By Peter N. Spotts
    The Christian Science Monitor

    Monday 26 February 2007

Earth's coldest regions are vital heat sinks and, eventually, hold the key to future rises in sea levels.

    For the next two years, the coldest places on Earth will become some of the hottest laboratories in the history of modern science.

    This Thursday marks the official start of the International Polar Year (IPY), an unprecedented research assault on Antarctica and the Arctic.

    Some 10,000 scientists from more than 60 countries launched the push because of significant changes they see taking place at these frozen ends of the Earth. Many hold that global warming is triggering these changes, including shrinking sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, thawing permafrost, and growing instability in Greenland's ice cap and in some floes coursing through Antarctica's ice cap.

    The US kicks off its part of the $1.5-billion project with opening ceremonies Tuesday in Washington.

    The goal is to gain a deeper understanding of processes affecting everything from the flow of glaciers, and key features of polar climate to plankton and polar bears. In addition, researchers plan to leave a legacy of networked, standard sensors and buoys that will help track changes in these crucial regions long after the IPY ends.

    By Jeffrey Sachs
    Project Syndicate

    Monday 26 February 2007

All countries, both rich and poor, must come together to confront climate change.

    The world is in the midst of a great political transformation, in which climate change has moved to the center of national and global politics. For politicians in persistent denial about the need act, including US President Bush, Australian prime minister John Howard, and Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, there is no longer any place to hide. The science is clear, manmade changes in climate are being felt, and the electorate's demand for action is growing.

    Though unlikely just a few months ago, a strong global agreement by 2010, one that will set a path for action for decades to come, now stands a good chance of being implemented.

    Political leaders in countries that produce coal, oil, and gas - like the US, Australia, and Canada - have pretended that climate change is a mere hypothesis. For several years, the Bush administration tried to hide the facts from the public, deleting references to manmade climate from government documents and even trying to suppress statements by leading government scientists. Until recently, Exxon Mobil and other companies paid lobbyists to try to distort the public debate.

    Yet truth has triumphed over political manoeuvres. The climate itself is sending a powerful and often devastating message. Hurricane Katrina made the US public aware that global warming would likely raise the intensity of destructive storms. Australia's great drought this past year has similarly made a mockery of Howard's dismissive attitude toward climate change.

    By Tamara McLean
    The Herald Sun AU

    Thursday 22 February 2007

    Global warming will take a toll on children's health, according to a new report showing hospital admissions for fever soar as days get hotter.

    The new study found that temperature rises had a significant impact on the number of pre-schoolers presenting to emergency departments for fever and gastroenteritis.

    The two-year study at a major children's hospital showed that for every five-degree rise in temperature two more children under six years old were admitted with fever to that hospital.

    The University of Sydney research is the first to make a solid link between climate changes and childhood illness.

    "And now global warming is becoming more apparent, it is highly likely an increasing number of young children will be turning up at hospital departments with these kinds of common illnesses," said researcher Lawrence Lam, a paediatrics specialist.

    "It really demonstrates the urgent need for a more thorough investigation into how exactly climate change will affect health in childhood."

    By Eoin O'Carroll
    The Christian Science Monitor

    Thursday 22 February 2007

But problems arise when it comes time to pin down those responsible for climate change.

    The growing scientific consensus on global warming may prompt more than high-level policy decisions. It could also trigger more lawsuits.

    Earlier this month, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded it is "very likely," that is, at least 90 percent probable, that human activity causes global warming. This percent is higher than the panel's previous report, released in 2001, which had set it at 66 percent. The increased confidence gives accused greenhouse polluters less wiggle room, legal experts say.

    "We're entering a new era," Audley Sheppard, an international law specialist in Britain, told Reuters in a Feb. 2 story.

"He said major emitters of greenhouse gases could no longer argue they were unaware of the risks....

"'Carrying on with business as usual could be viewed as negligent in future,' he said. Until now, countries or firms could say there was doubt because the U.N. climate panel had been just 66 percent sure of a link to human activities."

    Several climate change lawsuits are in the works in the US. Perhaps the most far-reaching is Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, now pending before the US Supreme Court. In 1999, Massachusetts and 11 other states sued to force the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The EPA claims that greenhouse gases do not fit the legal definition of "air pollution," and that there is still too little scientific certainty about global warming to take action. The case was argued in November, and a ruling is expected in June.

    By Michael Byrnes
    Reuters

    Thursday 22 February 2007

    Sydney - The pristine Southern Ocean, which swirls around the Antarctic and absorbs vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, is slowly losing a fight against industrial gases responsible for global warming, scientists say.

    The Southern Ocean's unique wind and storm conditions make it the world's greatest carbon "sink"; the earth's oceans absorb a third of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the Southern Ocean absorbs a third of that.

    But the waters that surround Antarctica are becoming more acidic as they absorb increasing amounts of carbon dioxide produced by nations burning fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas.

    Deforestation and slash-and-burn farming also releases vast amounts of carbon dioxide stored in timber or peat bogs.

    The more acidic an ocean gets, the less carbon dioxide it can soak up.

    "It is becoming more difficult for the Southern Ocean to absorb the excess carbon dioxide," said Dr Will Howard of Australia's Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre.