Extreme weather events will increase for several decades, even if carbon emissions are curbed

By Jessica Shankleman, BusinessGreen17 Jun 2010 British businesses need to invest in adaptation measures to cope with flooding and drought in the coming decades even if substantial reductions in greenhouses gas emissions are achieved. That is the stark warning from the insurance industry today after a new report from the Met Office warned that global […]

Graph of the Day: Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration, 10,000 BC – 2009 AD

Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and certain manufactured greenhouse gases have all risen substantially in recent years. • Before the industrial era began around 1780, carbon dioxide concentrations measured approximately 270–290 ppm. Concentrations have risen steadily since then, reaching 387 ppm in 2009—a 38 percent increase. Almost all of this increase […]

Indonesian government’s promise up in smoke: Fires rise by 59 percent

By Jeremy Hancewww.mongabay.com June 13, 2010 The Indonesian government failed to live up to its promises to reduce fires across the tropical nation last year. Instead a 2009 State Environment Report showed a 59 percent rise of fire hotspots from 19,192 in 2008 to 32,416 last year, as reported by The Jakarta Post. Officials say […]

Changing Chesapeake Bay acidity impacting oyster shell growth

Cambridge, Md. (June 10, 2010) – Acidity is increasing in some regions of the Chesapeake Bay even faster than is occurring in the open ocean, where it is now recognized that increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolve in the seawater thereby making it more acidic. These more acidic conditions in key parts of Chesapeake […]

Amazon up in smoke, even when deforestation slows

By Alister Doyle, Environment CorrespondentOSLOThu Jun 3, 2010 2:03pm EDT OSLO (Reuters) – Brazilian farmers are setting more fires in parts of the Amazon where deforestation has slowed, according to a study on Thursday that shows weaknesses in a U.N. plan for slowing climate change. Big fires, set by farmers to clear land for agriculture, […]

India on course to become third-biggest CO2 emitter

May 11, 2010 (Reuters) — India’s greenhouse gas emissions grew 58 per cent between 1994 and 2007, official figures released on Tuesday showed, underlining the country’s growing importance in the fight against climate change. Emissions rose to 1.9 billion tonnes in 2007 versus 1.2 billion in 1994, with the industrial and transport sectors upping their […]

Carbon dioxide's effect on plants increases global warming

  ScienceDaily (May 4, 2010) — Trees and other plants help keep the planet cool, but rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are turning down this global air conditioner. According to a new study by researchers at the Carnegie Institution for Science, in some regions more than a quarter of the warming from […]

Scientists link ocean acidification to prehistoric mass extinction

BY GWYNETH DICKEY New evidence gleaned by analyzing calcium embedded in Chinese limestone suggests that volcanoes, which spewed massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for a million years, caused the biggest mass extinction on Earth. In a paper published April 26 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of […]

Arctic explorers get nasty surprise: rain

Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Peter Galloway (Reuters) – In what looks to be another sign the Arctic is heating up quickly, British explorers in Canada’s Far North reported on Tuesday that they had been hit by a three-minute rain shower over the weekend. The rain fell on the team’s ice base off Ellef […]

Video: Ocean acidification hits northwest oyster farms

Scientists say carbon dioxide in oceans could mean curtains for shellfish By DARCY BONFILSApril 22, 2010 Mark Wiegardt and Sue Cudd have each dedicated about 30 years of their lives to bringing oysters to our tables. Now the two have found themselves in the forefront of one of the newest, most pressing environmental issues of […]

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