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Scorching Summer Forecast in USA |
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By Patrick O'Driscoll
USA Today
Tuesday 22 May 2007
Drought to persist in West, Southeast; fire danger a big worry.
Denver
- As Memorial Day weekend beckons, federal climate scientists predict
drought will intensify in much of the West this summer and persist in
the fire-scorched Southeast despite recent rain.
People
heading out this holiday to fish and boat in the Southeast could find
lakes and reservoirs so low that sandbars and stumps pose hazards.
Campers and hikers in the Southwest may see restrictions in national
forests dangerously dry from years of drought.
In
its drought outlook for June, July and August, the federal Climate
Prediction Center foresees some improvement in the Gulf Coast states,
including central and South Florida and the state's Panhandle. But
southern Georgia and northern Florida, raked by wildfire this month,
"may see deterioration" even though the rainy season is due to start,
the center reports.
"Fire
is the big story," says Mark Svoboda of the National Drought Mitigation
Center in Nebraska. "The lack of spring rains has increased fire
incidence."
The
climate center outlook also expects little lasting relief in dry areas
of the West, from California across Nevada and Utah, and new drought
areas developing in large parts of Idaho and Oregon.
"It's
not good news," says Rick Ochoa, fire weather manager at the National
Interagency Fire Center in Boise, which is marshaling up to 20,000
firefighters for summer duty. "The indications now are for a hot and
dry June," Ochoa says. "The next question is: How much lightning are we
going to get?"
Lightning sparks 70% of wildfires in the West.
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Global Carbon Emissions in Overdrive |
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By Peter N. Spotts
The Christian Science Monitor
Tuesday 22 May 2007
From 2000 to 2004, emissions grew at a rate of three percent a year - more than the highest rates used in recent key UN reports.
Global emissions of carbon dioxide are growing at a faster clip than the highest rates used in recent key UN reports.
CO2
emissions from cars, factories, and power plants grew at an annual rate
of 1.1 percent during the 1990s, according to the Global Carbon
Project, which is a data clearinghouse set up in 2001 as a cooperative
effort among UN-related groups and other scientific organizations. But
from 2000 to 2004, CO2 emissions rates almost tripled to 3 percent a
year - higher than any rate used in emissions scenarios for the reports
by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
If
the higher rate represents more than a blip, stabilizing emissions by
2100 will be more difficult than the latest UN reports indicate, some
analysts say. And to avoid the most serious effects of global warming,
significant cuts in CO2 emissions must begin sooner than the IPCC
reports suggest. At the moment, no region of the world is
"decarbonizing its energy supply," the analysis says.
The
Global Carbon Project's calculations should be viewed with caution,
says Michael Oppenheimer, a climate-policy specialist at Princeton
University in New Jersey. Economies have been recovering from a
recession at the turn of the millennium. And a spike in natural-gas
prices - of uncertain duration - has given coal a second wind in
developed countries. These short-term factors have probably contributed
to the growth in emissions rates, he says.
Yet
longer-term forces may be at play to sustain the high emissions rates.
For instance, "There is concern among many experts that factors such as
China's continued, very rapid coal-based growth may not be a blip that
would turn around," he says.
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Antarctic Snow Melted Across California-Sized Area, NASA Says |
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By Paul Tighe
Bloomberg
Wednesday 16 May 2007
Snow
melted across an area of western Antarctica the size of California in
2005 as a result of warmer temperatures, the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration said, citing data recorded by a satellite.
"Increases
in snowmelt, such as this in 2005, definitely could have an impact on
larger scale melting of Antarctica's ice sheets if they were severe or
sustained over time," said Konrad Steffen, of the University of
Colorado, according to NASA'S Web site. "Large regions are showing the
first signs of warming."
Water
from melted snow can penetrate ice sheets through cracks and lubricate
the base of the formations "causing the ice mass to move toward the
ocean faster, increasing sea level," said Steffen, the director of the
university's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental
Studies.
Antarctica's
ice mass is the world's largest fresh water reservoir and large amounts
of water flowing into the ocean may affect the salinity, currents and
global climate, NASA said. No further melting has been detected through
to March this year, the agency said.
The
melting in 2005 was mapped by NASA's QuikScat craft and is the "most
significant melt observed using satellites in the past three decades,"
NASA said on its Web site.
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Earth's Natural Defenses Against Climate Change "Beginning to Fail" |
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By Michael McCarthy
The Independent UK
Friday 18 May 2007
The
earth's ability to soak up the gases causing global warming is
beginning to fail because of rising temperatures, in a long-feared sign
of "positive feedback," new research reveals today.
Climate
change itself is weakening one of the principal "sinks" absorbing
carbon dioxide - the Southern Ocean around Antarctica - a new study has
found.
As
a result, atmospheric CO2 levels may rise faster and bring about rising
temperatures more quickly than previously anticipated. Stabilising the
CO2 level, which must be done to bring the warming under control, is
likely to become much more difficult, even if the world community
agrees to do it.
The
news may give added urgency to the meeting in three weeks' time between
the G8 group of rich nations and the leading developing countries led
by China, at Heiligendamm in Germany, when an attempt will be made to
put together the framework of a new world climate treaty to succeed the
current Kyoto protocol.
"This
is a timely warning in advance of Heiligendamm and the G8 that the
climate clock is beginning to tick faster," said the leading
environmentalist Tom Burke, visiting professor at Imperial College
London.
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Scientists Foresee Extinction Domino Effect |
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By Stephen Leahy
Inter Press Service
Thursday 17 May 2007
Brooklyn,
Canada - Climate change is accelerating species extinctions and
unraveling the intricate web of life, experts fear.
Birds,
animals, insects and even plants are on the move around the Earth,
trying to flee new and increasingly inhospitable local weather
conditions. For some, including alpine species and polar bears, there
is nowhere to go. And many others, like plants, lack the mobility to
stay ahead of changing climatic conditions.
"We're
already seeing species moving, but they're not moving fast enough to
avoid potential extinction," says Jeremy Kerr, an ecologist at the
University of Ottawa in Canada.
"The
really awful predictions about rapid, massive extinction appear to be
true, according to the early evidence," Kerr told IPS.
One
of those predictions came last year from the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment (MA), an unprecedented international four-year research
effort. The MA warned that up to 30 percent of all species on Earth
could vanish by 2050 due to unsustainable human activities.
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US Contests G8 Climate Communiqué |
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By Fiona Harvey and Hugh Williamson
The Financial Times
Wednesday 16 May 2007
Attempts
to step up international action on climate change among the Group of
Eight industrialised nations are being strongly contested by the US.
A
draft of the proposed communiqué from the G8's summit in Germany in
June, seen by the Financial Times, shows the US is trying to weaken
some of the starkest language on climate change.
The
US, which declined to comment, wants to remove all reference to the
scientific prediction, contained in the original draft, that "beyond a
temperature increase of 2°C, risks from climate change will be largely
unmanageable."
US
officials object to setting a safe limit on the global rise in
temperatures that will result from climate change but the European
Union wants to use such a safety limit as the basis on which to work
out the safe limit of global greenhouse gas emissions, and thereby
impose emissions curbs on most countries.
Philip
Clapp, president of the US National Environmental Trust, said: "This is
another stonewalling tactic. The Bush administration is as out of step
with the US Congress on climate change as with the G8 leaders. I hope
Chancellor [Angela] Merkel and Prime Minister [Tony] Blair will stand
their ground and not allow a watered down agreement to masquerade as
real progress."
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Climate Change: New Global Plan to Tie In Worst Polluters |
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By David Adam and Patrick Wintour
The Guardian UK
Tuesday 15 May 2007
Britain and Germany lead effort to get US, China and India to agree to carbon trading scheme.
Tony
Blair believes he is close to persuading George Bush to accept an
ambitious plan to bring the world's greatest polluters into
international partnership to fight climate change for the first time.
The
plan would involve setting up a network of carbon trading schemes and
is one of five main proposals drawn up by the Germans and British ahead
of the G8 summit next month.
The
concept of an international agreement involving the G8 industrialised
nations, and some of the poorest but most polluting countries such as
India and China, was first mooted by Mr Blair at the G8 summit in
Gleneagles in 2005. British officials believe they are now close to
securing an outline agreement in time for the June summit in the German
seaside resort of Heiligendamm. Mr Blair wants an agreement before
President Bush leaves the White House; they are due to hold talks
tomorrow at the White House during the prime minister's last official
visit to Washington.
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Ten-year Warming Window Closing |
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By David Adam
The Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday 12 May 2007
Climate change may have passed a key tipping point that could mean temperatures
rising more quickly than predicted and it being harder to tackle global warming,
research suggests.
Scientists at Bristol University say a previously unexplained surge of carbon
dioxide levels in the atmosphere in recent years is due to more greenhouse gas
escaping from trees, plants and soils. Global warming was making vegetation
less able to absorb the carbon pollution pumped out by human activity.
Such a shift would worsen the gloomy predictions of the UN's Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, which warned last week that there is less than a decade
to tackle rising emissions to avoid the worst effects of global warming.
The prediction came as an equally stark warning was issued that global warming
was contributing to increased conflict over dwindling resources.
At the moment about half of human carbon emissions are re-absorbed into the
environment, but the fear among scientists is that increased temperatures will
reduce this effect. Wolfgang Knorr, a climate researcher at Bristol, said: "We
could be seeing the carbon cycle feedback kicking in, which is good news for
scientists because it shows our models are correct. But it's bad news for everybody
else." Measurements of carbon dioxide in samples of air show a sharp increase
since the turn of the century, with unusually high levels in four of the past
five years. The spike does not seem to match the pattern of increased emissions
from fossil-fuel burning, and can only be partly explained by natural events
such as fires and weather phenomena including El Nino.
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Drought a World Wake-Up Call
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Scientists Urge Half of Canada's Forests Be Protected
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Deforestation: The Hidden Cause of Global Warming
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US Aims to Weaken G-8 Climate Change Statement
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Carbon Credits Must Reach Indonesian Forests
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220 Wildfires Rage Across Florida
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Sale of Carbon Credits Helping Land-Rich, but Cash-Poor, Tribes
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31 States Target Global Warming
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Flash Floods - An Ominous Sign
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Clean Power That Reaps a Whirlwind
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Climate: Time Is Short, Part Two
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UN Scientists Warn Time Is Running Out to Tackle Global Warming
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Crucial Climate Change Agreement Reached After Fierce Debate
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Nature's Carbon "Sink" Smaller Than Expected
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Birth of a New Wedge
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War Eating Climate Satellite Funds, Group Warns
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Poor Nations Brake Greenhouse Gas Rise - UN Draft
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The First Refugees of Global Warming
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How to Stop the Planet From Burning
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Arctic Sea Ice Melting Much Faster, Experts Find
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UN Facing a Backlash on Emissions Action Plan
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Divisions Over Global Warming Threaten EU-US Climate Meeting
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All Eyes on Vermont as Auto-Emissions Case Procedes
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China Could Overtake US as Biggest Emissions Culprit by November
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EPA Stalling on Complying With Global Warming Verdict
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Climate: Time Is Short
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An Island Made by Global Warming
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Australia's Epic Drought: The Situation Is Grim
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Hard Choices, Sacrifices Ahead on Global Warming - Including Higher Costs
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This Earth Day, a Focus on Earth's Warming
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Study Shows Sudden Sea Level Surges Threaten One Billion
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Global Warming Health Effects
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Death in the Rainforest: Fragile Creatures Give the World a New Climate Warning
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US 1990-2005 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Up 16 Percent
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Global Warming May Put US in Hot Water
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Ex-Generals: Global Warming Threatens US Security
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Newsweek Hides Global Warming Denier's Financial Ties to Big Oil
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Millions Face Hunger From Climate Change: Report
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Panel Says US Faces Change as Climate Warms
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Panel Says US Faces Change as Climate Warms
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Bill Ties Climate to National Security
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There Is Climate Change Censorship - and It's the Deniers Who Dish It Out
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Scientists Detail Climate Changes, Poles to Tropics
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Southwest May Get Even Hotter, Drier
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Climate and Ocean Scientists Put Under New Speech Restraints
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Fear Over Diluted Climate Warnings
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In a First, Security Council to Discuss Climate Change Threat
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Is Earth Near Its "Tipping Points" From Global Warming?
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UN Draft Cites Humans in Recent Climate Shifts
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US Army Studies Geo-Strategic Repercussions of Climate Change
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