Coral climate crisis puts 250 million at risk: U.N.

By David Fogarty, Climate Change Correspondent, AsiaCOPENHAGENSat Dec 12, 2009 3:48pm EST COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – More than 250 million people risk losing their livelihoods because of dying tropical coral reefs in what a senior U.N. environmental economist said on Saturday was part of a double climate crisis facing the world. “We forget that there are […]

Ocean acidification rates pose disaster for marine life, major study shows

Report launched from leading marine scientists at Copenhagen summit shows seas absorbing dangerous levels of CO2 By Severin Carrellwww.guardian.co.uk, Thursday 10 December 2009 10.52 GMT The world’s oceans are becoming acidic at a faster rate than at any time in the last 55m years, threatening disaster for marine life and food supplies across the globe, […]

Warming rescue plan doomed, report warns

By ADAM MORTONDecember 5, 2009 THE world has little chance of avoiding at least two degrees of global warming this century – the projected threshold for unpredictable and accelerated climate changes – if the emissions targets proposed by rich nations are locked in at next week’s Copenhagen summit, an analysis has found. A report by […]

Graph of the Day: Annual Carbon Flux from Land-Use Changes, 1850-2000

Annual emissions of carbon from changes in land use (Note P = 1015).20 Virtually all of the carbon released to the atmosphere from land use changes now comes from the tropics. Tropical deforestation, including logging and the permanent and temporary conversion of forests to croplands and pastures, releases about 1-2 PgC/yr. This is 15-35% of […]

Nobel expert: Global warming causing Irish floods; ‘We have reaped what we have sown’

By PATRICK REYNOLDS, www.IrishCentral.com Staff WriterPublished Friday, November 27, 2009, 9:23 PMUpdated Friday, November 27, 2009, 10:44 PM Ireland’s massive flooding has almost certainly been the result of climate change, says Nobel Prize-winner and Ireland’s leading climatologist, Prof. John Sweeney. “We have reaped what we have sown,” he said. Devastating floods  have swept large parts […]

Graph of the Day: Anthropogenic Carbon Uptake Rate, 1765 – 2008

This graph shows the uptake history over the industrial era (ad 1765 to ad 2008) computed from the time-varying inventory. (The corresponding space- and time-varying change in surface disequilibrium of CO2 driving this uptake is also estimated by our inversion method.) There has been a sharp increase in ocean uptake since the 1950s in response […]

Greenhouse emissions reach 'record' level: UN

By Staff WritersGeneva (AFP) Nov 23, 2009 Greenhouse gas emissions have kept increasing, reaching a record level since the pre-industrial era, the UN climate agency warned Monday, just weeks before a crucial climate change summit. “Levels of most greenhouse gases continue to increase,” said the World Meteorological Organisation in a statement. “In 2008, global concentrations […]

Image of the Day: Thermokarst lakes on thawing permafrost soil in northeast Siberia

Thermokarst lakes appear on thawing permafrost soil in northeast Siberia in August 2007. For thousands of years, layers of animal and plant waste have been sealed inside the frozen permafrost. Now climate change is thawing the permafrost and lifting this prehistoric ooze from suspended animation. Russian scientists believe that this organic matter will significantly accelerate […]

Acid in Arctic waters eating away at shellfish

Greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, power stations and industries far to the south are putting shellfish in the Arctic Ocean at risk,  an international team reports in the Nov. 20 edition of the journal Science. Acidification may put “some species at risk,” the researchers said, saying this could have a major impact on the entire […]

Insurance giant warns climate ‘tipping points’ in sight

By James Murray, BusinessGreen, Monday 23 November 2009 at 14:24:00 The world is dangerously close to climatic “tipping points” that could result in catastrophic environmental, social and economic consequences, according to a major new study commissioned by the WWF and global insurance giant Allianz. The report from the UK’s Tyndall Centre warns that, unless carbon […]

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