beneath the Hot Air 2003,”
                      says that the administration’s goals are stated in terms of emissions
                      intensity – measured as the amount of U.S. greenhouse gases emitted per
                      dollar of economic output – and not in terms of actual emissions levels.

                      “This ‘intensity’ goal actually hides an emissions increase that is likely to
                      be larger and faster than what we experienced in the past five years,” the
                      report says. “Based on the White House’s predictions of economic
                      growth, the President’s target translates into an emissions increase of 13
                      percent over the next decade.”

If current trends were to continue for the next 10 years, the report says,
carbon dioxide emissions from energy would grow about 10.1 percent.

                      "The pollution increases we have seen for the past five years were bad
                      enough for the environment, but the White House's global warming plan
                      would allow more pollution to occur at an even faster rate," said Jeremy
                      Symons, climate change and wildlife manager for the National Wildlife
                      Federation.

                      "Suppressing the science on global warming doesn't hide the fact that the
                      President's misguided energy agenda and his efforts to relax enforcement
                      of the Clean Air Act will increase global warming pollution," Symons said.

                      The National Wildlife Federation released its first edition of “Beneath the
                      Hot Air” last July to document that emissions growth had already slowed
                      below forecasted levels well before President George W. Bush pursued
                      voluntary agreements with industry.

                      "The administration has set the bar so low that it's impossible not to meet
                      their goals," said Symons. "That may not stop them from trying to claim
                      credit in the future, even though they are not taking responsible action to
                      reduce the nation's emissions."

                      The United States Senate is expected to vote in July on a alternate
                      bipartisan plan introduced by Senators Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut
                      Democrat, and John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, to reduce U.S.
                      emissions.

Read the document “Beneath the Hot Air” at:
http://www.nwf.org/nwfwebadmin/binaryVault/Beneathhotair200311.pdf.

This very significant report from the U.K. Independent:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=421166 Reaping the whirlwind

Extreme weather prompts unprecedented global warming alert

03 July 2003
In an astonishing announcement on global warming and extreme weather, the
World Meteorological Organisation signalled last night that the world's
weather is going haywire.
In a startling report, the WMO, which normally produces detailed scientific
reports and staid statistics at the year's end, highlighted record extremes
in weather and climate occurring all over the world in recent weeks, from
Switzerland's hottest-ever June to a record month for tornadoes in the
United States - and linked them to climate change.
The unprecedented warning takes its force and significance from the fact
that it is not coming from Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth, but from an
impeccably respected UN organisation that is not given to hyperbole (though
environmentalists will seize on it to claim that the direst warnings of
climate change are being borne out).
The Geneva-based body, to which the weather services of 185 countries
contribute, takes the view that events this year in Europe, America and Asia
are so remarkable that the world needs to be made aware of it immediately.
The extreme weather it documents, such as record high and low temperatures,
record rainfall and record storms in different parts of the world, is
consistent with predictions of global warming. Supercomputer models show
that, as the atmosphere warms, the climate not only becomes hotter but much
more unstable. "Recent scientific assessments indicate that, as the global
temperatures continue to warm due to climate change, the number and
intensity of extreme events might increase," the WMO said, giving a striking
series of examples.
In southern France, record temperatures were recorded in June, rising above
40C in places - temperatures of 5C to 7C above the average.
In Switzerland, it was the hottest June in at least 250 years, environmental
historians said. In Geneva, since 29 May, daytime temperatures have not
fallen below 25C, making it the hottest June recorded.
In the United States, there were 562 May tornadoes, which caused 41 deaths.
This set a record for any month. The previous record was 399 in June 1992.
In India, this year's pre-monsoon heatwave brought peak temperatures of
45C - 2C to 5C above the norm. At least 1,400 people died in India due to
the hot weather. In Sri Lanka, heavy rainfall from Tropical Cyclone 01B
exacerbated wet conditions, resulting in flooding and landslides and killing
at least 300 people. The infrastructure and economy of south-west Sri Lanka
was heavily damaged. A reduction of 20-30 per cent is expected in the output
of low-grown tea in the next three months.
Last month was also the hottest in England and Wales since 1976, with
average temperatures of 16C. The WMO said: "These record extreme events
(high temperatures, low temperatures and high rainfall amounts and droughts)
all go into calculating the monthly and annual averages, which, for
temperatures, have been gradually increasing over the past 100 years.
"New record extreme events occur every year somewhere in the globe, but in
recent years the number of such extremes have been increasing.
"According to recent climate-change scientific assessment reports of the
joint WMO/United Nations Environmental Programme Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, the global average surface temperature has increased since
1861. Over the 20th century the increase has been around 0.6C.
"New analyses of proxy data for the northern hemisphere indicate that the
increase in temperature in the 20th century is likely to have been the
largest in any century during the past 1,000 years."
While the trend towards warmer temperatures has been uneven over the past
century, the trend since 1976 is roughly three times that for the whole
period.
Global average land and sea surface temperatures in May 2003 were the second
highest since records began in 1880. Considering land temperatures only,
last May was the warmest on record.
It is possible that 2003 will be the hottest year ever recorded. The 10
hottest years in the 143-year-old global temperature record have now all
been since 1990, with the three hottest being 1998, 2002 and 2001.
The unstable world of climate change has long been a prediction. Now, the
WMO says, it is a reality.

Study Finds Atmosphere Boundary Rising, Humans Responsible

                      BOULDER, Colorado, July 25, 2003 (ENS) - Human related emissions are largely responsible for an increase in the height of the tropopause - the boundary between the two lowest of the atmosphere, according to research published today in the journal Science. The researchers note that their study provides additional evidence that emissions from power plants, automobiles, and other human-related sources are having profound impacts on the atmosphere and global climate.
                      "Although not conclusive in itself, this research is an important piece in the jigsaw puzzle," explained Tom Wigley, a senior scientist with National Center for Atmospheric Research and co-author of the article. "Determining why the height of the tropopause is increasing gives us insights into the causes of the overall warming of the lower atmosphere."
                      Although numerous past studies have pointed to human activities as a leading cause of global warming, this is the first to evaluate impacts on the tropopause. It also provides evidence that temperatures are rising in the troposphere, the lowest layer in the atmosphere. The tropopause is situated at the upper boundary of the troposphere, where temperatures cool with increased altitude, and at the lower boundary of the stratosphere, where temperatures warm with increased altitude.
                     Observations and climate models both show that the tropopause, which is about five to 10 miles (eight to 16 kilometers) above Earth's surface depending on latitude and season, has risen by several hundred feet since 1979. This height increase does not directly affect Earth, the scientists say, but is important as an indication that the troposphere is becoming warmer and the stratosphere is becoming cooler. The results showed that the depletion of stratospheric ozone combined with human emissions of greenhouse gases accounted for more than 80 percent of the rise in the tropopause.
                      The study also gives support to scientists, including Wigley and lead author Benjamin Santer of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who believe temperatures in the upper troposphere are increasing. Researchers have been at odds over whether satellite data indicate that atmospheric temperatures are rising or stable. "The increase in the height of the tropopause appears to support the data set that shows the troposphere is warming," Wigley said.

** In The News - Global Warming Upending Your Ski Season? ** Are you concerned about global warming's impact on your ski season? A new report from Swiss researchers, released at a
conference sponsored by the International Olympic Committee and the United Nations, suggests that global warming could shorten the ski season at some of Europe's best-known ski resorts. According to the report, a temperature increase of just 3
degrees F could lead to thinner snow packs and shorter, more unpredictable ski seasons. Read the report online:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/Pp1G_Cp17jAf/skireport

The threat has also caught the attention of ski resorts in the U.S. Working with the National Ski Areas Association, many U.S.
ski resorts came together recently to officially endorse the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/d71G_Cp1gQLn/ski

** Little Things That Go a Long Way ** Check out 20 Simple Steps you can take to help Undo Global Warming in your home, and work and more. Visit us online:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/cd1G_Cp1gQLk/20steps ** Get Local -- Climate Solutions ** We know you're thinking globally because you've already joined nearly 220,000 people around the world in signing our global
warming petition. Now, you have the chance to act locally. Check out our local partner, Climate Solutions. They're leading the
fight against global warming across the Pacific Northwest. Visit them on the web:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/dd1G_Cp1gQLh/climatesolutions/

** Global Warming: Undo It! **
Visit our campaign on the web at:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/dp1G_Cp1gQL8/undoit

ISN'T IT A LITTLE COLD FOR GLOBAL WARMING? Global warming might sound silly for those of us braving bone-chillingly cold winter temperatures. But don't be fooled.
Local weather is not the same as the Earth's overall climate. And while the recent cold in the northeastern U.S. has left many
of us shivering, it doesn't mean global warming isn't happening. In fact, this is not the coldest winter on record, and many
all-time temperature records were broken during the 2003 heat waves in Europe. Also, 2002 and 2003 were tied as the
second-warmest years since temperature records were begun. Although specific extreme weather events cannot be definitively
linked to climate change, the rise in average global temperature over the last century makes it more likely that high temperature
records will be broken and extreme storms will occur. Record heat waves, massive forest fires, and worldwide record coral
bleaching are all consistent with a warming climate and we can expect them to occur even more frequently in the future. Get the facts at undoit.org:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/P71G_Cp1casc/facts

CLIMATE CHANGE COULD PROMPT WIDE-SPREAD EXTINCTION Up to a million species worldwide, from frogs to song birds and butterflies, could face extinction due to climate change,
according to a new study in the journal Nature. Computer simulations showed that up to 35% of species studied could face
extinction, depending on the severity of climate change over the next half century. But the authors emphasized that human action
can help save some species. As the BBC reports, "Minimising greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering carbon to realise
minimum rather than mid-range or maximum expected climate warming could save a substantial percentage of terrestrial
species from extinction." Read the full story at undoit.org: http://actionnetwork.org/ct/Pd1G_Cp1casd/extinction

STUDY DETECTS HUMAN INFLUENCE IN NORTH AMERICAN CLIMATE CHANGE A group of researchers led by Peter Stott of the Met Office in the UK used a computer simulation to evaluate possible causes of the temperature rise in North America over the last century, 80% of which has occurred since 1970. They found that natural causes like volcanic and solar activity were most likely responsible for climate change in the first half of the century. But warming after 1950 was consistent with climate change due to human influences like greenhouse gases, ozone and sulphate aerosols. Read the full story at BBC News online:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/nd1G_Cp1_Bsv/northamerica

UPCOMING ICE AGE? Here is an interesting article describing how gloabal warming could actually contribute to the creation of an ice age:
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0130-11.htm

This link provides a better explanation:
http://www.whoi.edu/institutes/occi/currenttopics/abruptclimate_15misconceptions.html

Another study highlights the discrepancies between the measure of water vapor concentration.
http://mitosyfraudes.8k.com/Calen/Landscheidt-1.html

NRDC Report Shows Carbon Dioxide Pollution Increasing from Top 100 Electric Companies A new report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) rating air-pollution emissions performance of America's 100 largest electric power producers reveals important trends in the industry, and sharp contrasts between the best and worst emissions performers. The report shows overall emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) are dropping, thanks largely to standards created in the Clean Air Act of 1990. Meanwhile emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), which remain unregulated, are soaring.

SCIENCE: Photos prove that glaciers are dwindling Alaska Daily News, January 9, 2005
People picked up their newspapers on thousands of doorsteps in this city recently and saw two pictures of Glacier Bay on the front page, under the headline "Alaska's retreating glaciers seen as evidence Earth is warming."

http://www.adn.com/life/story/6001027p-5895569c.html

Mountain climbers decry vanishing glaciers
MELTING: High-country terrains worldwide are changing fast, endangering alpinists.

The Denver Post, January 12, 2005
Where there was once cold, hard ice, there is now dirty slush and crumbling rock. From the peaks and slopes of many of the world's most challenging mountains, ice and snow are dripping away, reshaping the century-old sport of alpinism and disquieting longtime mountain climbers.

http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/6014061p-5905424c.html


Oceans Alive Update - August 2005 This summer season, learn more about our warming oceans. - Special Feature - Global warming and oceans - Send an Email - Support overfishing protections - Five Eco-Tips - For when you hit the beach Hot Water Ahead: Global Warming and Oceans Is global warming pushing our oceans to the tipping point? The oceans are heating up, coral reefs are bleaching, and global warming is the main culprit. Manmade, heat-trapping gases are changing life on land and at sea. Oceans play a huge role in our climate. In fact, global warming effects are clearer in the oceans than in the atmosphere, since water stores more heat than air. And new scientific studies are setting off alarm bells that our oceans could be reaching a tipping point. Find out more in our special feature: Why are scientists finding tropical fish in unexpected places? What's the link between melting glaciers and the oceans' food chain? Is the oceans' ability to absorb heat reaching the tipping point? What does global warming have to do with coral reefs bleaching?

Global Warming March

Recently, a number of my Senate colleagues and I traveled to Canada and Alaska to witness the devastating impacts of global warming on the Arctic. We left even more convinced of what we already knew: global warming is real and it’s not some future phenomenon – it’s here now. The impacts are visible if we just open our eyes to them. Visit my travel log at http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/campaigns/sgw/newsroom to learn more about the consequences of global warming that are clearly visible today. Just as in Canada and Alaska, the impacts of global warming in other areas of the country are real and they are happening now. This week, the March is stopping in Buffalo Creek Minnesota. Read more about the impact of global warming on Buffalo Creek at http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/march/buffalocreek.
I’m marching so that we don’t hand our children and grandchildren a world vastly different from the one that we now inhabit. The March is almost halfway through its yearlong virtual tour around the United States. Our voices are amplified by the power of over 130,000 other voices marching together!
Visit http://www.StopGlobalWarming.org to read more about my travels and details about our current stop at Buffalo Creek.
Thank you for the joining the March, and adding your voice to the many speaking out to raise public awareness of the urgent problem of global warming.

Sincerely,
Senator John McCain, Marcher

North Pole Meets South Pole: Earth Is Melting at Both Ends
Melting Ice Caps Could Spell Disaster for Coastal Cities
By BILL BLAKEMORE

Aurora / Getty Images show Antarctica's ice sheets are losing far more than the snow is adding.
The melting is happening faster than scientists expected.

Melting at Both Ends

(March 2) - For the first time, scientists have confirmed Earth is melting at both ends, which could have disastrous effects for coastal cities and villages.
Antarctica has been called "a slumbering giant" by a climate scientist who predicts that if all the ice melted, sea levels would rise by 200 feet. Other scientists believe that such a thing won't happen, but new studies show that the slumbering giant has started to stir.

Recent studies have confirmed that the North Pole and the South Pole have started melting. Experts have long predicted that global warming would start to melt Greenland's two-mile-thick ice sheet, but they also thought the more massive ice sheet covering Antarctica would increase in the 21st century. It seems they were wrong.

Two new studies find that despite the increasing snowfall that comes with global warming as a result of the increased moisture in the air, Antarctica's ice sheets are losing far more than the snow is adding. According to the National Academy of Sciences, Earth's surface temperature has risen by about 1 degree Fahrenheit in the last century, with accelerated warming during the last two decades. Most of the warming over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities through the buildup of greenhouse gases — primarily carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Although the heat-trapping property of these gases is undisputed, uncertainties exist about exactly how Earth's climate responds to them.

The melting rate of Greenland glaciers has doubled since 1996. "The warming ocean comes underneath the ice shelves and melts them from the bottom, and warmer air from the top melts them from the top," said NASA glaciologist Jay Zwally. "So they're thinning and eventually they get to a point where they go poof!"
Zwally explains that the ice shelves, which the Antarctic ice cap pushes out into the ocean, are responding more than they expected to Earth's warming air and water. If the melting speeds up to a rapid runaway process called a "collapse," coastal cities and villages could be in danger.

James Hansen, director of NASA's Earth Science Research, said that disaster could probably be avoided, but that it would require dramatically cutting emission outputs. If the proper actions aren't taken, Hansen said, the sea level could rise as much as 80 feet by the time today's children reach middle age.

"We now must choose between a serious problem that we can probably handle and, if we don't act soon, unmitigated disaster down the road," Hansen said.

Scientists looking at ice cores can now read Earth's temperatures from past millennia and match them to sea levels from those eras.

"Based on the history of the Earth, if we can keep the warming less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit, I think we can avoid disastrous ice sheet collapse," Hansen said.

Hansen and other scientists point out that a rise of at least 1 degree Fahrenheit — and another few feet of sea level — seem virtually certain to happen because of the carbon that mankind has already put in the atmosphere.

Carbonfund.org
Carbonfund.org is a simple and affordable way for you to reduce your climate footprint.
We reduce the threat of climate change by supporting renewable energy, efficiency and reforestation projects that reduce carbon emissions.
http://www.carbonfund.org/carbon/index.php

Reduce Your Global Warming Pollution

If you're like most folks, you're probably thinking, "Yep, global warming is a monster threat. But it's so huge it's impossible to solve."
Believe us, after working on global warming for the last two decades, we get your drift. Global warming is a monumental challenge. But, global warming is still a problem we can solve if we all work together. Read these global warming facts. Then, learn how you can reduce your global warming pollution. Check out our light bulb buying guide, find out how to drive more efficiently, and learn more home energy saving tips. (Source: Environmental Defense)

Global Warming Facts:

21% of America's global warming pollution is produced by individual households.
42 states where electricity customers have the option to buy green power through their utility or an alternative power supplier: .
200,000 American households use solar energy.
25 pounds of global warming pollution emitted per gallon of gas used in cars.
Americans could reduce their global warming pollution if all car buyers chose a model that gets 5 more gallons/mile than their current vehicle by 10%.
350 pounds of global warming pollution can be reduced by lowering the thermostat 2 degrees in winter.
28 watts needed to replace a standard 150 watt lightbulb with a compact florescent lightbulb.
35% reduction in home heating bills by insulating attics, pipes, ductwork and flooring.

Trees for the Future

I know that you are as concerned about the future of the planet as we are here at Trees for the Future. We share the same commitment to the environment and desire to better the world. At this critical point in the fight against global warming it is now imperative that those of us in the business community continue to support the tide towards greener living and a greener world. Trees for the Future is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization working to restore tree cover and forests to the world’s most degraded lands. We are able to this through trainings in sustainable agroforestry techniques, environmental education, and our Global Cooling™ Program. Trees for the Future relies on private donations from concerned citizens, and businesses like yours in order to fund operating and program costs. Through this funding we are able to plant permanent, beneficial trees for less than $0.10 a piece. As a member of the business community there are a variety of ways in which you can work with Trees for the Future: become a Global Cooling™ Business, pledge to sponsor a tree for every product sold, Adopt-a-Village, offer tree planting certificates to your clientele, or participate in other programs to demonstrate your active participation in the fight against deforestation and global warming.

Loretta Collins
Trees for the Future
9000 16th Street, P.O. Box 7027
Silver Spring, MD 20907-7027
(301) 565-0630, 1-800-643-0001
FAX: (301) 565-5012
E-mail: pr@treesftf.org
Internet: http://www.plant-trees.org
Make a Donation: http://plant-trees.org/donate.php

"Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast"
Dr. Cameron Wake,
Research Associate Professor,
University of New Hampshire's
Climate Change Research Center
http://www.climatechoices.org

A team of independent scientists and researchers, in collaboration with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), released a new report detailing how global warming is poised to substantially change the climate in the Northeast. The report—"Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast"—details the effects heat-trapping emissions will have if they are not curtailed. From rising temperatures to fewer snow covered days, increased sea level, and more extreme weather events—the study demonstrates that the severity of climate change in the region will be greatly affected by the choices that citizens, governments, and businesses make today. "The very notion of the Northeast as we know it is at stake. The near-term emissions choices we make in the Northeast and throughout the world will help determine the climate and quality of life our children and grandchildren experience."

Using new state-of-the-art research on recent and projected changes in the Northeast’s regional climate, the study finds that without strong leadership and action, by late-century:

Northeast winters could warm by eight to 12 degrees Fahrenheit and summers by six to nearly 14 degrees.
The length of the region’s winter snow season could be cut in half.
The frequency of short-term droughts could increase significantly.
Sea-level could rise from eight inches to as much three feet.
Many Northeast cities can expect about 25 days per year over 100 degrees. (Currently, Northeast cities experience this type of heat only once or twice a year.)

The report provides an accessible overview of these new climate findings and outlines what we can do to reduce global warming pollution from energy use, vehicles, and buildings and industry. Reducing heat-trapping emissions is the most important step to curbing the rate and extent of climate change.

October 15, 2006
An Inconvenient Truth - the way I see it
Filed under: Welcome Note — theozoneman @ 3:33 am, http://www.ozonatedoilonline.com
So now the cons of Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ are coming out. I must say I was impressed with the movie and the facts portrayed were shocking. It has confirmed what I already know in my heart to be true. Below is some of the controversy.

Frankly I don’t care what political spin people put on this issue. I believe that Global Warming is real and if I were given a choice on a potitical platform based on uplifting humanity and working together to heal the planet VS one that promulgates power, control of people, profit of the few from war, sickness and death I would not have to think long to make that choice. With my own two eyes I have seen the four mile retreat of a major glacier in Alaska over the period of four years. That was in 1993. I can only imagine how far the glacier is retreated today. We are now experiencing all-time lows in water flow of rivers and creeks in British Columbia. What does that tell us about the changing weather patterns? We have had four to five years of drought and extremely high temperatures. When are we going to wake up and cooperatively work together to avoid the use of fossil fuels and bring forth the technology that already exists to make this planet the Garden of Eden it once was?
-- Paul Harvey

An Inconvenient Truth: Beware the Politician in Fleece Clothing
Published on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 by the Guardian /
UK

Al Gore’s film delivers a stunning lesson on global warming. It should also alert Britons to the danger of voting on personality

by Jonathan Freedland
I am ashamed to say it took a movie to make me realise what, above all others, is surely the greatest political question of our time. An hour and 40 minutes in the cinema watching Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, which opens in
Britain this weekend, is what finally did it. Sure, I had heard the warnings and read the reports: for two decades environmental activists have been sounding the alarm. But, I confess, none of it had really sunk in the way it did after seeing An Inconvenient Truth. I can think of few films of greater political power. It should be a perfect yawn. A souped-up lecture delivered by a middle-aged, thwarted politician who was best known for being dull and wooden. Yet the film somehow gets right to your gut. Methodically, using graphics, photographs and the odd bit of computer animation, the former US vice-president sets out the case that the climate is changing, with human activity the most obvious culprit. By the time he’s done, you accept that we’re facing a planetary emergency, you agree that global warming is the greatest threat confronting the human race - and you desperately want to do something about it. It is a model of political communication. Gore assumes no knowledge and starts right at the beginning. He has a brief, childish cartoon to explain that the thin layer of atmosphere that surrounds the Earth - like the coat of varnish on a wooden globe - is being thickened by vast quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The thicker that layer becomes, the more heat gets trapped in, so raising the Earth’s temperature. In the simplest of nutshells, he explains what the climate crisis is all about - a basic step too many green advocates take for granted. He supplies the numbers, with graphs showing the steady increase in CO2 in the atmosphere and the accompanying rise in temperature. To convey how high the current CO2 figure stands, he walks along, tracing a line projected on to the screen behind him that goes back some 600,000 years. Then he has to be raised by hydraulic lift to reach today’s number. He announces that of the 21 hottest years ever measured, 20 have come within the last 25 years. And the hottest of the lot was 2005. But what brought gasps from the audience were photographs of glaciers, then and now. Once clear, beautiful ice, they have turned, in a matter of years, into blue water or dry dust, from Peru to Italy. The evidence of a world warming up appears before your very eyes. And, Gore explains, there are consequences. Some doubted it, but that was before the world took a “nature hike through the Book of Revelation”, with floods in Europe as well as tornadoes and hurricanes across America, culminating in Katrina last year. The devastation of that event confirmed what the scientists had concluded a while earlier: that global warming was making hurricanes more powerful and destructive. But it also supplied the missing piece of the climate change argument. Many, especially in the US, were prepared to accept that carbon emissions are making temperatures higher; they could even see how that would affect nature - glaciers, plants and the like. But they were still sceptical about what that had to do with human beings. With Katrina as the precedent, Gore shows them. And he explains that as glaciers melt, sea levels will rise, eventually flooding land from Florida to Shanghai, Holland to India. In Calcutta and Bangladesh, he says, 60 million people would be displaced. In Manhattan, Ground Zero would be ground no longer. The site of the World Trade Centre would be under water. More gasps. The range of emotions this prompts begins with shock, then anger - directed by Gore at those corporate interests that, with their political servants, have sought to keep this inconvenient truth from the public, especially in the United States. The stand-out case is that of Philip Cooney, a former lobbyist for the USoil industry, who wound up - despite no scientific training - as chief of staff of the White House’s environment office. From that perch, he set about rewriting papers by government scientists, turning firm conclusions into doubtful possibilities. He literally got out his pen and changed “is” to “may”. He was caught and left the Bush administration - taking a job at ExxonMobil the next day. But Cooney is just an unusually blatant example of what is an ongoing campaign by Big Oil to cast doubt over climate change, much as Big Tobacco did over the dangers of smoking. The oil companies fund spurious pressure groups which, in turn, persuade the media to cast global warming as a matter of debate. The reality, notes Gore, is that of 928 peer-reviewed scientific papers on the topic in the last decade, the percentage that express doubt over the cause of global warming is zero. But soon that anger gives way to determination to act. The former vice-president is aware that Americans in particular could move “from denial to despair”, believing first that there is no danger and then that there is nothing that can be done about it. Gore tries to be more upbeat than that, ending his movie with a rapid - probably too rapid for non-American audiences - guide to action. It worked on me. Four months after I saw the film, I find myself looking at the world through its lens. I now notice office buildings at night, aglow with electric light; or hotel rooms abroad, frigid with 24-hour air-conditioning even when empty. I see the planes ripping through the sky, and read about the roaring economic expansion of China, building a new coal-fired power station every five days. I see all this and I fear for our planet. The film leaves a more direct political thought. You watch and you curse the single vote on the US supreme court that denied this man - passionate, well-informed and right - the presidency of the United States in favour of George W Bush. You realise what a different world we would live in now if just a few hundred votes had gone to Al Gore (rather than, say, Ralph Nader) that fateful day. But you also remember what that election turned on. The conventional wisdom held that Gore and Bush were so similar on policy - Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, the pundits said - that the election was about personality. On that measure, Bush had the edge. Sure, he couldn’t name any world leader, but the polls gave him a higher likeability rating. If you had to have a beer with one of them, who would you choose? Americans said Bush, every time. Even that was not enough to give Bush a greater number of votes: remember, Gore got more of those. But it got him closer than he should have been. And the world has been living with the consequences ever since. Perhaps Britons should bear that in mind at our next election. If the choice is between David Cameron and Gordon Brown - and, given the events of last week, that is now a serious if - then polls will show, as they have already, Cameron ahead on the affability index. Brown, like Gore before him, will seem stiff, unnatural, oddly robotic, a creature of 24/7 politics, unable to speak fluent human. Cameron, like Bush, will be charming and easy. He won’t make odd grimaces when he speaks. But we should ask ourselves: is this any basis for choosing a leader? Surely we should choose the man of substance, no matter how he looks in a fleece or how breezily he can talk about his iPod.
America made that mistake already and we are all paying the price. Let’s not repeat it. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

Eco-Hero

I think the industrial system has to be re-invented. Today the throughput of the industrial system, from mine and wellhead to finished product, ends up in a landfill or incinerator. For every truckload of product with lasting value, 32 truckloads of waste are produced. That's mind-boggling, but it's true. So we have a system that is a waste-making system. And clearly we cannot continue to dig up the earth and turn it to waste. —Ray Anderson, industrial engineer and businessman.

One can see from space how the human race has changed the earth. Nearly all of the available land has been cleared for agriculture or urban development. The polar ice caps are shrinking and the desert areas are increasing. At night the earth is no longer dark, but lit up. All this is evidence that human exploitation of the planet is reaching a critical limit, but human demands and expectations are ever increasing. —Stephen Hawking, cosmologist.

Some people suggest that in order to live sustainably we have to go out in the woods and put on animal skins and live on roots and berries. And the simple reality is that we do have technology. The question is, how can we use our understanding of science and our understanding of technology along with our understanding of culture, and how culture changes, to create a culture that will interact with science and with the world around us in a sustainable fashion? —Thom Hartmann, broadcaster, educator, businessman.

The great thing about the dilemma we're in is that we get to reimagine every single thing we do. In other words, there isn't one single thing that we make that doesn't require a complete remake. And so there are two ways of looking at that. One is like: Oh my gosh, what a big burden. The other way to look at it, which is the way I prefer, is: What a great time to be born! What a great time to be alive! Because this generation gets to essentially completely change this world. —Paul Hawken

We're at a point in our history, with 6.4 billion of us, that we have to imagine what it would be like to redesign design itself, see design as the first signal of human intention, and realize that we need new intentions for our future where materials are seen as things that are highly valuable and need to go in closed cycles—what we call cradle to cradle, instead of cradle to grave. And we have to agree that energy needs to come from renewable sources, principally the sun, and that water needs to be clean and healthy as it comes in and out of the system, and that we should treat each other with justice and fairness. So, the design itself changes from mass production of things that are essentially destructive to mass utilization of things that are inherently assets instead of liabilities. —William McDonough, architect and designer.

How we make things in our industrial process is a 180-degree difference from how life makes things. Look at how we make, for instance, Kevlar, which is our toughest material. We take petroleum, we heat it up to about 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit, we boil it in sulfuric acid, and then we pull it out under enormous pressures. Now, imagine us making our bones or our teeth, or imagine an abalone making a shell. Abalones can't afford to heat it up to really high temperatures or do pressures or do chemical baths, so they've found a different way. Now take the spider. This beautiful orb-weaver spider is basically taking flies and crickets and transforming them in water in the abdomen and what comes out is this material that's five times stronger ounce for ounce than steel. Silently, in water, at room temp. I mean, this is master chemistry, and this is manufacturing of the future, hopefully. And there are actually people who are now trying to mimic the recipes of these organisms. Beautiful architecture and incredible manufacturing and we're starting to learn how to mimic that. —Janine Benyus, co-founder, the Biomimicry Guild.

If we think about the tree as a design, it's something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, provides a habitat for hundreds of species, accrues solar energy, makes complex sugars and food, creates micro-climates, self-replicates. So, what would it be like to design a building like a tree? What would it be like to design a city like a forest? So what would a building be like if it were photosynthetic? What if it took solar energy and converted it to productive and delightful use? —William McDonough

This country can move awfully fast, if it wants to. Keep in mind that after December 7, 1941, Roosevelt went to Jimmy Byrnes and said, You're my deputy president for mobilizing the economy. Anybody crosses you, they cross me. Within six months, Detroit was completely retooled, not making cars anymore, making military trucks, tanks, fighter aircraft, and in three years and eight months from the beginning of that war, we had mobilized, we had defeated imperial Japan, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, together with the British and our other allies, and had begun demobilization. Three years and eight months. —R. James Woolsey, former director of the C.I.A.

Triple Crown of global cooling could pose
serious threat to humanity

Sea surface temperatures, extremely low
solar activity and increased volcanic activity would lead to
widespread food shortages and famine

By Kirk Myers

19 May 10 - (Excerpts) - “Global warming” may become one of those quaint cocktail party conversations of the past if three key climate drivers – cooling North Pacific sea surface temperatures, extremely low solar activity and increased volcanic eruptions – converge to form a “perfect storm” of plummeting temperatures that send our planet into a long-term cool-down lasting 20 or 30 years or longer.

“There are some wild cards that are different from what we saw when we came out of the last warm PDO [Pacific Decadal Oscillation] and entered its cool phase [1947 to 1976]. Now we have a very weak solar cycle and the possibility of increased volcanic activity. Together, they would create what I call the ‘Triple Crown of Cooling,’” says Accuweather meteorologist Joe Bastardi.

If all three climate-change ingredients come together, it would be a recipe for dangerously cold temperatures that would shorten the agricultural growing season in northern latitudes, crippling grain production in the wheat belts of the United States and Canada and triggering widespread food shortages and famine.

Cool Pacific Decadal Oscillation

The Pacific Decadal Oscillation refers to cyclical variations in sea surface temperatures that occur in the North Pacific Ocean. (The PDO is often described as a long-lived El Niño-like pattern.) PDO events usually persist for 20 to 30 years, alternating between warm and cool phases.

From 1977 to 1998, during the height of “global warming,” North America was in the midst of a warm PDO.

But the PDO has once again resumed its negative cool phase, and, as such, represents the first climate driver in the Triple Crown of Cooling. With the switch to a cool PDO, we’ve seen a change in the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which alternates between El Nino (warm phase) and La Nina (cool phase) every few years. The recent strong El Nino that began in July 2009 is now transitioning to a La Nina, a sign of cooler temperatures ahead.

“We’re definitely headed towards La Nina conditions before summer is over, and we’re looking at a moderate to strong La Nina by fall and winter, which ...should bring us cooler temperatures over the next few years,” predicts Joe D’Aleo, founder of the International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project (ICECAP) and the first director of meteorology at the Weather Channel.

He is not alone in his forecast. Bastardi also sees a La Nina just around the corner.

“I’ve been saying since February that we’ll transition to La Nina by the middle of the hurricane season. I think we’re already seeing the atmosphere going into a La Nina state in advance of water temperatures. This will have interesting implications down the road. La Nina will dramatically cool off everything later this year and into next year, and it is a signal for strong hurricane activity,” Bastardi predicts.

The difference in sea surface temperature between positive and negative PDO phases is not more than 1 to 2 degrees Celsius, but the affected area is huge. So the temperature changes can have a big impact on the climate in North America.

Declining solar activity

Another real concern – and the second climate driver in the Triple Crown of Cooling – is the continued stretch of weak solar activity... We recently exited the longest solar minimum –12.7 years compared to the 11-year average – in 100 years. It was a historically inactive period in terms of sunspot numbers. During the minimum, which began in 2004, we have experienced 800 spotless days. A normal cycle averages 485 spotless days.

In 2008, we experienced 265 days without a sunspot, the fourth-highest number of spotless days since continuous daily observations began in 1849. In 2009, the trend continued, with 261 spotless days, ranking it among the top five blank-sun years. Only 1878, 1901 and 1913 (the record-holder with 311 days) recorded more spotless days.

In 2010, the sun continues to remain in a funk. There were 27 spotless days (according to Layman’s sunspot count) in April and, as of May 19, 12 days without a spot. Both months exhibited periods of inexplicably low solar activity during a time when the sun should be flexing its “solar muscle” and ramping up towards the next solar maximum.

Strong correlation between sunspot activity and global temperature

Why are sunspot numbers important? Very simple: there is a strong correlation between sunspot activity and global temperature. During the Dalton Minimum (1790 - 1830) and Maunder Minimum (1645 -1715), two periods with very low sunspot activity, temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere plummeted.

During the Dalton Minimum, the abnormally cold weather destroyed crops in northern Europe, the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. Historian John D. Post called it “the last great subsistence crisis in the Western world.” The record cold intensified after the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, the largest volcanic eruption in more than 1,600 years (see details below).

During the 70-year Maunder Minimum, astronomers at the time counted only a few dozen sunspots per year, thousands fewer than usual. As sunspots vanished, temperatures fell. The River Thames in London froze, sea ice was reported along the coasts of southeast England, and ice floes blocked many harbors. Agricultural production nose-dived as growing seasons became shorter, leading to lower crop yields, food shortages and famine.

If the low levels of solar activity during the past three years continue through the current solar cycle ... we could be facing a severe temperature decline within the next five to eight years.

“The sun is behaving very quietly – like it did in the late 1700s during the transition from Solar Cycle 4 to Solar Cycle 5 – which was the start of the Dalton Minimum,” D’Aleo says. If the official sunspot number reaches only 40 or 50 – a low number indicating very weak solar energy levels – during the next solar maximum, we could be facing much lower global temperatures down the road.”

Even NASA solar physicist David Hathaway has said this is “the quietest sun we've seen in almost a century.”

Volcanic eruptions

Unfortunately, there is a very real chance Eyjafjallajokull’s much larger neighbor, the Katla volcano, could blow its top, creating the third-climate driver in the Triple Crown of Cooling. If Katla does erupt, it would send global temperatures into a nosedive, with a big assist from the cool PDO and a slumbering sun.

The Katla caldera measures 42 square miles and has a magma chamber with a volume of around 2.4 cubic miles, enough to produce a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) level-six eruption – an event ten times larger than Mount St. Helens.

Katla erupts about every 70 years or so, most recently in 1918, often in tandem with neighboring Eyjafjallajokull, which is not a good sign.

According to Bastardi, “The Katla volcano in Iceland is a game changer. If it erupts and sends plumes of ash and SO2 into the stratosphere, any cooling caused by the oceanic cycles would be strengthened and amplified.”

Iceland’s President Olafur Grimsson says the eruption of Eyjafjallajoekull volcano is only a "small rehearsal.”

“The time for Katla to erupt is coming close . . . I don't say if, but I say when Katla will erupt,” Grimsson predicts. And when Katla finally erupts it will “create for a long period, extraordinary damage to modern advanced society.”

Not a very encouraging outlook. Yet major eruptions throughout history bear witness to the deadly impact of volcanoes.

The Tambora eruption in 1815, the largest in 1,600 years, sent the earth’s climate into a deep freeze, triggering “the year without a summer.” Columnist Art Horn, writing in the Energy Tribune, describes the impact:

“During early June of 1815, a foot of snow fell on Quebec City. In July and August, lake and river ice were observed as far south as Pennsylvania. Frost killed crops across New England with resulting famine. During the brutal winter of 1816/17, the temperature fell to -32 in New York City.”

When (Katla) unleashed its fury in the 1700s, the volcano sent temperatures into a tailspin in North America.

"The Mississippi River froze just north of New Orleans and the East Coast, especially New England, had an extremely cold winter.

Global cooling: a life-threatening event

Says D’Aleo: “Cold is far more threatening than the little extra warmth we experienced from 1977 to 1998 ... A cooling down to Dalton Minimum temperatures or worse would lead to shortened growing seasons and large-scale crop failures. Food shortages would make worse the fact that more people die from cold than heat.”

Actions to limit CO2 emissions should be shelved and preparations made for an extended period of global cooling that would pose far more danger to humankind than any real or imagined warming predicted by today’s climate models.

http://www.examiner.com/x-32936-Seminole-County-Environmental-News-Examiner~y2010m5d19-Tri ple-Crown-of-global-cooling-could-pose-serious-threat-to-humanity http://www.examiner.com/x-32936-Seminole-County-Environmental-News-Examiner~y2010m5d19-Tri ple-Crown-of-global-cooling-could-pose-serious-threat-to-humanity

GLOBAL CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS FALL IN 2009 Past Decade Still Sees Rapid Emissions Growth www.earthpolicy.org/index.php?/indicators/C52/carbon_emissions_2010 By Amy Heinzerling			Earth Policy Release Eco-Economy Indicator July 20, 2010
In 2009, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in China—the world's leading emitter—grew by nearly 9 percent. At the same time, emissions in most industrial countries dropped, bringing global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use down from a high of 8.5 billion tons of carbon in 2008 to 8.4 billion tons in 2009. Yet this drop follows a decade of rapid growth: over the 10 previous years, global CO2 emissions rose by an average of 2.5 percent a year—nearly four times as fast as in the 1990s. Increasing temperatures and the resulting melting ice sheets and rising sea levels demonstrate the destructive effects of the carbon accumulating in the atmosphere. Emissions in many wealthier countries fell in 2008 and 2009 as the global recession took hold. In the United States, CO2 emissions shrank by nearly 10 percent from 2007 to 2009, from a high of 1.58 billion tons of carbon to 1.43 billion tons, the lowest level since 1995. Emissions from oil, which is largely used for transportation, declined by nearly 11 percent, while those from coal, which is mainly burned to generate electricity, fell by over 13 percent. The United Kingdom's CO2 emissions fell by over 10 percent from 2007 to 2009. German emissions dropped by 8 percent, and French emissions dropped by 5 percent. Japan saw its emissions decline nearly 12 percent over the two-year period. (See data.) At the same time, CO2 emissions in the world's most populous countries, China and India, continued to grow rapidly. China's emissions rose to 1.86 billion tons of carbon in 2009, representing nearly a quarter of global emissions from fossil fuel burning. With average annual emissions growth of 8 percent over the past decade, China overtook the United States in 2007 as the world's leading CO2 emitter. India's emissions grew by close to 5 percent a year over the past decade; the country passed Russia in 2007 to become the world's third largest emitter. Still, emissions per person in developing economies remain far below those of most of the industrial world. The tiny nation of Qatar ranks highest in per capita emissions, at 11.5 tons of carbon per person in 2009, followed by several other oil-rich countries. Australia, the United States, and Canada lead the major industrial countries, emitting 4-5 tons of carbon per person in 2009. Per capita emissions in these countries are three times those in China and nearly four times the world average. At the same time, many European countries, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, have comparable standards of living to the United States but emit only half as much carbon dioxide per person. Emissions totals for individual countries include all fossil fuels burned within their borders. For manufacturing giants like China, this means that their total emissions include those resulting from the production of goods destined for other countries. A recent study by researchers at Stanford University found that 22 percent of Chinese emissions resulted from the production of goods for export. The study also found that the manufacture of goods imported by the United States was responsible for 190 million tons of carbon emissions per year. If emissions totals were adjusted to account for Chinese exports and U.S. imports, the United States would again be the world's leading emitter. While fossil fuel use is responsible for the majority of carbon dioxide emissions, changes in land use, such as clearing forests for cropland, also emit a substantial amount of CO2. In 2008, the most recent year for which data are available, global emissions from land use change were estimated at 1.2 billion tons of carbon. The vast majority of these emissions were from deforestation in the tropics; Indonesia and Brazil alone represent over 60 percent of land use change emissions. More than half of the carbon dioxide emitted annually is absorbed by oceans, soils, and trees. The rapid rate at which carbon dioxide is pouring into the atmosphere is overwhelming these natural systems, posing a particular threat to ocean ecosystems. The large amounts of dissolved CO2 alter ocean chemistry, making seawater more acidic, which makes it more difficult for organisms such as reef-building corals or shellfish to form their skeletons or shells. The world's oceans are now more acidic than they have been at any time in the past 20 million years. Experts have estimated that if CO2 emissions continue to rise on their long-term trajectory, coral reefs around the world may be dying off by 2050. Recent research has also indicated that the oceans' capacity to absorb carbon dioxide may be unable to keep up with the rising level of emissions. The CO2-absorption ability of both the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica, and the North Atlantic Ocean has decreased in recent decades. The carbon dioxide that is not absorbed by these natural sinks remains in the atmosphere, where it traps heat. The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which stood between 260 and 285 parts per million (ppm) from the beginning of agriculture until the Industrial Revolution, has risen rapidly in the last two-and-a-half centuries, to over 387 ppm today. The last time carbon dioxide levels were this high was roughly 15 million years ago, when sea level was 25-40 meters (80-130 feet) higher and global temperatures were 3-6 degrees Celsius (5-11 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer. The increase in atmospheric CO2 has driven a rapid rise in global temperature: each decade over the past half-century has been hotter than the last. Responses to these rising temperatures have already been documented in melting glaciers and ice sheets, shifting weather patterns, and changes in the timing of seasonal events. While much of the global emissions drop in 2009 was due to declining fossil fuel use associated with the recession, the past year also saw strong growth in the use of renewable energy. Installed wind capacity alone grew by over 30 percent worldwide. In the United States, where coal use dropped by more than 13 percent from 2007 to 2009, over 200 new wind farms came online during the same period, adding more than 18,000 megawatts of capacity. With hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus funds allocated for clean energy and energy efficiency projects worldwide, this growth will continue in the years ahead. However, evidence is mounting that faster, more substantial action is needed. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international body of over 2,500 scientists, has modeled a number of scenarios for possible emissions growth in the coming decades. The likely rise in temperature projected in these scenarios ranges from 1.1 to 6.4 degrees Celsius (2-11 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. Even with the recent drop, carbon dioxide emissions continue to track some of the worst-case IPCC scenarios. Increasing numbers of scientists agree that atmospheric CO2 must be stabilized at 350 ppm or less; in order to achieve this goal, a fundamental shift in course is needed—and quickly. The question going forward, then, is whether the international community can move carbon dioxide emissions onto a rapid downward trend by decoupling economic growth from fossil fuel emissions. Otherwise, it is likely that emissions will rise again as the global economy recovers, further destabilizing the earth's natural systems. Only by shifting to a new energy economy, one that relies on carbon-free sources of energy such as wind, solar, and geothermal instead of climate-threatening fossil fuels, can we avoid the worst effects of climate change. # # # Additional data and information sources at www.earthpolicy.org

For climatologist Cameron Wake, it all started with childhood questions—endless questions. What lights the moon? Why is the ocean blue? Why do glaciers move? Cameron is still curious. And it's his curiosity, and that of other scientists like him, that is the key to solving some of our most pressing environmental, health, and security problems—in particular global warming. Cameron travels to some of the most remote locations in the world to study the icy interior of glaciers. Detailed studies of ice cores have clearly shown that humans are now a major driver of climate change.
http://www.ucsusa.org

The current Greenland warming, while not yet quite matching the temperatures of 70 years ago …..

- Walt Meier NSIDC

“Examination of several proxy records (e.g., sediment cores) of sea ice indicate ice-free or near ice-free summer conditions for at least some time during the period of 15,000 to 5,000 years ago”

- Walt Meier NSIDC

CLEVELAND, Feb. 16 (A.A.P.) Dr. William S. Carlson, an Arctic expert, said to-night that the Polar icecaps were melting at an astonishing and unexplained rate and were threatening to swamp seaports by raising the ocean levels.

Leading Arctic expert from 1953

The glaciers of Norway and Alaska are only half the size they were 50 years age. The tempera - ture around Spitsbergen has so modified that the sailing time has lengthened from three to eight months of the year,”

Leading Arctic expert from 1952

Dr. Ahlman urged the establish- ment of an international agency to study conditions on a global basis. Temperatures had risen 10 degrees since 1900. The navigable season along Western Spitzbergen now last- ed eight months instead of three.

Leading Arctic expert from 1947

it was concluded that near Polar temperatures are on an average six degrees higher than those registered by Nansen 40 years ago. Ice measurements were on an average only 6½ feet against from 9¼ to 13 feet.

Russian report from 1940

The Norwegian, Captain Wiktor Arnesen, who has just returned from the Arctic, clains to have discovered an island 12 miles in circumference near the Franz Joseph Island, in latitude 80.40. He says that the island previously was hidden by an iceberg between 70 and 80 feet high, which has melted, showing the exceptional nature of the recent thawing in the Arctic.

Norwegian report from 1923

http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/

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http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/61454507

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35%

Increase in the global carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels since the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1992.

388.57 ppm

Average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in May 2008, a record high.

541 – 970 ppm

The projected concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 2100 under a business as usual scenario where we don't dramatically reduce global warming emissions.

260 – 280 ppm

Average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere before industrial emissions.

50 – 200 years

Length of time carbon dioxide stays in the earth's atmosphere before it is absorbed into carbon sinks.

1000 years

Length of time changes in the earth's surface temperature, rainfall, and sea level will remain even after carbon dioxide emissions are completely stopped.

34%

Percentage that 2008's Arctic seasonal sea ice melt outpaced normal levels.

70%

Increase in the rate of Greenland's ice melt over the last five years.

1.7 days

Number of days earlier seasons are coming than 50 years ago.

1.5 million

Number of acres of forests in Colorado destroyed by the pine beetle, which is better able to survive warmer winters and is wrecking havoc in America's western forests.

$427 million

Amount spent by the oil and coal industries in the first six months of 2008 in political contributions, lobbying expenditures and advertising to oppose climate action.

0

Number of global warming bills passed by the Senate.

0

Number of global warming bills passed by the House.
Sources:

NOAA CO2 Trends

IPCC Third Assessment Report

Carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere

Atmosphere, Climate & Environment Information Programme

ESRL News: New Study Shows Climate Change Largely Irreversible

Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis

An Accurate Picture Of Ice Loss In Greenland

Pine Beetles: Worse Than You Thought

Early seasons : article : Nature Reports Climate Change

Hill Heat : Oil and Coal Industries Spending Two Million Dollars a Day to Shape Political Debate

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35%

388.57 ppm

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50 – 200 years

1000 years

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70%

1.7 days

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$427 million

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Eco-Hero

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70%

1.7 days

1.5 million

$427 million

0

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