Climate Change news

• Climate Change Debate Hinges On Economics - washingtonpost.com Lawmakers Doubt Voters Would Fund Big Carbon Cuts - Here's the good news about climate change: Energy and climate experts say the world already possesses the technological know-how for trimming greenhouse gas emissions enough to slow the perilous rise in the Earth's temperatures. Here's the bad news: Because of the enormous cost of addressing global warming, the energy legislation considered by Congress so far will make barely a dent in the problem, while farther-reaching climate proposals stand a remote chance of passage. (July 15, 07) The Washington Post
• IPCC Fourth Assessment Report IPCC ISSUES COMPREHENSIVE REPORT ON SCIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE - On February 2, 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a summary of the current science of climate change. The summary, directed at policymakers, is based on six years of review of scientific literature by experts from around the world, convened under the auspices of the IPCC's Working Group I. The report calls the evidence of climate warming "unequivocal." The report finds that rates of both observed warming and sea level rise have accelerated over the past century, and discusses other important changes being observed, including more intense precipitation in some regions, prolonged droughts in others, and intensification of hurricanes in some tropical regions. * Read the Pew Center's coverage of the report: http://ealert.pewclimate.org/ctt.asp?u=3620441&l=136622 * Pew Center's summary of the report (93 KB pdf): http://ealert.pewclimate.org/ctt.asp?u=3620441&l=136623 * Pew Center statement on the report: http://ealert.pewclimate.org/ctt.asp?u=3620441&l=136624 * Facts and Figures: http://ealert.pewclimate.org/ctt.asp?u=3620441&l=136625 * "Sea Level Rise - The State of the Science", a new Pew Center fact sheet: http://ealert.pewclimate.org/ctt.asp?u=3620441&l=136626 * Hurricanes and Global Warming Q&A: http://ealert.pewclimate.org/ctt.asp?u=3620441&l=136627
• Come on, you got to have wondered... What if Gore had not had the election taken away from him by the supreme court and the Florida officials back in 2000? Would the world be in the mess it is today and Global Warming ignored in our country the way it is today?  Check out an interview with Al Gore in Cannes, France: Cannes Q&A: An Inconvenient Truth
• Joint science academies’ statement: Global response to climate change 7 Jun 2005 Ref: 08/05 -The national science academies of the G8 nations and Brazil, China and India, three of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the developing world, have signed a statement on the global response to climate change. The statement stresses that the scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action and calls on world leaders, including those meeting at the G8 summit at Gleneagles in July 2005, to do the following.
• Global Warming Science NEW: Global Fingerprints of Greenhouse Warming -The Pew Center's March 2006 Summary of Recent Scientific Research (pdf) -- "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise." -Climate Chance Science, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 2001 -"The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action." -Joint [11] Science Academies’ Statement: Global Response to Climate Change, 2005 --- The earth is warming. Temperatures at the Earth's surface increased by an estimated 1.4°F (0.8°C) between 1900 and 2005. The past decade was the hottest of the past 150 years and perhaps the past millennium. The hottest 22 years on record have occurred since 1980, and 2005 was the hottest on record. -- Global Warming: The Pew Center on Global Climate Change
•  A conversation with climate journalist Elizabeth Kolbert | By David Roberts | Grist Magazine | Main Dish | 10 Apr 2006 Over the past year, a perfect storm of scientific studies, dire weather events, and media coverage lifted global warming onto the mainstream national agenda. No writing had more impact than a series of closely observed pieces in The New Yorker by journalist Elizabeth Kolbert, which have now been collected and expanded into a book: Field Notes From a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. (Read a review of the book.)--from Environmental News and Humor | Grist Magazine | 22 Apr 2006
•  Early Signs: Reports From a Warming Planet / Nick Miroff and Jon Mooalem Real Player MP3 -Living on Earth kicks off a six-part series of reports from places where climate change concerns are already bringing change. First stop: Churchill, Manitoba where Nick Miroff and Jon Mooalem report diminished polar ice is forcing a town to reexamine whether it has any future as "The Polar Bear Capital of the World." (15:00) --from Living on Earth: Sound Journalism for the Whole Planet
• TIME.com Print Page: TIME Magazine -- Polar Ice Caps Are Melting Faster Than Ever... More And More Land Is Being Devastated By Drought... Rising Waters Are Drowning Low-Lying Communities... By Any Measure, Earth Is At ... The Tipping Point No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth. Never mind what you've heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us. (March 26, 2006) --from TIME Magazine - News Magazine - Current Events
•  World Is at its Warmest For a Millennium The entire northern hemisphere is experiencing a sustained period of warming that is unprecedented in the past millennium, a study has found. A review of a range of temperature records, from tree rings and ice cores to historical documents, has found that at no time since the 9th century have temperatures been so consistently high. The study, published in the journal Science, found that the late 20th century was the warmest period for the northern hemisphere since at least 800AD, eclipsing the well-known medieval warm period when vines were cultivated successfully in northern Europe and the Vikings exploited the ice-free seas to colonise Greenland. --from Common Dreams | News & Views
•  Thousands march in Montreal to urge climate action - Yahoo! News MONTREAL (Reuters) - Thousands of environmentalists, some banging drums or dressed as polar bears, marched in Montreal on Saturday to urge the United States and other nations at a U.N. climate conference to do more to curb global warming. Time is running out," banners proclaimed in a carnival-like rally in freezing temperatures through central Montreal, where many protesters accused the White House of blocking progress on climate change and threatening the world's future. (December 3, 2005) The top news headlines on current events from Yahoo! News
•  KYOTO AND BEYOND The People’s Ratification is a nationwide petition drive designed to give thousands of citizens a chance to respond in a way that we now cannot. We are telling our local officials, our nation’s leaders and the international community that we will not go along with the Washington party line. We want to let the rest of the world know that we are not all isolationists; that many of us are prepared to be good global citizens. We want to set the right example and be responsible stewards. We care deeply about the future viability of the planet. And, we are ready to commit ourselves to a clean energy future. 
•  The Climate Crisis Coalition seeks to broaden the circle of individuals, organizations and constituencies engaged in the global warming issue, to link it with other issues and to provide a structure to forge a common agenda and advance action plans with a united front.
•  Main Report Page: Climate Dialogue at Pocantico Index - International Climate Efforts Beyond 2012: Report of the Climate Dialogue at Pocantico Released November 15, 2005 - The Pew Center on Global Climate Change announces the release of a major new report outlining options and recommendations for advancing the international climate change effort post-2012. The report is from the Climate Dialogue at Pocantico, a group of 25 senior policymakers and stakeholders from 15 countries convened by the Pew Center.
•  How has Climate Change, or Global Warming, been viewed by our media and government?  Check NOW. Science & Health. The Climate Debate | PBS
•  The New Yorker  magazine online and read the three-part series: Thee Climate of Man. 
•  Are we doomed?  Or, are making too much of this issue: Read: http://www.gci.org.uk/articles/Tablet.pdf  Requires
•  Learn all about Global Warming and Kyoto Protocol : Kyoto Protocol Enters Into Force: Sets Binding Targets for GHG Emissions KYOTO PROTOCOL ENTERS INTO FORCE - FEBRUARY 16, 2005 -The Kyoto Protocol, an international climate change agreement, enters into force on February 16th, 2005. The Protocol sets binding targets for developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions an average 5.2 percent below 1990 levels. With entry into force, Kyoto's emission targets become binding legal commitments for those industrialized countries that have ratified it. The Kyoto Protocol was designed as a first step. The challenge now is forging an international framework that engages all major emitting countries in an effective long-term effort. The Pew Center on Global Climate Change has created a special section looking at the implications of Kyoto's entry into force, including history, related issues and reports and analyses. The section devotes significant space to the question:
  What happens next? To learn more, please visit: http://ealert.pewclimate.org/ctt.asp?u=3620441&l=78466
•  Read about how you can affect Global Warming: Ten Personal Solutions Ten Steps to Reduce Your Global Warming Impact - Individual choices can have an impact on global climate change. Reducing your family's heat-trapping emissions does not mean forgoing modern conveniences; it means making smart choices and using energy-efficient products, which may require an additional investment up front, but often pay you back in energy savings within a couple of years. --from the Union of Concerned Scientists
•  Use your computer to help scientists monitor Global Warming : ClimatePrediction.Net  Climateprediction.net is the largest experiment to try and produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century. To do this, we need people around the world to give us time on their computers - time when they have their computers switched on, but are not using them to their full capacity.
•   news @ nature.com - Internet project forecasts global warming - Biggest-ever climate simulation warns temperatures may rise by 11 ºC. The greenhouse effect could be far more severe than experts had previously predicted, according to results from the world's biggest climate-modelling study. In the worst-case scenario, doubling carbon-dioxide levels compared with pre-industrial times increases global temperatures by an average of more than 11 ºC. But as well as a predicting a bigger maximum rise, the project has also increased the range of possible temperature changes. news @ nature.com -  - latest science news & features
•   'Dangerous' Global Warming Possible by 2026 - WWF - OSLO (Reuters) - World temperatures could surge in just two decades to a threshold likely to trigger dangerous disruptions to the earth's climate, the WWF environmental group said on Sunday. It said the Arctic region was warming fastest, threatening the livelihoods of indigenous hunters by thawing the polar ice-cap and driving species like polar bears toward extinction by the end of the century. Latest Business News and Financial Information |
•  NCDC: Global Warming This page is based on a brief synopsis of the 2001 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the National Research Council's 2001 report Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions, as well as NCDC's own data resources. It was prepared by David Easterling and Tom Karl, National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, N.C. 28801.
•  How warm was it? EPA : Global Warming : News and Events : Science and Policy News : Temperature Tracker The EPA has been tracking the temperature of the planet for awhile.  How are things going.
•  Keeping up on Global Warming: Global warming’s other effects on the oceans Global warming’s other effects on the oceans - The often overheated debate over the effect of anthropogenic CO2 on the earth’s atmosphere has distracted scientists from considering how this greenhouse gas might be affecting other global systems, warn some researchers. Two related papers published in Science in July estimated that as much as one-half of the anthropogenic CO2 is being sucked up by the oceans, increasing ocean carbon levels and lowering the average pH from a pre-industrial level of 8.16 to 8.04 today (Science 2004, 305, 362–366; 367–371). If the CO2 concentration doubles from present levels by 2100, as some models predict, then the pH could drop to a level between 7.6 and 7.8. --from Environmental Science and Technology Online
• New Report:  Observed Impacts of Climate Change in the U.S. (November 2004) from Global Warming: The Pew Center on Global Climate Change
•  Yahoo! News Full Coverage-Global Warming & Climate Change
•  Global Warming -- Environmental News Network Read these important articles on Global Warming - an in-depth report. Subscribe to an ENN Newsletter
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• Scientific American: Feature Article: Is Global Warming Harmful to Health?: August 2000 Read this comprehensive online article about the possible affects of Global Warming.
• http://www.heatisonline.org  The Heat Is Online web site is based on the book The Heat Is On: The Climate Crisis, The Cover-Up, The Prescription, by Ross Gelbspan, (Perseus Books,1998)
• Union of Concerned Scientists
• GEO-3: GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT OUTLOOK