February 9, 2007
Scientists say humans must adapt to global warming

Temperatures are rising on Earth, which is heating up the debate over
global warming and the future of our planet, but what may be needed
most to combat global warming is a greater focus on adapting to our
changing planet, says a team of science policy experts writing in
Nature magazine.

While many consider it taboo, adaptation to global climate change
needs to be recognized as just as important as "mitigation," or
cutting back, of greenhouse gases that humans pump into Earth's
atmosphere. The science policy experts, writing in the Feb. 8 issue
of Nature, say adapting to the changing climate by building resilient
societies and fostering sustainable development would go further in
securing a future for humans on a warming planet than just cutting
gas emissions.

"New ways of thinking about, talking about and acting on climate
change are necessary if a changing society is to adapt to a changing
climate," the researchers state in "Lifting the Taboo on Adaptation."
The policy experts include Daniel Sarewitz, director of ASU's
Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes; Roger Pielke Jr.,
University of Colorado-Boulder; Gwyn Prins, London School of
Economics and Columbia University, New York; and Steve Rayner of the
James Martin Institute at Oxford University, Oxford, England.

Sarewitz and his colleagues argue that the time to elevate adaptation
to the same level of attention and effort as the more popular
mitigation of greenhouse gases is now, and that the future of the
planet demands realistic actions to help the survival of humans.

"The obsession with researching and reducing the human effects on
climate has obscured the more important problems of how to build more
resilient and sustainable societies, especially in poor regions and
countries," Sarewitz says. "Adaptation has been portrayed as a sort
of `selling out,' because it accepts that the future will be
different from the present. Our point is the future will be different
from the present, no matter what, so to not adapt is to consign
millions to death and disruption."

Adaptation is the process by which societies prepare for and minimize
the negative effects of a variety of environmental stresses on
society, Sarewitz says. Mitigation is the effort to slow and reduce
the negative impacts of climate change by slowing the accumulation of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

"The key difference is that adaptation is the process by which
societies make themselves better able to cope with an uncertain
future, whereas mitigation is an effort to control just one aspect of
that future by controlling the behavior of the climate," Sarewitz
says.

Policy discussions on climate change in the 1980s included adaptation
as an important option for society. But over the past two decades,
the idea of adapting to global environmental changes has become
problematic for those advocating emissions reductions and
was "treated with the same distaste as the religious right reserves
for sex education in schools – both constitute ethical compromises
that will only encourage dangerous experimentation with undesired
behavior," the policy experts state.

Over the years, mitigation was favored as the global response to
climate change, and adaptation seemed relegated to local responses to
the specific changes brought on by global warming. Major global
efforts to cut emissions were convened in the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto
Protocol. In those efforts, mitigation was talked about in the
grandest of levels and adaptation as only having a limited impact.
As a result, adaptation often was looked upon in a negative sense, to
be used if the grander plans failed. All the while, the effects of
global warming were beginning to be felt, most notably in poorer
countries and regions.

"To define adaptation as the cost of failed mitigation is to expose
millions of poor people in compromised ecosystems to the very dangers
that climate policy seeks to avoid," the authors state. "By contrast,
defining adaptation in terms of sustainable development would allow a
focus on reducing emissions and on the vulnerability of populations
to climate variability and change, rather than tinkering at the
margins of both emissions and impacts.

"By introducing sustainable development into the framework, one is
forced to consider the missed opportunities of an international
regime that for the past 15 years or more has focused enormous
intellectual, political, diplomatic and fiscal resources on
mitigation, while downplaying adaptation by presenting it in such
narrow terms so as to be almost meaningless," they add. "Until
adaptation is institutionalized at the level of intensity and
investment at least equal to the UNFCCC and Kyoto, climate impacts
will continue to mount unabated, regardless of even the most
effective cuts in greenhouse gas emissions."
Skip Derra, Skip.Derra@...
(480) 965-4823
http://www.asu.edu/news/stories/200702/20070209_climateadapt.htm

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Sofie-prisen til Gøran Persson - Innenriks
NRK
Etter det NRK erfarer, er Sveriges tidligere statsminister, Göran Persson, årets Sofiepris-vinner.

Morgan climate remarks criticised
BBC
Rhodri Morgan's claim climate change would not be "entirely unhelpful" if it meant warmer weather is criticised.

Italy Sees EU Ruling on New CO2 Plan by End-March
Planet Ark
MILAN - Italy expects Brussels to judge by the end of March its proposed cap on greenhouse gas emissions from 2008-12, the second phase of Europe's carbon market, an environment ministry official said on Tuesday.

World Bank weighs sea level risks in poor areas
MSNBC
WASHINGTON - A World Bank study has found that a three-foot rise in sea levels from global warming would force about 60 million people in developing countries to abandon their homes as waters submerged large swaths of coastal areas.

Miljøverstinger får mest støtte
NRK
De næringene som produserer mest klimagasser, er de samme næringene som mottar mest subsidier fra staten, sett i forhold til verdiskapning.

News | Harsh climate hurting tourism in Africa
The Standard
Adverse climatic changes in Africa are threatening to hamper agricultural and tourism sectors.

Time for Europe to tackle looming water crisis: environment agency
Yahoo! News
European countries must start planning now to cope with climate change, as shifting rain- and snowfall patterns will inflict water stress whose effects will ripple across the social and economic spectrum, the European Environment Agency (EEA) warned.

In chilly Washington, global warming gets new airing
Yahoo! News
Global legislators were meeting in snowbound Washington to debate a new pact against catastrophic climate change and find ways of luring laggards like the United States and China on board.

'Very encouraged' by B.C. green plan, says Suzuki
CBC News
B.C.'s leading environmentalist, David Suzuki, is welcoming the Campbell government's announcement that it plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by one-third by 2020.

Africa: Global Book 2007 - Environmental Risks Versus Globalisation
AllAfrica.com
The Global Environment Outlook (GEO) Year Book 2007 was launched at the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)'s 24th Governing Council cum Global Ministerial Environment Forum, which held in Nairobi, Kenya on February 5.

Oil leaders seek 'sensible strategies' to combat climate risks
Houston Chronicle
Whether the issue is climate change or lessening the nation's dependence on outside energy sources, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson said policymakers need to move with deliberation rather than impulse.

Flannery calls for war on climate change
ABC (Australia) Online
Australian of the Year Tim Flannery says climate change is a bigger threat than terrorism.

Sea Level Rise Could Hit Poor Countries Hard, Study Finds
Environmental News Network
Even a small rise in the world's sea levels, predicted as a result of global warming, could make environmental refugees of some 56 million people in developing countries, a World Bank economist said Tuesday.

EurActiv.com - ExxonMobil's top executives on climate change policy | EU - European Information on Climate Change
EurActiv
ExxonMobil has long been an outspoken critic of global warming science, questioning the scientific foundations behind human influence on climate change. But you recently appeared to soften you stance. Why is that? Has Exxon changed opinion on the issue?

Salt Lake City mayor is green in very red state
MSNBC
As mayor of his city, Rocky Anderson has been unapologetically liberal. He's pushed through aggressive sustainability measures and energetically championed affirmative action, gay rights, and reform of the penalty-heavy justice system.

Exxon chief cautions against rapid action to cut carbon emissions
International Herald Tribune
The chief executive of Exxon Mobil, Rex Tillerson, acknowledged Tuesday that carbon dioxide levels were increasing, but said there was no significant alternative to oil in the near future.

Treasury in dark on cost of warming
Sydney Morning Herald
Treasury has not made any detailed analysis of the economic impact of climate change, and says there is no urgent need to do so.

Clearing the air / Emissions from commercial planes prompt concerns about regulating greenhouse gases
San Francisco Chronicle
As the debate over global warming heats up, airlines, regulators and environmentalists agree that emissions from commercial aircraft are a growing source of greenhouse gases and need to be brought under control. Their problem: how to cut toxic...

Oil CEO focuses on greenhouse gases / Chevron's O'Reilly wants national regulations
San Francisco Chronicle
David O'Reilly, CEO of Chevron Corp., called Tuesday for a nationwide system to manage greenhouse gases but stopped short of endorsing hard limits, as some other corporate leaders have done. Speaking at an energy industry conference in Houston, O'...

Industry CEOs testify for emissions limits / They get a mixed reception on Boxer's Senate committee
San Francisco Chronicle
California Sen. Barbara Boxer enlisted the help of several Fortune 500 company executives Tuesday to argue that mandatory greenhouse gas limits won't damage the U.S. economy. Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, called...

NASA Study Finds Warmer Future Could Bring Droughts
ScienceDaily.com
NASA scientists may have discovered how a warmer climate in the future could increase droughts in certain parts of the world, including the southwest United States.

2006 Was Earth's Fifth Warmest Year, Say NASA Climatologists
ScienceDaily.com
Climatologists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City have found that 2006 was the fifth warmest year in the past century. Other groups that study climate change also rank these years as among the warmest, though the exact rankings vary depending upon details of the analyses. Results differ especially in regions of sparse measurements, where scientists use ...

Female Antarctic Seals Give Cold Shoulder To Local Males
ScienceDaily.com
Female Antarctic fur seals will travel across a colony to actively seek males which are genetically diverse and unrelated, rather than mate with local dominant males. These findings, published in this week's Nature, suggest that female choice may be more widespread in nature than previously believed and that such strategies enable species to maintain genetic diversity.

Canadian province vows to slash greenhouse gas emissions
Yahoo! News
Canada's westernmost province announced a radical plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions by one third over 13 years as part of its contribution to curb global warming.

Climate-friendly cooling in the pipeline
Environment Data Interactive Exchange
Air conditioning in buildings and trains could soon get greener, as the Government teams up with business to fund an "eco-air con" R&D scheme.

Tough negotiations ahead over European waste directive (14.02.07)
LetsRecycle.com
The European Union looks set for difficult negotiations over the new Directive on Waste later this year, after its Parliament voted yesterday for ambitious new waste prevention and recycling targets.

Gore disputes support for Tories on global warming
Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA - Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore weighed into Canada's debate on global warming on Monday, urging the Harper government to set the record straight and stick with Canada's traditional leadership role on the world stage.

Federal environment minister says he didn't misrepresent Al Gore
Ottawa Citizen
TORONTO -- Environment Minister John Baird wouldnt back down Wednesday from the way he used comments by Al Gore to discuss Canadas performance on climate change.

Polar bear, walrus protection sought
Boston Globe
Two conservation groups sued the federal government, claiming regulators are not doing enough to protect polar bears and walruses against the combined threat of energy exploration and global warming.

Groups sue to protect Alaska's marine mammals
CTV
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Two conservation groups sued the federal government Tuesday claiming marine mammal regulators are not doing enough to protect polar bears and walruses against the combined threat of oil and gas exploration and global warming.

South Africa: Wits Group Develops New Fuel Technology
AllAfrica.com
IN A groundbreaking project at the University of the Witwatersrand, a team of researchers has refined the Fischer-Tropsch technology, for the production of alternative fuels from coal, into a technique that is punted as more economical than the technology in commercial use.

South Africa: Wind Farms Help Cape Town Boost Its Carbon-Emission Free Power
AllAfrica.com
Cape Town's consumers are to receive yet another form of carbon-emission free electricity, as wind farms join the Koeberg nuclear reactor as a third power option to fossil fuels.

Green Buildings Need More Incentives in U.S.
Environmental News Network
When it opens next year, the 54-story Bank of America Tower in New York will be the most environmentally friendly office building in the United States. The building is the latest in a trend toward office buildings that use less energy and cause less global warming. But developers say that trend is being held back by insufficient government support.

Groups Sue to Protect Marine Mammals
Environmental News Network
Two conservation groups sued the federal government Tuesday claiming marine mammal regulators are not doing enough to protect polar bears and walruses against the combined threat of oil and gas exploration and global warming.

Greener buildings on the rise across U.S.
MSNBC
CHICAGO/NEW YORK - When it opens next year, the 54-story Bank of America Tower in New York will be the most environmentally friendly office building in the United States.

Oil, polar bears and walruses in new lawsuit
MSNBC
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Two conservation groups sued the federal government Tuesday claiming marine mammal regulators are not doing enough to protect polar bears and walruses against the combined threat of oil and gas exploration and global warming.

Weather freezes US hearing on global warming
Times of India
The US Congress has had to postpone a hearing on global warming on Wednesday because of - bad weather.

Commons expected to adopt Kyoto legislation
Ottawa Citizen
Opposition leader Stephane Dion asks a question during Question Period on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Monday Feb. 12, 2007.

2 B.C. power plants could still go ahead
CBC News
Plans for two controversial coal-burning power plants in the B.C. Interior may not be dead yet, despite the provincial government's throne speech announcement that they can't go ahead unless they produce zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Tories fail to kill opposition Kyoto bill
CTV
The Conservative government has lost a last-ditch effort to kill an opposition bill that would require it to fulfill Canada's obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.

Conservatives unveil green-vehicle initiative
CTV
The federal government is taking steps to make environmentally friendly cars more affordable - the latest in a series of green initiatives recently announced by the Conservatives.

'Carbon exposure' to soon carry economic price
CTV
TORONTO -- Investors beware: carbon emissions are very soon going to carry a price in the Canadian economy. This warning comes from CIBC World Markets economists who reported Tuesday that companies representing 40 per cent of the Canadian stock market's value could be affected -- mostly negatively.

GE, French wind power firm strike deal
Boston Globe
GE Energy Financial Services and a Paris-based company that generates electricity from wind power announced an agreement Wednesday that is expected to expand alternative energy capacity in Europe.

South Africa: Winds of Change Blowing in Energy Sector
AllAfrica.com
South Africa's first commercial wind farm has been officially launched on a hilly farm near Darling, fanned appropriately by a brisk south-easter and with puns - like "the winds of change are sweeping Cape Town's energy sector" - abounding.

Maine Maritime wants to create tidal energy testing center
Boston Globe
Maine Maritime Academy wants to establish a tidal power test facility in the waters of the Bagaduce River.

Undersea cable could bring 'green' power to Hub
Boston Globe
As two companies press ahead on projects bringing natural gas to Boston through offshore terminals, a third group is also looking to the sea for a new source of energy -- a 140-mile underwater electric cable from Maine to South Boston.

Royal calls for tax on Total's profits
Telegraph
Record profits from oil company Total have renewed calls from the French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal for a special windfall tax on excess oil profits.

Exxon Mobil CEO: Climate Policy Would be Prudent
Planet Ark
HOUSTON - Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Rex Tillerson said Tuesday nations should work toward a global policy to fight climate change -- another sign the oil giant is softening its stance on global warming.

US Congress Urged to Act Fast on Climate Change
Planet Ark
WASHINGTON - US legislators should quickly tackle climate change in an effort to push other major polluters to cut greenhouse gas emissions, former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas Stern said on Tuesday.

IATA Says Shorten Air Routes to Cut Emissions
Planet Ark
GENEVA - Governments could do more to help airlines cut harmful emissions by agreeing to shorten routes than by slapping "green taxes" on air travel, the head of airlines body IATA said on Tuesday.

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Suit Filed to Protect Polar Bears and Walrus From Oil Exploration and
Global Warming

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, Feb. 14 -/E-Wire/-- Polar bears and walrus
are facing a serious threat in the Arctic from expanding oil and gas
exploration because federal regulations don't assess the combined
risks posed by such activity and global warming, according to a suit
filed today in federal court by environmental groups. The suit
challenges U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regulations that allow harm
to the animals through oil and gas activities in the Beaufort Sea and
adjacent coastal plains, where global warming is shrinking ice sheets
that are critical to survival of the species.

"Polar bears can suffer harm from activities such as drilling,
seismic work and transportation which disturb feeding, cause
abandonment of maternity dens and generally disrupt polar bear life
cycles," said Earthjustice attorney Clayton Jernigan, who filed the
suit on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific
Environment.

The Fish and Wildlife Service didn't assess impacts in the context of
a warming Arctic, and failed to demand that appropriate protective
measures be taken by those engaged in exploration, said Kassie
Siegel, climate program director for the Center for Biological
Diversity. Siegel was lead author of the petition that convinced the
federal government to propose listing the polar bear as "threatened"
under the Endangered Species Act due to global warming.

"The government is well aware that global warming threatens polar
bears with extinction and is transforming the entire Arctic
ecosystem, yet these regulations fail to take this into account,''
said Siegel. The Fish and Wildlife Service has identified global
climate change as the principal threat to polar bear survival.

Recent research confirms that global warming degrades the bears'
physical condition, reduces cub survival and is linked to drowning,
starvation and cannibalism among the bears, said Whit Sheard of
Pacific Environment. He said the suit is aimed at preventing oil and
gas exploration from further hurting the animals. "The FWS must take
a hard look at the impacts of both a changing Arctic environment and
increased oil and gas development before authorizing further harm to
polar bears and walrus," Sheard said.

By issuing the regulations without taking global warming into
account, the suit says, the Fish and Wildlife Service violated the
Marine Mammal Protection Act, the National Environmental Policy Act
and the Administrative Procedure Act. The suit asks that the court
declare the regulations unlawful and require the agency to do a
thorough analysis of how global warming and oil exploration and
development affect polar bears and walrus. The suit also aims to
guarantee that any new regulations be based on such analysis to
assure the animals' safety.

The suit was filed February 13th in the U.S. District Court for the
Northern District of California in San Francisco.

Earthjustice is a nonprofit law firm dedicated to protecting the
environment.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a nonprofit conservation
organization with over 32,000 members dedicated to the protection of
imperiled species and their habitats. The Center drafted the petition
resulting in the recent proposal to protect the polar bear under the
Endangered Species Act which may be viewed here.

Pacific Environment protects the living environment of the Pacific
Rim by promoting grassroots activism, strengthening communities and
reforming international policies.
http://www.ewire.com/display.cfm/Wire_ID/3700

Space Lasers Detect Big Lakes Under Antarctic Ice
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------

US: February 16, 2007


WASHINGTON - Lasers beamed from space have detected what researchers have
long suspected: big sloshing lakes of water underneath Antarctic ice.


These lakes, some stretching across hundreds of square miles (km), fill
and drain so dramatically that the movement can be seen by a satellite
looking at the icy surface of the southern continent, glaciologists
reported in Thursday's editions of the journal Science.
Global warming did not create these big pockets of water -- they lie
beneath some 2,300 feet (700 metres) of compressed snow and ice, too deep
to be affected by temperature changes on the surface -- but knowing how
they behave is important to understanding the impact of climate change on
the Antarctic ice sheet, study author Helen Fricker said by telephone.

About 90 percent of the world's fresh water is locked in the thick ice
cap that covers Antarctica; if it all melts, scientists estimate it could
cause a 23-foot (7-metre) rise in world sea levels. Even a 39-inch
(1-metre) sea level rise could cause havoc in coastal and low-lying areas
around the globe, according to a World Bank study released this week.

"Because climate is changing, we need to be able to predict what's going
to happen to the Antarctic ice sheet," said Fricker, of the Scripps
Institute of Oceanography and the University of California, San Diego.


NEW COMPUTER MODELS

"We need computer models to be faithful to the processes that are
actually going on on the ice sheet," she said. At this point, computer
models do not show how the subglacial water is moving around.

To detect the subglacial lakes, Fricker and her colleagues used data from
NASA's ICESat, which sends laser pulses down from space to the Antarctic
surface and back, much as sonar uses sound pulses to determine underwater
features.

The satellite detected dips in the surface that moved around as the
hidden lakes drained and filled beneath the surface glaciers, which are
moving rivers of ice.

"The parts that are changing are changing so rapidly that they can't be
anything else but (sub-surface) water," she said. "It's such a quick
thing."

"Quick" can be a relative term when talking about the movement around
glaciers, which tend to move very slowly. But one lake that measured
around 19 miles by 6 miles (30 km by 10 km) caused a 30 foot (9 metre)
change in elevation at the surface when it drained over a period of about
30 months, Fricker said.

The project took observations from 2003 through 2006 of the Whillans and
Mercer Ice Streams, two of the fast-moving glaciers that carry ice from
the Antarctic interior to the floating ice sheet that covers parts of the
Ross Sea.

Story by Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40372/story.htm

All-Star Global Concerts Planned on Climate
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------

US: February 16, 2007


LOS ANGELES - Environmental activists led by former US Vice President Al
Gore announced plans on Thursday for a worldwide string of pop concerts
in July featuring Sheryl Crow, Red Hot Chili Peppers and scores of others
to mobilize action to stop global warming.


The Live Earth concerts on July 7 will take place in Shanghai, Sydney,
Johannesburg, London and cities to be decided in Brazil, Japan and the
United States.
The shows will feature more than 100 of the world's top musical acts,
organizers said. In addition to Crow and the Chili Peppers, US artists
who have signed up include Black Eyed Peas, Bon Jovi, Kelly Clarkson,
Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and rapper Snoop Dogg.

Organizers of the concerts and the new campaign Save Our Selves (SOS)
hope to reach a global audience of some 2 billion people through concert
attendance, radio, television and Internet broadcasts.

"In order to solve the climate crisis, we have to reach billions of
people," Gore said in a statement. "We are launching SOS and Live Earth
to begin a process of communication that will mobilize people all over
the world to take action.

"The climate crisis will only be stopped by an unprecedented and
sustained global movement. We hope to jump-start that movement right
here, right now, and take it to a new level on July 7, 2007," Gore said.

The Live Earth concerts follow the model of the 1985 Live Aid and 2005
Live8 international concerts organized by Irish rock star Bob Geldof.

Live Aid raised money for African famine relief and Live8 sought to
pressure world leaders to eradicate the debts of the world's poorest
nations.

Gore, who lost his bid for US president in 2000, has since become one of
the most visible activists on global warming. His "An Inconvenient Truth"
documentary has been nominated for an Oscar at the Feb. 25 Academy
Awards.

Story by Mary Milliken

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40370/story.htm

Please note: forwarded message attached

michael, here's your personalised ClimateWire for today:

Gore Announces Climate Change Concerts
ABC News
Al Gore Announces Star-Studded Lineup for a Series of Worldwide Concerts on Climate Change

EU ministers agree biofuel target
BBC
Energy ministers agree to increase the share of biofuel used in transport but leave a broader renewables target vague.

Climate change already affecting Europe's seas
EU Business
Climate change is already having a significant impact on Europe's seas and coasts, and any policies designed to mitigate these impacts will also have to address the wider human exploitation of the seas and coasts, according to a new report from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre.

Searching for a solution to the climate crisis
EurActiv
Sir, Concerning British magnate offers prize to fight global warming , I think that even an abstract idea could already make a great contribution when people are blindly searching for a solution in this time of climate crisis.

Norway to Cut Greenhouse Gases, Meet Kyoto Goal - PM
Planet Ark
OSLO - Norway will reach its Kyoto target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 and a considerable share will be achieved by domestic curbs rather than by buying emissions rights abroad, its prime minister said on Wednesday.

Antarctic water world uncovered
BBC
A complex network of rivers and reservoirs beneath the Antarctic Ice sheet is mapped by US scientists.

Some global-warming skeptics stick to aggressive tactics
International Herald Tribune
Both sides acknowledge that the debate has changed significantly in recent weeks, after a panel of international scientists said there was a probability that humans contribute to global warming.

Arctic trek to map climate change
BBC
Two polar explorers are to embark on a 4,300km trek across the Arctic to collect data and highlight climate change.

Study Expands Potential For Using Nanotubes In Water Purification, Genetic Research
ScienceDaily.com
By fusing wet and dry nanotechnologies, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found a way to control the flow of water through carbon nanotube membranes with an unprecedented level of precision. The research, which will be described in the March 14, 2007 issue of the journal Nano Letters, could inspire technologies designed to transform salt water into pure drinking water almost ...

Blair defiant over nuclear plans
BBC
A court ruling that ministers should rethink nuclear power plans will not change policy, says Tony Blair.

Al Gore announces global warming concerts
Ottawa Citizen
Al Gore announced on Thursday a series of worldwide concerts to focus on the threat of climate change, with a powerhouse lineup from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Snoop Dogg to Bon Jovi.

South Africa: Huge Response to Call for Renewable Energy Options
AllAfrica.com
There has been a huge response to the Western Cape government's call for proposals on renewable energy options like wind, wave and solar power, with calls flooding in from all over the country and across the world.

Reaction to nuclear debate ruling
BBC
MPs, campaigners and the government respond to the High Court ruling on the government's nuclear consultation.

B.C.'s green plan endorsed by top climate scientist
CBC News
The B.C. government's throne speech announcement that it plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one-third by 2020, is being applauded by an influential climatologist at the University of Victoria.

Al Gore's Presidential Guessing Game
ABC News
Gore to Announce Concert Series for Climate Change

Where now for nuclear plans?
BBC
A High Court judge's criticisms of Tony Blair's nuclear energy consultations will please his opponents, writes Nick Assinder.

Leaders plot path to climate deal
BBC
Legislators meet for talks in Washington aimed at finding a new global deal to curb climate change.

Global warming no problem for grizzlies in the foothills
Ottawa Citizen
A grizzly bear grazes on grass along the water's edge in the Khutzemateen Valley in northern B.C. in May 2001. New research from the University of Alberta suggests the foothills grizzly's varied diet gives it an advantage when faced with climate change.

Antarctic temperatures disagree with climate model predictions
EurekAlert
COLUMBUS , Ohio – A new report on climate over the world's southernmost continent shows that temperatures during the late 20th century did not climb as had been predicted by many global climate models.

West Antarctica's subglacial plumbing system mapped from space
EurekAlert
A network of rapidly filling and emptying lakes lies beneath at least two of West Antarctica's ice streams, new research suggests.

Argonne National Laboratory plays key role in new climate simulations
EurekAlert
The Model Coupling Toolkit created by the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory played a key role in the climate simulations used in preparing the new U.N. report "Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis."

Senators Tell Global Forum U.S. Must Lead on Warming
Environmental News Network
Corporate moguls, policy experts and U.S. senators spoke with one voice about global warming Wednesday, telling a world forum that the United States must take a lead role in cutting greenhouse gases if it wants to encourage China and India to do the same.

Greenpeace Wins Court Ruling Quashing British Government Nuclear Power Decision
Environmental News Network
Greenpeace on Thursday won a High Court ruling that could force the British government to rethink its decision to build new nuclear power stations. High Court judge Jeremy Sullivan ruled that the consultation process was flawed and unfair leading up to the government announcement last year that it planned to make nuclear power a key energy source in the coming decades.

Researchers predict future of federal climate change policy
EurekAlert
A national cap on carbon dioxide emissions. Like those of many U.S. cities and states, this cap is likely to include an initial date for stabilizing emissions followed by a series of time-based targets for modest emissions reductions over time.

Sea level on the rise -- in real and virtual worlds
EurekAlert
The climate system, and in particular sea level, may be responding more quickly to rising carbon emissions than climate scientists have estimated with climate models.

Alcoa Chairman Urges Climate Action at China Forum
GreenBiz.com
BEIJING, Feb. 15, 2007 -- Alain Belda, Chairman and CEO of Alcoa today highlighted the need for urgent and concerted action to press for major breakthroughs on two pressing global issues -- climate change and water management -- in a keynote address to a major Sustainability forum in Beijing.

Senate hosts warming summit for lawmakers
MSNBC
WASHINGTON - A panel of U.S. senators told lawmakers from about 20 countries that political pressure is building in Washington to commit to mandatory cuts in carbon emissions, despite opposition from President Bush.

Gore Announces Climate Change Concerts
San Francisco Chronicle

Open Source Software Toolkit Plays Key Role In New Climate Simulations
ScienceDaily.com
The Model Coupling Toolkit created by the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory played a key role in the climate simulations used in preparing the new U.N. report "Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis." The report, a summary of which was issued February 2nd, issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, presents a comprehensive assessment of the world's ...

Climate change prime topic at science summit
San Francisco Chronicle
A smorgasbord of science is on the menu in San Francisco this week as members of the world's largest scientific organization gather to report their research progress, ponder global policy and hear the famous explore the future in every field from anthropology...

Cold Climate Produced By Algae Contributed To Onset Of Multicellular Life
ScienceDaily.com
The rise of multicellular animals about 540 million years ago was a turning point in the history of life. A group of Finnish scientists suggests a new climate-biosphere interaction mechanism for the underlying processes in a new study, which will be published on Feb. 14, 2007, in PLoS ONE, the international, peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication from the Public Library of Science.

'India to be among hardest hit by global warming'
Times of India
Nicholas Stern reiterated that India and other countries in the sub-continent stood to suffer the most from global warming.

Gore announces 'global warming' concerts
USA Today
Al Gore announced on Thursday a series of worldwide concerts to focus on the threat of climate change, with a powerhouse lineup from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Snoop Dogg to Bon Jovi.

Network of lakes discovered beneath Antarctic ice sheet
USA Today
Beneath the snow, ice and bitter cold of Antarctica, scientists have discovered a network of lakes that fill and empty with rapidly flowing water. It's a finding that may improve understanding of the interaction between global warming and the melting of Antarctic ice.

Nuclear power policy 'unlawful'
Yahoo! News
The Government's decision to opt for a new generation of nuclear power stations was declared unlawful by a High Court judge because of a "seriously flawed" public consultation process.

Darling acted illegally over nuclear power plans
This is London
The Government's nuclear power programme was thrown into chaos when a High Court judge ruled it had acted illegally in failing to be open with the public.

Dion says Tories must obey Kyoto bill
CTV
Stephane Dion says the Conservatives may not like it, but they are going to have to abide by legislation pushed through Wednesday requiring the government to respect Canada's Kyoto Accord commitments.

Tougher waste proposals clear first European hurdle
Environment Data Interactive Exchange
MEPs have backed tougher waste targets for Europe but the beefed up plans are likely to be resisted when they come before the Council of Ministers later this year.

The Global Oil Industry, From Drill to Gas Pump
Washington Post
Lisa Margonelli will discuss her new book, "Oil on the Brain: Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline," which tells stories along the petroleum trade route, from an Iranian oil platform to a New York trading floor to the station down the block.

Minister backs Morgan on climate
BBC
Carwyn Jones agrees climate change will create opportunities, but says the disadvantages will be far greater.

Kyoto bill may trigger lawsuit against Ottawa
Ottawa Citizen
The World Wildlife Federation panda mascot stands on Parliament Hill Wednesday, February 14, 2007 with a sign and a Valentine heart to deliver 12,000 signatures to Parliament requesting implementation of a plan to meet Canada's commitments under Kyoto.

Greenpeace wins UK nuclear victory
CNN
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A top British judge struck a blow at Prime Minister Tony Blair's plans for a new generation of nuclear power stations on Thursday, calling the government's consultation on nuclear power "inadequate" and "wrong."

Kyoto bill may trigger lawsuit against Ottawa
Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA - The opposition legislation on the Kyoto Protocol doesn't include new regulations or penalties for large industrial polluters, but it may open the door to lawsuits against the federal government if it doesn't introduce its own regulations within six months.

High-frequency cryocooler is tiny, cold and efficient
EurekAlert
A new cryogenic refrigerator has been demonstrated at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that operates at twice the usual frequency, achieving a long-sought combination of small size, rapid cooling, low temperatures and high efficiency.

Canada Mulls Tax Credits for Hybrid Cars
Environmental News Network
The Canadian government is considering introducing a tax credit or tax rebate for the purchase of environmentally friendly hybrid vehicles, a government source said Wednesday.

EU nations struggle to agree common energy policy
EU Business
(BRUSSELS ) - European Union energy ministers met on Thursday to seek agreement on a common energy policy, amid opposition to European Commission proposals to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Environmentalists plan worldwide concerts
News.com.au
ENVIRONMENTAL activists led by former US Vice President Al Gore announced plans today for a 24-hour pop concert across seven continents in July to mobilise action to stop global warming.

Environmentalists plan worldwide concerts
The Australian
The "Live Earth" concerts on July 7 will bring together more than 100 of the world's top musical acts, organisers said. Names of the performers were not immediately released.

Gore plans to rock against warming
MSNBC
Al Gore, the former vice president and now hit documentary maker, on Thursday added rock promoter to his resume, announcing plans for a 24-hour concert series on all seven continents to highlight, you guessed it, the dangers of global warming.

Students tackle 'micro issues' of global warming
MSNBC
NEW YORK - While the world's top scientists recently warned governments to take urgent action on global warming, a small group of Brooklyn students have designed their own plan for living with climate change.

Gore Announces Climate Change Concerts
TIME Europe
Al Gore announced a series of worldwide concerts to focus on the threat of climate change, with a powerhouse lineup from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Snoop Dogg to Bon Jovi

PM says he will 'respect' Kyoto bill
CBC News
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he would respect the passage of a bill that requires the government to meet its commitments to Kyoto, but suggested that there's nothing in it for him to act on.

Kyoto bill sparks constitutional questions
CBC News
Canada could be headed for a constitutional showdown after opposition parties passed a bill requiring the government to meet its commitments to Kyoto, legislation Ottawa has hinted it may ignore.

Bill advances to cut greenhouse gases
Boston Globe
Canada OTTAWA -- Canada's House of Commons passed a bill yesterday designed to force the minority Conservative government to achieve the steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions required by the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. It was the latest in a series of initiatives in Parliament to press the government to take tougher action to fight global warming, but, unlike ...

Canada's House demands Kyoto commitment
Boston Globe
Opposition members of Parliament forced through legislation Wednesday that requires the Conservative government to meet its stiff commitments under the Kyoto accord to combat global warning.

Warming Europe 'must adapt water strategy'
Environment Data Interactive Exchange
European countries must start preparing for the water shortages, floods and droughts likely to be brought on by climate change, the EU has warned.

US firm to supply solar panels for major German plant
Environment Data Interactive Exchange
A US-based company is to supply solar panels for a 40MW solar power plant - one of the biggest in the world - to go up in the Saxon region of Germany, it emerged on Wednesday.

Study sees wind power potential on East Coast
MSNBC
Wind power could supply all the energy needs of much of the East Coast and then some, if a phalanx of wind turbines running from Massachusetts to North Carolina were installed offshore, a new study concludes.

Britain to rethink nuclear power plans
The Australian
The High Court in London ruled that a government decision last year to approve plans for new nuclear power plants was illegal because public consultations were flawed.

Greenpeace wins nuclear power victory
Telegraph
Government plans for a new generation of nulcear power stations were in disarray today after the environmental group Greenpeace won a High Court bid to force a rethink.

Weather freezes US hearing on global warming
Times of India
The US Congress has had to postpone a hearing on global warming on Wednesday because of - bad weather.

EU States Divided over Energy Shake-up
Planet Ark
BRUSSELS - Plans for a radical shake-up of European Union energy markets look set to be watered down after several states declined on Thursday to back a break-up of giant utilities or make targets for renewable fuels mandatory.

Climate of hope: US cities lead the way
BBC
Seattle mayor Greg Nickels uses this week's Green Room to explain how US cities are changing the climate debate.

GE unit investing in wind farms in 4 states
Boston Globe
GE Energy Financial Services announced Thursday it is investing $270 million in wind farms in California, Illinois, New Mexico and Pennsylvania.

Mixed response to turbine scheme
BBC
An energy firm wants to build four tall wind turbines near a beauty spot in Derbyshire.

Sheriff wants to tap power of the wind
Boston Globe
The Plymouth County Sheriff's Department is helping lead the way in the development of wind turbines across the region.

EU nations move towards common energy policy
EU Business
(BRUSSELS ) - The 27 EU nations on Thursday moved towards a common energy policy, agreeing on cleaner fuel targets while watering down a proposal to force the break up of the sector into production and distribution operators.

EU agrees to 10 per cent bio-fuel quota for new vehicles by 2020
EU Business
(BRUSSELS ) - The 27 EU member states reached a conditional agreement on Thursday that bio-fuels should constitute at least 10 percent of fuels used in new vehicles by 2020.

Colorado Bill Would Double Renewable Energy Supply
Planet Ark
SAN FRANCISCO - A bill to double renewable energy supplies in Colorado was approved in a legislative committee and is headed for a vote in the state House next week, officials said Wednesday.

Senators Tell Global Forum US Must Lead on Warming
Planet Ark
WASHINGTON - Corporate moguls, policy experts and US senators spoke with one voice about global warming on Wednesday, telling a world forum the United States must take a lead role in cutting greenhouse gases if it wants to encourage China and India to do the same.

GE Invests in US, European Wind Farms, Eyes India
Planet Ark
BOSTON - General Electric Co. has reached the halfway point of its goal to have a US$3 billion renewable energy portfolio, with a pair of wind farm deals in the United States and Europe.

British Millers Worried by Impact of Biofuel Subsidy
Planet Ark
LONDON - British millers are worried that government subsidies to promote biofuel intensifies competition between using grain for food or fuel and damages their industry.

GE unit investing in wind farms in 4 states
San Francisco Chronicle
GE Energy Financial Services announced Thursday it is investing $270 million in wind farms in California, Illinois, New Mexico and Pennsylvania. The company, a unit of Fairfield-based General Electric Co., is investing along with a subsidiary of...

GE unit to invest $270 million in U.S. wind farms
USA Today
A financial arm of General Electric said Thursday it has agreed to invest $270 million in six wind farms across the United States.

Thirsty China Sets Ambitious Water - Saving Goal
Planet Ark
BEIJING - Beijing has set an ambitious plan to cut the amount of water it uses to generate each dollar of national income by 20 percent by the end of the decade, the country's top economic planner said on Wednesday.

Germany Says EU Backs 20 Pct CO2 Credits Purchase
Planet Ark
BRUSSELS - The European Commission has accepted a German demand to be allowed to buy up to 20 percent of its carbon dioxide emissions permits abroad, German Economics Minister Michael Glos said on Wednesday.

National Trust highlights climate threat to coast
Environment Data Interactive Exchange
Climate change could destroy many of Britain's coastal areas as sea levels rise and more intense storms bring flooding and corrosion, a study commissioned by the National Trust has warned.

FEATURE - Green Buildings Need More Incentives in US
Planet Ark
CHICAGO/NEW YORK - When it opens next year, the 54-story Bank of America Tower in New York will be the most environmentally friendly office building in the United States.

Canadian Province to Toughen Greenhouse Gas Rules
Planet Ark
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Canada's westernmost province unveiled plans on Tuesday to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 33 percent by 2020, saying the public was demanding action now on climate change.

Canada House to Try to Force Kyoto Compliance
Planet Ark
OTTAWA - The Canadian House of Commons was poised on Wednesday to pass a bill designed to force the minority Conservative government to achieve the steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions required by the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

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Please note: forwarded message attached

February 18, 2007

FROM ICEHOUSE TO HOTHOUSE: MELTING ICE AND RISING CARBON DIOXIDE
CAUSED CLIMATE SHIFT

Three hundred million years ago, Earth's climate shifted dramatically
from icehouse to hothouse, with major environmental consequences. That
shift was the result of both rising atmospheric carbon dioxide
concentrations and the melting of vast ice sheets, new research by
University of Michigan paleoclimatologist Christopher Poulsen shows.

Poulsen will discuss his findings in a symposium titled "Geosystems:
Climate Lessons from Earth's Last Great Icehouse" at the annual
meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in
San Francisco.

The changes occurred during the period of Earth's history when the
continents were consolidated into a single supercontinent, Pangaea.
Toward the end of the Paleozoic Era, tropical regions of Pangaea
became much warmer and drier, winds in the region shifted direction,
and tropical flora drastically changed. At the same time, atmospheric
carbon dioxide increased and the enormous ice sheets that blanketed
Gondwana---the landmass that eventually broke up to become present-day
South America, Africa, Antarctica, India and Australia---began
disappearing.

"There's lots of evidence for large changes in climate and vegetation,
but there's been no clear hypothesis for why those changes occurred,"
said Poulsen, who is an assistant professor of geological sciences. A
few notions have been floating around: some researchers have suggested
that the uplifting or erosion of mountain chains might have caused the
climate shift; others think the motion of the plates that make up
Earth's outer layer played a role. But Poulsen had a different idea.
"I wondered whether the melting of the Gondwana ice sheets and/or the
rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide could explain these documented
climate and vegetation changes," he said.

Poulsen and coworkers used theoretical climate models to experiment
with different combinations of carbon dioxide concentrations and
glaciation.

"The modeling simulations showed that as Gondwana deglaciated and
carbon dioxide rose, the tropics became more arid and the vegetation
was fried and replaced with desert," Poulsen said. "Our results also
showed that deglaciation and rising carbon dioxide contributed about
equally to the observed climate and vegetation changes."

In addition, the model, which relied on estimates of carbon dioxide
concentrations, produced more warming than geological evidence
actually indicates. This may suggest that carbon dioxide didn't rise
quite as much as has been estimated, Poulsen said.

Poulsen is cautious about applying his conclusions to current climate
concerns.

"The climate change I'm studying happened a long time ago, so you have
to be a little careful, but certainly this work shows there is a very
strong connection between carbon dioxide increase and warming," he
said. "Another interesting aspect is that for a long time people have
thought that the tropics aren't really susceptible to large climate
changes. This work shows that the tropics are susceptible."

##

Contact:

Nancy Ross-Flanigan
University of Michigan
734-647-1853
rossflan@...

This text derived from:
http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/

Why Americans are Skeptical of Their Role in Global Warming By Sara Goudarzi LiveScience Staff Writer posted: 19 February 2007 11:29 am ET

SAN FRANCISCO—While the evidence is clear that human-caused global warming is occurring and is a threat to many humans and other organisms on the planet, many Americans have been slow to buy the whole argument.

http://scooterdman.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/20/577736-why-americans-are-skeptical-of-their-role-in-global-warming

Closed Doors; Open Democracies? A national dialogue on government openness

Posted on Tuesday, February 20, 2007

On March 12 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Climate Science Watch will be represented on a panel addressing issues of access to government information, including the impact of government suppression and manipulation of scientific information on public health and safety—and accountability at the federal and the state and local levels. This Sunshine Week 2007 event will be Webcast to sites around the country.

See Details

http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/

Climate on the Rocks
By Eli Kintisch
ScienceNOW Daily News
17 February 2007

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA--The most detailed analysis yet of the
largest body of ice in the world's tropics shows the 5000-year-old
glacier in danger of disappearing in five years. Glaciologist Lonnie
Thompson, who presented the findings here yesterday at the annual
meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
(which publishes ScienceNOW), says his study of the vanishing
Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru provides frightening new evidence of
accelerating glacier loss, which he says could be a "canary in the
coal mine" for intense global climate change.The fate of glaciers is
crucial because their ice is highly sensitive to global climate
change, Thompson says. In addition, millions of people around the
world are dependent on water from glaciers or live in their shadows,
making an accurate assessment of their fate important to prepare for
the possibility of deadly droughts or floods as the ice melts.
Thompson collected the cores of the Qori Kalis glacier--part of the
Quelccaya Ice Cap--in 2003, revisiting a site he'd first drilled to
bedrock in 1983. In that year, his team used a solar-powered drill to
collect ice samples, which they brought back to U.S. labs as melted
water. The samples revealed a remarkable sensitivity of climatic
fluctuations going back 5000 years. More recently, the team used
generators to drill, and special trucks kept the ice frozen for
shipping back to Ohio State University in Columbus, where Thompson
performed some twenty chemical tests, including isotopic and organic
analyses that were not possible in 1983.
The analysis showed accelerating melting, with liquid water having
disturbed the top thirty meters of the frozen core, erasing the
seasonal patterns of the two decades of the record. "This condition
hasn't been seen in the whole history of the sheet," Thompson says,
underscoring how unique the last decade of warming has been. The
record shows that a few degrees in air temperature rise, accelerated
by solar radiation in the thin atmosphere, has overcome steady
precipitation that otherwise might have preserved the glaciers. "All
things being equal, those glaciers should be growing," he says.
Thompson's work has a kind of rescue aspect to it, as the 80-meter-
long record could be gone in five years, taking with it important
insights into the vanishing history of the ice. "When I am long gone,
this will be the holy grail of tropical glaciology," says Thompson.
Although historical studies on the Qori cores have yet to be
published, Thompson says initial analyses confirm some interesting
historical events, including the 1345 Black Death record and the 1790
monsoon failure that lasted 20 years. Both show up as elevated levels
of organic compounds.
Climatologist Henry Diaz of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration says the vital record, kept in cold storage
indefinitely at Ohio State, will give clues about glaciers for
generations as paleoclimatologists continually refine their analytical
methods. "It's like having an archeological record," he says. Now Diaz
says that glaciers such as Qori Kalis and ice caps on Mt. Kilamajaro
and North American peaks suggest the world's climate could
be "entering a period of inflationary warming ... very warm
conditions, sustained year after year."

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/217/4?rss=1

Related site
Byrd Polar Research Center
http://bilu.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/20/578069-climate-on-the-rocks-
the-vanishing-peruvian-ice-cap

Space Station Needs Help, Glenn Says

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/20/578461-space-station-needs-help-glenn-says

Here we see an example of a prepared comment on "Ask the White House" by the Deputy Director of the National Weather Service:

Heather, from Hanover writes:
Why is it that the summers seem to get hotter and hotter? Is it because of the ozone is depleating? If the temperture continues to rise how long will humans be able to survive in the heat?

Deputy Director of the National Weather Service, John E. Jones, Jr.
Heather, I'm not really a climate change expert, so I can't offer much insight here. I can tell you that under the President's leadership this week, more than 30 nations came together here in Washington, D.C. to establish an Earth observation system aimed at providing scientific data needed to understand our climate.

The observations made will provide scientists with better data, which are critical for improved models. These models should improve their ability to predict climate change.

A global observing system will also help all nations of the world predict weather emergencies (including hurricanes), decide when to plant crops, and to plan for energy needs, among other important issues.

Admiral Lautenbacher was the guest of Ask the White House on Wednesday, and he spoke in detail about the Earth Observation Summit. To read his transcript, click here. August 1, 2003

http://www.whitehouse.gov/ask/20030730.html

Eminent Scientists Warn of Disastrous, Permanent Global Warming

SAN FRANCISCO, California, February 19, 2007 (ENS) - The leaders of
the world's largest general scientific society issued an imperative
climate change warning Sunday. "The atmospheric concentration of
carbon dioxide, a critical greenhouse gas, is higher than it has been
for at least 650,000 years. The average temperature of the Earth is
heading for levels not experienced for millions of years."

Global warming is not a theory, it is a fact based on a "growing
torrent of information," said the Board of Directors of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, AAAS, in its first
consensus statement on climate change. The statement was issued at the
association's annual meeting in San Francisco, which concludes today.

"Scientific predictions of the impacts of increasing atmospheric
concentrations of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels and deforestation
match observed changes. As expected, intensification of droughts, heat
waves, floods, wildfires, and severe storms is occurring, with a
mounting toll on vulnerable ecosystems and societies," the board said.

Earth
This photo-realistic image of the Earth was made using MODIS surface
reflectance data collected and composited over the late spring and
early summer of 2001. (Image by Reto Stockli courtesy NASA Earth
Observatory)
Approved by the board on December 9, 2006, nearly two months before a
similar statement by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
the AAAS statement warns, "Delaying action to address climate change
will increase the environmental and societal consequences as well as
the costs. The longer we wait to tackle climate change, the harder and
more expensive the task will be."

"Accumulating data from across the globe reveal a wide array of
effects: rapidly melting glaciers, destabilization of major ice
sheets, increases in extreme weather, rising sea level, shifts in
species' ranges, and more," the board stated.

"The pace of change and the evidence of harm have increased markedly
over the last five years. The time to control greenhouse gas emissions
is now."

"These events are early warning signs of even more devastating damage
to come, some of which will be irreversible," warned the board.

The 14 member board includes scientists from Harvard, Yale and
Princeton, the University of Michigan, University of Utah, Ohio State,
Lehigh, the California Institute of Technology, and the James S.
McDonnell Foundation.

Dr. John Holdren, who becomes board president today, told delegates in
his presidential address, "Global climate change is real, humans are
responsible for a substantial part of it, and it's taking us in
dangerous directions."

President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Dr. John Holdren delivers his presidential address to delegates at the
2007 AAAS annual meeting. Without swift and urgent action, he said,
the problems could spiral
toward disastrous, permanent changes for all of life on Earth.

"Climate change is not a problem for our children and our
grandchildren - it is a problem for us. It's already causing harm,"
said Holdren, who serves as director of the Woods Hole Research
Center, and is the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental
Policy at Harvard University.

Holdren's address was a review of evidence which, taken together,
shows a planet under profound stress. One of the central problems, and
the most complex, he said, is ending the reliance on fossil fuels that
is damaging and destabilizing the Earth's ecosystem.

The year 2005 was the hottest on record, he said. The 13 hottest years
on record all have occurred since 1990. Twenty-three out of the 24
hottest years have occurred since 1980. The sort of heat wave that
killed 35,000 people in Europe in the summer of 2003 is expected to
become normal by 2050, he warned.

By 2100, Holdren said, some projections say global temperatures could
rival those of the Eocene epoch some 35 million years ago, a time of
global warming that caused waves of extinction in Earth's ecosystem.

He quoted a colleague who envisioned "crocodiles off of Greenland and
palm trees in Wyoming."

But the warming temperatures do not simply make the weather warmer -
they destabilize the weather and generate more extremes, Holdren said.

Some areas are getting wetter; others are experiencing unusual
long-term droughts. Cyclones are becoming more powerful.

Between 1950 and 2000, he said, the number of major floods and
wildfires has increased dramatically in almost every region of the
world.

To address the challenges, Holdren said that world leaders would have
to cooperate as never before on economic, diplomatic and technological
fronts.

Such cooperation would have to yield new commitments and strategies to
resolve the crushing poverty that affects perhaps two billion people -
about one in every three people on Earth.

A cap on carbon emissions or a "carbon tax" to encourage use of
alternative fuels is "desperately" needed, Holdren said.

In his morning media briefing and his presidential address in the
evening, Holdren said solutions must be pursued across a range of
disciplines - economics, science, medicine, technology, and education.

Holdren cautioned against expectations that a single technological
solution such as nuclear fusion would emerge to solve energy and
climate problems. Eight countries are now cooperating to build a
demonstration fusion facility in France. "Belief in technological
miracles," Holdren told reporters, "is generally a mistake."

Climate change research from around the world was presented at the
annual meeting, which winds up today.

The Inuit people have spent thousands of years working and living in
the Arctic, but climate change is forcing them to change their
traditional way of doing things.

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council grantee Barry Smit
told conference delegates the Inuit are sometimes not being given the
tools they need to make the correct decisions for their lifestyles.

"We have plenty of climate change models for the Arctic, but often
they do not measure the things the Inuit rely on to make the best
decision on how to use their resources," says Smit, a University of
Guelph researcher and the Canada Research Chair in Global
Environmental Change.

Smit travels to coastal Inuit communities such as Arctic Bay, at the
north end of Baffin Island, to study how the Inuit are adapting to
climate change. Smit says the transfer of knowledge between the old
and the young today does not happen as often as it used to, and the
knowledge itself is no longer as relevant.

"A generation ago, Inuit used dogs to travel over sea ice. Now they
use snowmobiles, which are faster and more convenient, but don't sense
thin ice like dogs do," Smit said. "As ice becomes more unpredictable
with climate change, this is becoming a serious problem. Degradation
of the permafrost is affecting travel on the land and the stability of
some structures."

Bridging the gap between scientific and traditional knowledge is the
impetus Smit uses as part of ArcticNet, a Network of Centres of
Excellence that studies the impact of climate change in the North.

At a news conference on the opening day of the meeting, Thursday,
Lonnie Thompson, who has achieved global recognition for studying ice
cores to learn about climate change, warned that Peru's Quelccaya, the
world's largest ice cap, has lost about 22 percent of its glacial mass
over the past 20 years and is retreating at 200 feet per year.

A geological sciences professor at Ohio State, Thompson said that in
Peru tropical glaciers like Quelccaya store essential fresh water for
consumption, agriculture and hydroelectricity.  Glacial melt also
endangers communities through avalanches and floods,
Thompson said, bringing an increased risk of dam breach and floods.

"The flora and fauna of mountain climates are very sensitive, both for
the organisms that live in them, and the communities that depend on
them," said Professor John David All, a specialist in geography,
global climate change and international environmental law at Western
Kentucky University.

Organizer and moderator of a related symposium on mountains and
climate change, All said that mountain communities must adapt to the
changing climate.

"In California, the increase in glacial melt changes the runoff
season. In some places, it occurs in February or March - too early for
the growing season," said All. "When you get hooked on high water
runoff, and then it dies, it is bad if you have not prepared."

All added that melting snow pack on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa has
the potential to affect Tanzanian tourism, the nation's largest
industry. "Would you invest in hotels if you know the snow was
melting?" he asked.

Henry Diaz, climate researcher with the U.S. National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, is concerned that human implications of
changing mountain environments are not widely understood.

Diaz has recorded a two degree Fahrenheit rise in temperature since
the mid-1970s in Western mountains of the United States. This has
caused snowmelt and flowering of trees to occur about two weeks
earlier than 50 years ago.

"The issue is ignored, but demands on mountains are high and snow pack
have clear economic and social impacts," said Diaz. "The message is
not getting out because mountains are under-instrumented and the
information is scattered among different experts."

Citing shrinking tropical glaciers on mountains in the Andes,
Himalayas, and on Kilimanjaro, Thompson warned that many show evidence
of the disappearance of glacial mass that accumulated over 5,000
years.

Even if we stopped producing greenhouse gases immediately, Thompson
said, we would not see an immediate benefit because "there are still
some gases and energy stored in the system."
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2007/2007-02-19-03.asp
--------------------
AAAS Board Statement on Climate Change

The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by
human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to
society. Accumulating data from across the globe reveal a wide array
of effects: rapidly melting glaciers, destabilization of major ice
sheets, increases in extreme weather, rising sea level, shifts in
species ranges, and more. The pace of change and the evidence of harm
have increased markedly over the last five years. The time to control
greenhouse gas emissions is now.

The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, a critical
greenhouse gas, is higher than it has been for at least 650,000
years. The average temperature of the Earth is heading for levels not
experienced for millions of years. Scientific predictions of the
impacts of increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases
from fossil fuels and deforestation match observed changes. As
expected, intensification of droughts, heat waves, floods, wildfires,
and severe storms is occurring, with a mounting toll on vulnerable
ecosystems and societies. These events are early warning signs of
even more devastating damage to come, some of which will be
irreversible.

Delaying action to address climate change will increase the
environmental and societal consequences as well as the costs. The
longer we wait to tackle climate change, the harder and more
expensive the task will be.

History provides many examples of society confronting grave threats
by mobilizing knowledge and promoting innovation. We need an
aggressive research, development and deployment effort to transform
the existing and future energy systems of the world away from
technologies that emit greenhouse gases. Developing clean energy
technologies will provide economic opportunities and ensure future
energy supplies.

In addition to rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it is
essential that we develop strategies to adapt to ongoing changes and
make communities more resilient to future changes.

The growing torrent of information presents a clear message: we are
already experiencing global climate change. It is time to muster the
political will for concerted action. The scientific evidence is
clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring
now, and it is a growing threat to society. The time is now. We must
rise to the challenge. We owe this to future generations.
http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2007/0218am_statement.shtml

The report Wednesday by a National Research Council committee says agriculture, which comprises 80% of the West's water use, is the likeliest target for shifting use to urban needs in the fastest-growing region in the USA. But it cautions that "the availability of agricultural water is finite." It adds that rising population and water demands "will inevitably result in increasingly costly, controversial and unavoidable trade-off choices" in managing a shrinking resource.

Some of the Colorado's waters irrigate crops in California, the nation's biggest farm producer.

The 159-page report says climate reconstructions — based on prehistoric tree-ring data and modern computer models — suggest extended droughts were common in the past and will be even longer, more severe and more numerous in the future because of rising temperatures.

"The preponderance of scientific evidence suggests that warmer future temperatures will reduce future Colorado River streamflow and water supplies," it says.

The river supplies parts of seven states, including the most populous, California, and the fastest-growing, Nevada. Nevada's population rose 66% in the 1990s, and water consumption in greater Las Vegas doubled from 1985 to 2000. Arizona's population grew 40% and Colorado's 30% in the '90s. Utah and New Mexico were close behind. Only Wyoming had less than double-digit growth that decade.

The panel says "technological measures" such as water conservation, desalting plants and cloud-seeding will help but are not a long-term "panacea for coping" with less water and rising demand by booming population. "(G)ains realized through technology conservation, and other measures will be readily absorbed by increasing population and water demands," it adds.

Such measures are "very useful and necessary," says Ernest Smerdon, the former University of Arizona engineering dean who chaired the committee. "All we're saying is that if people think they can save enough water to meet all the future demands, our judgment (is) that it's not going to be that easy," Smerdon said at a briefing for news reporters. "(We) are not predicting doom. We are just saying that there are critical issues that have to be addressed."

The panel does not recommend specific steps except a regionwide study of urban water use and "pressing issues" in supply and demand by federal agencies and the basin states. Certain to rise out of that would be how — and how much — of the region's agricultural water can be shifted to municipal use.

"(A)gricultural water appears to constitute the most important, and perhaps final, large reservoir of available water for urban use in the arid U.S. West," the report says. It says population growth and increased water demands "have moved urban water issues to the fore of the western water landscape."

It notes that about 80% of the West's water goes to farming, some of it irrigated by the Colorado. California leads the nation in production of fruits and vegetables, dairy products, wine, flowers and other crops.

Smerdon and other committee members said their work compiles recent and existing studies and data and does not include newer scientific findings. The report is intended, "in plain language," to emphasize the urgency for the states and federal agencies to act.

The states share the Colorado's waters under a compact adopted in 1922. Although they did not know it at the time, it was an extraordinarily wet period of deep mountain snows and plentiful flow down the river. In the drier decades since, demand has come to exceed supply on a regular basis. The severe drought since 2000 has seen the man-made Lake Powell and Lake Mead reservoirs, which hold water for human needs downstream, shrink to 50% or less of normal.

Closed Doors; Open Democracies? A national dialogue on government openness

Posted on Tuesday, February 20, 2007

On March 12 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Climate Science Watch will be represented on a panel addressing issues of access to government information, including the impact of government suppression and manipulation of scientific information on public health and safety—and accountability at the federal and the state and local levels. This Sunshine Week 2007 event will be Webcast to sites around the country.

See Details

http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/index.php/csw/details/closed-doors-open-democracies/

Re: [ClimateArchive] AAAS Scientists Warn of Disastrous, Permanent Global Warming

Eminent Scientists Warn of Disastrous, Permanent Global Warming

Seeded on Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:23 PM CST

http://npat1.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/21/580192-eminent-scientists-warn-of-disastrous-permanent-global-warming

Sometimes I ask a question even though I think I know what the answer is.

I think that what's wrong with the people in Minnesota and rest of the U.S. is that NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) staff have failed in their responsibilities in public safety, weather, water and climate due to their arrogance and their shallow concerns above all else in protecting their personal reputations within the agency. The result is that media have been left to sort out scientific details on climate change on their own with no support from government scientists at the local level. NWS meteorologists have had the data, money, mission statement and staff resources at the local level to show the public what needs to be shown about weather, water and climate but NWS has refused to do any education on climate change for years and decades even though they knew climate change was happening or possible. NWS officials refused national media requests to discuss climate change and global warming during the Great Midwest Summer Floods of 1993 and have refused to address climate change ever since. NWS has even suspended, harassed and removed a best qualified senior hydrologist for the Upper Midwest, who worked at the NWS North Central River Forecast Center from 1979 to July 15, 2005. Not wanting to sound too negative - I'm enjoying my retirement.

-- "Mike Neuman" <mtneuman@...> wrote:
Eminent Scientists Warn of Disastrous, Permanent Global Warming

SAN FRANCISCO, California, February 19, 2007 (ENS) - The leaders of
the world's largest general scientific society issued an imperative
climate change warning Sunday. "The atmospheric concentration of
carbon dioxide, a critical greenhouse gas, is higher than it has been
for at least 650,000 years. The average temperature of the Earth is
heading for levels not experienced for millions of years."

Global warming is not a theory, it is a fact based on a "growing
torrent of information," said the Board of Directors of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, AAAS, in its first
consensus statement on climate change. The statement was issued at the
association's annual meeting in San Francisco, which concludes today.

"Scientific predictions of the impacts of increasing atmospheric
concentrations of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels and deforestation
match observed changes. As expected, intensification of droughts, heat
waves, floods, wildfires, and severe storms is occurring, with a
mounting toll on vulnerable ecosystems and societies," the board said.

Earth
This photo-realistic image of the Earth was made using MODIS surface
reflectance data collected and composited over the late spring and
early summer of 2001. (Image by Reto Stockli courtesy NASA Earth
Observatory)
Approved by the board on December 9, 2006, nearly two months before a
similar statement by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
the AAAS statement warns, "Delaying action to address climate change
will increase the environmental and societal consequences as well as
the costs. The longer we wait to tackle climate change, the harder and
more expensive the task will be."

"Accumulating data from across the globe reveal a wide array of
effects: rapidly melting glaciers, destabilization of major ice
sheets, increases in extreme weather, rising sea level, shifts in
species' ranges, and more," the board stated.

"The pace of change and the evidence of harm have increased markedly
over the last five years. The time to control greenhouse gas emissions
is now."

"These events are early warning signs of even more devastating damage
to come, some of which will be irreversible," warned the board.

The 14 member board includes scientists from Harvard, Yale and
Princeton, the University of Michigan, University of Utah, Ohio State,
Lehigh, the California Institute of Technology, and the James S.
McDonnell Foundation.

Dr. John Holdren, who becomes board president today, told delegates in
his presidential address, "Global climate change is real, humans are
responsible for a substantial part of it, and it's taking us in
dangerous directions."

President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Dr. John Holdren delivers his presidential address to delegates at the
2007 AAAS annual meeting. Without swift and urgent action, he said, 
the problems could spiral
toward disastrous, permanent changes for all of life on Earth.

"Climate change is not a problem for our children and our
grandchildren - it is a problem for us. It's already causing harm,"
said Holdren, who serves as director of the Woods Hole Research
Center, and is the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental
Policy at Harvard University.

Holdren's address was a review of evidence which, taken together,
shows a planet under profound stress. One of the central problems, and
the most complex, he said, is ending the reliance on fossil fuels that
is damaging and destabilizing the Earth's ecosystem.

The year 2005 was the hottest on record, he said. The 13 hottest years
on record all have occurred since 1990. Twenty-three out of the 24
hottest years have occurred since 1980. The sort of heat wave that
killed 35,000 people in Europe in the summer of 2003 is expected to
become normal by 2050, he warned.

By 2100, Holdren said, some projections say global temperatures could
rival those of the Eocene epoch some 35 million years ago, a time of
global warming that caused waves of extinction in Earth's ecosystem.

He quoted a colleague who envisioned "crocodiles off of Greenland and
palm trees in Wyoming."

But the warming temperatures do not simply make the weather warmer -
they destabilize the weather and generate more extremes, Holdren said.

Some areas are getting wetter; others are experiencing unusual
long-term droughts. Cyclones are becoming more powerful.

Between 1950 and 2000, he said, the number of major floods and
wildfires has increased dramatically in almost every region of the 
world.

To address the challenges, Holdren said that world leaders would have
to cooperate as never before on economic, diplomatic and technological
fronts.

Such cooperation would have to yield new commitments and strategies to
resolve the crushing poverty that affects perhaps two billion people -
about one in every three people on Earth.

A cap on carbon emissions or a "carbon tax" to encourage use of
alternative fuels is "desperately" needed, Holdren said.

In his morning media briefing and his presidential address in the
evening, Holdren said solutions must be pursued across a range of
disciplines - economics, science, medicine, technology, and education.

Holdren cautioned against expectations that a single technological
solution such as nuclear fusion would emerge to solve energy and
climate problems. Eight countries are now cooperating to build a
demonstration fusion facility in France. "Belief in technological
miracles," Holdren told reporters, "is generally a mistake."

Climate change research from around the world was presented at the
annual meeting, which winds up today.

The Inuit people have spent thousands of years working and living in
the Arctic, but climate change is forcing them to change their
traditional way of doing things.

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council grantee Barry Smit
told conference delegates the Inuit are sometimes not being given the
tools they need to make the correct decisions for their lifestyles.

"We have plenty of climate change models for the Arctic, but often
they do not measure the things the Inuit rely on to make the best
decision on how to use their resources," says Smit, a University of
Guelph researcher and the Canada Research Chair in Global
Environmental Change.

Smit travels to coastal Inuit communities such as Arctic Bay, at the
north end of Baffin Island, to study how the Inuit are adapting to
climate change. Smit says the transfer of knowledge between the old
and the young today does not happen as often as it used to, and the
knowledge itself is no longer as relevant.

"A generation ago, Inuit used dogs to travel over sea ice. Now they
use snowmobiles, which are faster and more convenient, but don't sense
thin ice like dogs do," Smit said. "As ice becomes more unpredictable
with climate change, this is becoming a serious problem. Degradation
of the permafrost is affecting travel on the land and the stability of
some structures."

Bridging the gap between scientific and traditional knowledge is the
impetus Smit uses as part of ArcticNet, a Network of Centres of
Excellence that studies the impact of climate change in the North.

At a news conference on the opening day of the meeting, Thursday,
Lonnie Thompson, who has achieved global recognition for studying ice
cores to learn about climate change, warned that Peru's Quelccaya, the
world's largest ice cap, has lost about 22 percent of its glacial mass
over the past 20 years and is retreating at 200 feet per year.

A geological sciences professor at Ohio State, Thompson said that in
Peru tropical glaciers like Quelccaya store essential fresh water for
consumption, agriculture and hydroelectricity.  Glacial melt also 
endangers communities through avalanches and floods,
Thompson said, bringing an increased risk of dam breach and floods.

"The flora and fauna of mountain climates are very sensitive, both for
the organisms that live in them, and the communities that depend on
them," said Professor John David All, a specialist in geography,
global climate change and international environmental law at Western
Kentucky University.

Organizer and moderator of a related symposium on mountains and
climate change, All said that mountain communities must adapt to the
changing climate.

"In California, the increase in glacial melt changes the runoff
season. In some places, it occurs in February or March - too early for
the growing season," said All. "When you get hooked on high water
runoff, and then it dies, it is bad if you have not prepared."

All added that melting snow pack on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa has
the potential to affect Tanzanian tourism, the nation's largest
industry. "Would you invest in hotels if you know the snow was
melting?" he asked.

Henry Diaz, climate researcher with the U.S. National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, is concerned that human implications of
changing mountain environments are not widely understood.

Diaz has recorded a two degree Fahrenheit rise in temperature since
the mid-1970s in Western mountains of the United States. This has
caused snowmelt and flowering of trees to occur about two weeks
earlier than 50 years ago.

"The issue is ignored, but demands on mountains are high and snow pack
have clear economic and social impacts," said Diaz. "The message is
not getting out because mountains are under-instrumented and the
information is scattered among different experts."

Citing shrinking tropical glaciers on mountains in the Andes,
Himalayas, and on Kilimanjaro, Thompson warned that many show evidence
of the disappearance of glacial mass that accumulated over 5,000 
years.

Even if we stopped producing greenhouse gases immediately, Thompson
said, we would not see an immediate benefit because "there are still
some gases and energy stored in the system."
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2007/2007-02-19-03.asp
--------------------
AAAS Board Statement on Climate Change

The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by 
human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to 
society. Accumulating data from across the globe reveal a wide array 
of effects: rapidly melting glaciers, destabilization of major ice 
sheets, increases in extreme weather, rising sea level, shifts in 
species ranges, and more. The pace of change and the evidence of harm 
have increased markedly over the last five years. The time to control 
greenhouse gas emissions is now.

The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, a critical 
greenhouse gas, is higher than it has been for at least 650,000 
years. The average temperature of the Earth is heading for levels not 
experienced for millions of years. Scientific predictions of the 
impacts of increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases 
from fossil fuels and deforestation match observed changes. As 
expected, intensification of droughts, heat waves, floods, wildfires, 
and severe storms is occurring, with a mounting toll on vulnerable 
ecosystems and societies. These events are early warning signs of 
even more devastating damage to come, some of which will be 
irreversible.

Delaying action to address climate change will increase the 
environmental and societal consequences as well as the costs. The 
longer we wait to tackle climate change, the harder and more 
expensive the task will be.

History provides many examples of society confronting grave threats 
by mobilizing knowledge and promoting innovation. We need an 
aggressive research, development and deployment effort to transform 
the existing and future energy systems of the world away from 
technologies that emit greenhouse gases. Developing clean energy 
technologies will provide economic opportunities and ensure future 
energy supplies.

In addition to rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it is 
essential that we develop strategies to adapt to ongoing changes and 
make communities more resilient to future changes.

The growing torrent of information presents a clear message: we are 
already experiencing global climate change. It is time to muster the 
political will for concerted action. The scientific evidence is 
clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring 
now, and it is a growing threat to society. The time is now. We must 
rise to the challenge. We owe this to future generations.
http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2007/0218am_statement.shtml


Also see:

Plotted temperature averages http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/patneuman2000/my_photos

http://npat1.newsvine.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClimateArchive/
 

http://npat1.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/22/580813-climate-change-laps-at-bangladeshs-shores-newsdaycom

http://npat1.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/22/580774-lakes-beneath-antarctic-ice-sheets-found-to-initiate-and-sustain-flow-of-ice-to-ocean

Re: [ClimateArchive] AAAS Scientists Warn of Disastrous, Permanent Global Warming

Eminent Scientists Warn of Disastrous, Permanent Global Warming

Seeded on Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:23 PM CST

http://npat1.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/21/580192-eminent-scientists-warn-of-disastrous-permanent-global-warming

Sometimes I ask a question even though I think I know what the answer is.

I think that what's wrong with the people in Minnesota and rest of the U.S. is that NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) staff have failed in their responsibilities in public safety, weather, water and climate due to their arrogance and their shallow concerns above all else in protecting their personal reputations within the agency. The result is that media have been left to sort out scientific details on climate change on their own with no support from government scientists at the local level. NWS meteorologists have had the data, money, mission statement and staff resources at the local level to show the public what needs to be shown about weather, water and climate but NWS has refused to do any education on climate change for years and decades even though they knew climate change was happening or possible. NWS officials refused national media requests to discuss climate change and global warming during the Great Midwest Summer Floods of 1993 and have refused to address climate change ever since. NWS has even suspended, harassed and removed a best qualified senior hydrologist for the Upper Midwest, who worked at the NWS North Central River Forecast Center from 1979 to July 15, 2005. Not wanting to sound too negative - I'm enjoying my retirement.

-- "Mike Neuman" <mtneuman@...> wrote:
Eminent Scientists Warn of Disastrous, Permanent Global Warming

SAN FRANCISCO, California, February 19, 2007 (ENS) - The leaders of
the world's largest general scientific society issued an imperative
climate change warning Sunday. "The atmospheric concentration of
carbon dioxide, a critical greenhouse gas, is higher than it has been
for at least 650,000 years. The average temperature of the Earth is
heading for levels not experienced for millions of years."

Global warming is not a theory, it is a fact based on a "growing
torrent of information," said the Board of Directors of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, AAAS, in its first
consensus statement on climate change. The statement was issued at the
association's annual meeting in San Francisco, which concludes today.

"Scientific predictions of the impacts of increasing atmospheric
concentrations of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels and deforestation
match observed changes. As expected, intensification of droughts, heat
waves, floods, wildfires, and severe storms is occurring, with a
mounting toll on vulnerable ecosystems and societies," the board said.

Earth
This photo-realistic image of the Earth was made using MODIS surface
reflectance data collected and composited over the late spring and
early summer of 2001. (Image by Reto Stockli courtesy NASA Earth
Observatory)
Approved by the board on December 9, 2006, nearly two months before a
similar statement by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
the AAAS statement warns, "Delaying action to address climate change
will increase the environmental and societal consequences as well as
the costs. The longer we wait to tackle climate change, the harder and
more expensive the task will be."

"Accumulating data from across the globe reveal a wide array of
effects: rapidly melting glaciers, destabilization of major ice
sheets, increases in extreme weather, rising sea level, shifts in
species' ranges, and more," the board stated.

"The pace of change and the evidence of harm have increased markedly
over the last five years. The time to control greenhouse gas emissions
is now."

"These events are early warning signs of even more devastating damage
to come, some of which will be irreversible," warned the board.

The 14 member board includes scientists from Harvard, Yale and
Princeton, the University of Michigan, University of Utah, Ohio State,
Lehigh, the California Institute of Technology, and the James S.
McDonnell Foundation.

Dr. John Holdren, who becomes board president today, told delegates in
his presidential address, "Global climate change is real, humans are
responsible for a substantial part of it, and it's taking us in
dangerous directions."

President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Dr. John Holdren delivers his presidential address to delegates at the
2007 AAAS annual meeting. Without swift and urgent action, he said, 
the problems could spiral
toward disastrous, permanent changes for all of life on Earth.

"Climate change is not a problem for our children and our
grandchildren - it is a problem for us. It's already causing harm,"
said Holdren, who serves as director of the Woods Hole Research
Center, and is the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental
Policy at Harvard University.

Holdren's address was a review of evidence which, taken together,
shows a planet under profound stress. One of the central problems, and
the most complex, he said, is ending the reliance on fossil fuels that
is damaging and destabilizing the Earth's ecosystem.

The year 2005 was the hottest on record, he said. The 13 hottest years
on record all have occurred since 1990. Twenty-three out of the 24
hottest years have occurred since 1980. The sort of heat wave that
killed 35,000 people in Europe in the summer of 2003 is expected to
become normal by 2050, he warned.

By 2100, Holdren said, some projections say global temperatures could
rival those of the Eocene epoch some 35 million years ago, a time of
global warming that caused waves of extinction in Earth's ecosystem.

He quoted a colleague who envisioned "crocodiles off of Greenland and
palm trees in Wyoming."

But the warming temperatures do not simply make the weather warmer -
they destabilize the weather and generate more extremes, Holdren said.

Some areas are getting wetter; others are experiencing unusual
long-term droughts. Cyclones are becoming more powerful.

Between 1950 and 2000, he said, the number of major floods and
wildfires has increased dramatically in almost every region of the 
world.

To address the challenges, Holdren said that world leaders would have
to cooperate as never before on economic, diplomatic and technological
fronts.

Such cooperation would have to yield new commitments and strategies to
resolve the crushing poverty that affects perhaps two billion people -
about one in every three people on Earth.

A cap on carbon emissions or a "carbon tax" to encourage use of
alternative fuels is "desperately" needed, Holdren said.

In his morning media briefing and his presidential address in the
evening, Holdren said solutions must be pursued across a range of
disciplines - economics, science, medicine, technology, and education.

Holdren cautioned against expectations that a single technological
solution such as nuclear fusion would emerge to solve energy and
climate problems. Eight countries are now cooperating to build a
demonstration fusion facility in France. "Belief in technological
miracles," Holdren told reporters, "is generally a mistake."

Climate change research from around the world was presented at the
annual meeting, which winds up today.

The Inuit people have spent thousands of years working and living in
the Arctic, but climate change is forcing them to change their
traditional way of doing things.

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council grantee Barry Smit
told conference delegates the Inuit are sometimes not being given the
tools they need to make the correct decisions for their lifestyles.

"We have plenty of climate change models for the Arctic, but often
they do not measure the things the Inuit rely on to make the best
decision on how to use their resources," says Smit, a University of
Guelph researcher and the Canada Research Chair in Global
Environmental Change.

Smit travels to coastal Inuit communities such as Arctic Bay, at the
north end of Baffin Island, to study how the Inuit are adapting to
climate change. Smit says the transfer of knowledge between the old
and the young today does not happen as often as it used to, and the
knowledge itself is no longer as relevant.

"A generation ago, Inuit used dogs to travel over sea ice. Now they
use snowmobiles, which are faster and more convenient, but don't sense
thin ice like dogs do," Smit said. "As ice becomes more unpredictable
with climate change, this is becoming a serious problem. Degradation
of the permafrost is affecting travel on the land and the stability of
some structures."

Bridging the gap between scientific and traditional knowledge is the
impetus Smit uses as part of ArcticNet, a Network of Centres of
Excellence that studies the impact of climate change in the North.

At a news conference on the opening day of the meeting, Thursday,
Lonnie Thompson, who has achieved global recognition for studying ice
cores to learn about climate change, warned that Peru's Quelccaya, the
world's largest ice cap, has lost about 22 percent of its glacial mass
over the past 20 years and is retreating at 200 feet per year.

A geological sciences professor at Ohio State, Thompson said that in
Peru tropical glaciers like Quelccaya store essential fresh water for
consumption, agriculture and hydroelectricity.  Glacial melt also 
endangers communities through avalanches and floods,
Thompson said, bringing an increased risk of dam breach and floods.

"The flora and fauna of mountain climates are very sensitive, both for
the organisms that live in them, and the communities that depend on
them," said Professor John David All, a specialist in geography,
global climate change and international environmental law at Western
Kentucky University.

Organizer and moderator of a related symposium on mountains and
climate change, All said that mountain communities must adapt to the
changing climate.

"In California, the increase in glacial melt changes the runoff
season. In some places, it occurs in February or March - too early for
the growing season," said All. "When you get hooked on high water
runoff, and then it dies, it is bad if you have not prepared."

All added that melting snow pack on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa has
the potential to affect Tanzanian tourism, the nation's largest
industry. "Would you invest in hotels if you know the snow was
melting?" he asked.

Henry Diaz, climate researcher with the U.S. National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, is concerned that human implications of
changing mountain environments are not widely understood.

Diaz has recorded a two degree Fahrenheit rise in temperature since
the mid-1970s in Western mountains of the United States. This has
caused snowmelt and flowering of trees to occur about two weeks
earlier than 50 years ago.

"The issue is ignored, but demands on mountains are high and snow pack
have clear economic and social impacts," said Diaz. "The message is
not getting out because mountains are under-instrumented and the
information is scattered among different experts."

Citing shrinking tropical glaciers on mountains in the Andes,
Himalayas, and on Kilimanjaro, Thompson warned that many show evidence
of the disappearance of glacial mass that accumulated over 5,000 
years.

Even if we stopped producing greenhouse gases immediately, Thompson
said, we would not see an immediate benefit because "there are still
some gases and energy stored in the system."
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2007/2007-02-19-03.asp
--------------------
AAAS Board Statement on Climate Change

The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by 
human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to 
society. Accumulating data from across the globe reveal a wide array 
of effects: rapidly melting glaciers, destabilization of major ice 
sheets, increases in extreme weather, rising sea level, shifts in 
species ranges, and more. The pace of change and the evidence of harm 
have increased markedly over the last five years. The time to control 
greenhouse gas emissions is now.

The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, a critical 
greenhouse gas, is higher than it has been for at least 650,000 
years. The average temperature of the Earth is heading for levels not 
experienced for millions of years. Scientific predictions of the 
impacts of increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases 
from fossil fuels and deforestation match observed changes. As 
expected, intensification of droughts, heat waves, floods, wildfires, 
and severe storms is occurring, with a mounting toll on vulnerable 
ecosystems and societies. These events are early warning signs of 
even more devastating damage to come, some of which will be 
irreversible.

Delaying action to address climate change will increase the 
environmental and societal consequences as well as the costs. The 
longer we wait to tackle climate change, the harder and more 
expensive the task will be.

History provides many examples of society confronting grave threats 
by mobilizing knowledge and promoting innovation. We need an 
aggressive research, development and deployment effort to transform 
the existing and future energy systems of the world away from 
technologies that emit greenhouse gases. Developing clean energy 
technologies will provide economic opportunities and ensure future 
energy supplies.

In addition to rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it is 
essential that we develop strategies to adapt to ongoing changes and 
make communities more resilient to future changes.

The growing torrent of information presents a clear message: we are 
already experiencing global climate change. It is time to muster the 
political will for concerted action. The scientific evidence is 
clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring 
now, and it is a growing threat to society. The time is now. We must 
rise to the challenge. We owe this to future generations.
http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2007/0218am_statement.shtml


Also see:

Plotted temperature averages http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/patneuman2000/my_photos

http://npat1.newsvine.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClimateArchive/
 

http://twincities.indymedia.org/newswire/display/29546/index.php

Effective Carbon Control Policy Can Improve Competition Climate And Power Costs

http://npat1.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/23/582642-effective-carbon-control-policy-can-improve-competition-climate-and-power-costs?threadId=79127&cmt=549211#c549211

Note photo of a nuclear power plant shown in this article by Jay Apt, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business ... outlining incentives for controlling carbon emissions, presented at the Feb. 18 - American Association for the Advancement of Science's (AAAS) annual meeting in San Francisco.