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Aqua makes a splash
bbc.co.uk -- A dramatic new view of the Earth has emerged from the first few weeks of the orbital checkout of Aqua, the satellite designed to study the world's water. Aqua has sent back pictures of sea-surface temperature and brightness. They are stunning. "After years of preparation on Aqua, I and hundreds of other scientists are thrilled to have the spacecraft launched and its Earth-observing instruments sending down high-quality data," said Claire Parkinson, an Aqua project scientist at the US space agency (Nasa). She added: "If all goes as planned, these data will lead to improved weather forecasts and a better understanding of Earth's climate system - especially the role of water in it."

posted by West 9:11 AM

 

Report: Warming harmful to public lands
WASHINGTON, June 27 (UPI) -- Global warming presents a serious threat to the ecology, economy, wildlife and recreational opportunities in America's national parks and public lands, a report charged Thursday. The report, "Scorched Earth: Global Climate Change Impacts on Public Lands and Waters," was prepared by the Bluewater Network, a nonprofit environmental organization located in San Francisco. "This report is shock therapy for those who are refusing to do anything about global warming," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., at a news conference. "It shows that we could lose our national treasures. If this doesn't spur them to act, I don't know what will." The Bush administration, in its "Climate Action Report 2002," released last month, reiterated its "commitment to reduce greenhouse gas intensity in the United States by 18 percent over the next decade through a combination of voluntary, incentive-based and existing mandatory measures." However, the administration declined to pursue additional mandatory reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, its report stated. Almost every environmental aspect of the nation's public lands will be adversely affected by global warming, the "Scorched Earth" report said, including species migration and extinction, influx of non-native species, air quality degradation, wildfire frequency, glacier melting, coastal lands erosion and water resource contamination and scarcity. Americans are likely to notice effects on their recreational experiences in public lands, the report said. "As climate change wreaks havoc on these resources, it will directly affect visitors' experience and even health."

posted by West 9:05 AM

 

Climate 'future health threat'
bbc.co.uk -- Outbreaks of human malaria, butterflies beset with parasites, disease-stricken corals, and trees overgrown with fungus. That is the gloomy picture of tomorrow's planet painted by scientists in the United States. After sifting through hundreds of scientific papers, they warn that infectious diseases will rise as the world gets warmer. One consequence is that entire species of animals could be wiped out. Human tropical diseases may spread outside their normal geographical range, affecting more and more people. Endangered wild animals such as lions and eagles could also succumb to infections.

posted by West 8:42 AM

 

A Warmer Planet is a Sicker Planet
Scientists warn that infectious diseases will rise as the world gets warmer. Human malaria, butterflies with parasites, diseased corals, and trees overgrown with fungus are some of the things awaiting us as the Earth warms up. Entire species of animals could be wiped out. . . . The rise in infectious diseases will be caused by changes in temperature, rainfall, and humidity, all of which encourage the growth of insects and bacteria. Climate differences will also stress plants and animals, making them more susceptible to infection. . . . "Climate change is disrupting natural ecosystems in a way that is making life better for infectious diseases," states epidemiologist Andrew Dobson of Princeton University. "The accumulation of evidence has us extremely worried. We share diseases with some of these species. The risk for humans is going up." . . . In Hawaii, mosquitoes are becoming so strong that they are destroying the honeycreepers, brightly colored songbirds that live only in Hawaii. The tops of volcanoes were once too cold for mosquitoes to live, but now that it�s warmer, they can go up to where the birds live and have spread avian malaria there. "Today there are no native birds below 4,500 feet," says Dobson. . . . "There are still people resistant to the idea of climate change at all, others will say it is hard to predict what type of outbreaks will occur or where they will happen," says Dobson. "This is true. Very little monitoring and few long- term studies exist. What is apparent is the end result - when the epidemic strikes."

posted by Lorenzo 10:29 AM

 

Humanity's 'footprint' bigger than Earth
OAKLAND, Calif., June 24 (UPI) -- Humanity's use of Earth's resources has exceeded the planet's capacity since the 1980s, researchers conclude in a new study released Monday. The study, which examines resource use from 1961 to 1999, employed a relatively simple calculation. Researchers added up the total area globally available for growing crops, grazing animals, harvesting timber, accommodating infrastructure, absorbing carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels and marine fishing. Then they calculated the human demand for each activity and compared it to the total resource available. Mathis Wackernagel, the lead researcher, who also is program director at Redefining Progress, a think-tank in Oakland, cited the calculation for corn. "You ask, 'How much corn is being consumed in the world? What's the average yield (per acre) for corn? What is the space requirement to produce the corn (for human use)?' That's the human footprint for corn," Wackernagel told United Press International. Wackernagel and his team performed many such calculations, tallying up the results to obtain an overall human footprint. In 1961, the footprint totaled about 70 percent of Earth's productive capacity. But as population and demand for resources increased during the 1980s, he said, humanity's demands began to exceed the planet's ability to meet them. By 1999, the human footprint grew 25 percent larger than Earth's capacity. Put another way, Earth would require a year and three months to renew the resources used by humanity in a single year.

posted by West 6:54 PM

 

CNN.com - Surprise asteroid nearly hits home - June 21, 2002
(Richard Stenger, CNN, June 21, 2002)
An asteroid the size of a football field passed extremely close to Earth last week but it remained undetected until days later, according to astronomers. The space rock missed our planet last week by only 75,000 miles (120,000 km), about one-third the distance to the moon, making the near collision one of the closest ever recorded.The destructive force might have been comparable to an asteroid or comet that exploded over Siberia in 1908, which flattened 77 square miles (2,000 square km) of trees, according to the NEO. . . . 2002 MN was first spotted on June 17 by scientists with the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) project in Socorro, New Mexico, three days after it gave the Earth a close shave.

posted by Lorenzo 3:04 PM

 

Radiological attack: 'Manhattan would be uninhabitable for years'
independent.co.uk -- If a "dirty bomb" were to be set off in New York, every building in Manhattan and for miles around might have to be demolished, concludes one of the United States' most distinguished scientific bodies. The Federation of American Scientists, which cites 52 Nobel prizewinners among its sponsors, says a bomb made using just one piece of radioactive cobalt could make the city uninhabitable for decades, and seriously contaminate one thousand square kilometres of the states of New Jersey, Connecticut and New York. Three months ago � long before last week's debacle was even a glimmer in Attorney General John Ashcroft's eye � the federation's president, Dr Henry Kelly, warned the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that the "threat of a malicious radiological attack in the US" was "credible". He presented the results of a study � carried out by the federation and Princeton University � into what might happen if a bomb containing just a single "pencil" of intensely radioactive cobalt-60 was exploded at the southern tip of Manhattan on a calm day with a slight south-westerly breeze. Plants used to disinfect food by irradiation often contain hundreds of these "pencils", each just a foot long and an inch in diameter. The danger, as the report makes clear, is not that the bomb would immediately kill people, although deaths would probably result from the force of the explosion. The real threat would come from long-term radioactive contamination, causing hundreds of thousands of fatalities from cancer over decades.

posted by West 9:18 AM

 

Restoring an Ecosystem Torn Asunder by a Dam
The New York Times -- Forty years after one generation dammed the Colorado River at the upper end of the Grand Canyon, a new generation of engineers and scientists is struggling to deal with the consequences: colossal loss of sand, shrinking beaches, an invasion of outside fish and plants, the extinction of native species, erosion of archaeological sites and the sudden appearance of an Asian tapeworm, to name a few.

posted by West 9:16 AM

 

Bangladesh Launches Greenery Campaign
DHAKA (Reuters) - Threatened by global warming, depleting biodiversity and rising fears of natural disasters, Bangladesh on Saturday launched a drive to speed up plans to put at least 20 percent of the country under forests. Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia inaugurated the program, encouraging each of Bangladesh's 130 million people to plant at least one tree each year. She said Bangladesh needed to at least have a 20 percent forest cover by year 2015 in order to be able to offset the impact of global warming and shield it from frequent storms coming from the Bay of Bengal. The forest department will offer over 56 million tree plants free or at nominal cost this year from hundreds of government nurseries across the country, officials said. Environment Minister Shahjahan Siraj said on Friday that vast areas along Bangladesh's coast could submerge permanently due to the rising sea level in the Bay of Bengal. "This would be a catastrophe that we must try to avoid or minimize by all means. Creating more forests is one way to do this," he told a forestry program, without elaborating.

If Bangladesh can do this why can't the United States, the wealthiest nation state in the history of humanity?.

posted by West 9:10 AM

 

United Press International: Indonesia's rainforest is in danger
JAKARTA, Indonesia, June 15 (UPI) -- Environmentalists warn that Indonesia's rainforest could vanish within 10 years if illegal logging is not stopped. At the current rate of deforestation in Indonesia, lowland forests will disappear from Sumatra by 2005 and from Kalimantan (Borneo) by 2010, the Washington and London-based Environmental Investment Agency said. Indonesia's annual log harvest is about 78 million cubic meters -- more than three times the sustainable yield, the environmental group said. The capacity of unlicensed sawmills is double that of legal ones, it said. Under the former authoritarian regime of President Suharto, large corporations -- mostly controlled by close associates and cronies -- were granted forest concessions encompassing more than half of the country's forested areas. The Indonesian Forum for the Environment said Suharto's policies still exist.

posted by West 9:01 AM

 

Blue Planet: Early spring hurting animals
There is no longer any doubt humans are playing God with other species -- consciously or not, we are deciding which will survive and which will not.
UPI -- In the debate about global warming, it is pardonable if a daily newspaper reader comes away with a "So what?" feeling. The consequences of climate change seem a little vague and distant. Statistically, scientists tell us, the global mean temperature increased by about 1.9 degrees Fahrenheit between 1890 and 2000. That does not seem like much. Maybe that hurricane or flood or heat wave was due to global warming, or maybe it was just a normal climate variation. Some summers are hot, some less so. However, there is one concrete impact of climate change people can see at their backyard bird feeders. Over the last 40 years, spring has been arriving earlier in the northern hemisphere. To some people, that might mean more pleasant picnicking weather or an earlier baseball season, but for the species more attuned to the rhythms of the Earth, it means looming disaster and extinction.

posted by West 4:29 PM

 

Desert Earthquake Hits Near Yucca Mountain; Proposed Site For Nuclear Waste
LAS VEGAS (AP) - A mild earthquake rumbled beneath the desert early Friday near Yucca Mountain, the federal government's proposed site for a nuclear waste repository. No damage or injuries were immediately reported. The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 4.4 and hit about 5:40 a.m., 75 miles northwest of Las Vegas and about 3 miles beneath the surface, said scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo.

Is Gaia telling us something?

posted by West 4:25 PM

 

Antarctic ice fringe 'melting faster'
BBC -- US scientists say the floating fringes of the Antarctic ice sheet are melting faster than previous studies had suggested. They say the rate of melting is linked to the temperature of the surrounding seawater. They estimate that each 0.1 Celsius rise in sea temperature can increase the rate of melting by one metre annually. The scientists say their findings could have implications for the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS).

posted by West 8:11 AM

 

United Press International: Stories of modern science ... from UPI

SHORT-TERM FIXES MAY STALL GLOBAL WARMING

The world can still avoid some -- but not all -- of the more disruptive effects of global warming, Princeton and Brown University researchers conclude. But doing so will require achieving "substantial" reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2010, in line with those required by the Kyoto Protocol. The researchers focused on three possible consequences of global warming: the destruction of coral reefs, the rise of sea levels caused by melting of the Antarctic ice sheet and the shutdown of large-scale ocean currents. They said if aggressive measures are taken by 2010, maintaining the ocean currents is likely, but saving the coral reefs is probably not feasible and preventing the ice-sheet melting is plausible but by no means certain. One of the paper's key findings is if the industrialized world delays in curbing carbon dioxide emissions until 2020, the actions needed to stay within the 450 parts-per-million limit thereafter would become "dramatically more difficult, if not impossible."

AIR POLLUTION LINKED TO DROUGHT

Air pollution probably has contributed to the catastrophic Sahel drought in Africa, an Australian researcher reports. Dr. Leon Rotstayn, of the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization, investigated the impact of tiny atmospheric particles called sulfate aerosol by running sophisticated global climate simulations on a supercomputer. The simulations without aerosol pollution showed no drought in the Sahel, while inclusion of aerosol led to simulated rainfall declines similar to those suffered over northern Africa and elsewhere. The particles, Rotstayn explained -- which are concentrated mainly in the Northern Hemisphere -- make cloud droplets smaller. This makes the clouds brighter and longer lasting, so they reflect more sunlight into space, cooling the Earth's surface below. As a result, the tropical rain belt, which migrates to the north and south with the seasonal movement of the sun, is weakened in the northern hemisphere and does not move as far north. The main impact of the weaker rain belt is in the Sahel. Since the 1960s, this region of northern Africa, which borders the Sahara desert, has experienced a devastating drought. Rainfall there has been 20 to 49 percent lower than in the first half of the 20th century, causing widespread famine and death.

posted by West 7:58 AM

 

EPA to relax pollution rules for utilities, allowing more plants to expand
Associated Press -- A Bush administration decision to let some coal-burning power plants escape costly pollution controls is intended to help keep electric bills in check, but environmentalists say it will increase smog and contribute to asthma and other respiratory ailments. The proposal sent to President Bush by the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday calls for relaxing clean air rules to make it easier for utilities, oil refineries and industrial plants to upgrade and expand. "These reforms are about making the Clean Air Act work effectively," EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said. "We are not rolling back the Clean Air Act," she added, anticipating the barrage of criticism from Democrats and environmentalists that soon followed her announcement. "Once again, White House political considerations have trumped our nation's commitment to promoting clean air and improving the public health of millions," said House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri.

The US makes up approximately 4% of the world population. That 4% is responsible for approximately 25% of the world's polution.

posted by West 7:52 AM

 

Drought Conditions Expected to Last
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The hot and dry weather that has fueled wildfires in Western states is expected to last through September, forecasters said Thursday. "The summer outlook does not bode well for the wildfire situation," said John E. Jones Jr., deputy director of the National Weather Service ( news - web sites). "Prolonged drought, coupled with high temperatures, and strong winds, spell fire danger anywhere." Since January, wildfires have burned nearly 1.4 million acres from New Jersey to California, nearly twice the yearly average for this time of year, the agency said. Currently, 19 large fires are burning, including six in Colorado.

posted by West 3:46 PM

 

NY to sue Bush Administration over utility rules
NEW YORK, June 13 (Reuters) - New York State's attorney general said he would the sue the Bush Administration over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision on Thursday to ease rules that now limit air pollution by coal-burning utilities. "I will pursue legal action in federal court to prevent the Administration from gutting the Clean Air Act," New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said in a statement. New York State, along with other Northeast states, in the past has sued Midwest and Canadian utilities, charging that smog and acid rain they produce has turned Adirondack lakes acidic, killed forests, and caused respiratory diseases. The EPA's new rule changes would let utilities produce more electricity -- and burn more fuel -- by easing baseline requirements for pollutants that otherwise would require new controls. U.S. utilities and industrial facilities have long protested the current rules because they restrict what the firms can do to enlarge or upgrade plants before they have to install costly equipment to control smog, acid rain and soot.

posted by West 3:45 PM

 

World's Gene Banks Need Funds to Save Crop Variety
ROME (Reuters) - The world's public seed banks are starved for cash and need an injection from donors of $260 million to protect crop varieties and aid the war on hunger, a leading plant geneticist said on Wednesday. About 1,300 gene banks, containing some six million samples, exist around the world to conserve the world's seeds, aiding research into new food varieties, the United Nations says. "This material is under threat," Geoffrey Hawtin, director general of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), told reporters at a World Food Summit organized by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). IPGRI, based near Rome, is an independent group that promotes conservation of plant genetic resources. Agricultural biodiversity has shrunk rapidly as farmers have demanded more productive crops. According to FAO, over time some 10,000 plant species have been used for human food and farming, but now no more than 120 species provide 90 percent of human food supplied by plants.

posted by West 11:07 PM

 

Hungry to Bed, Hungry to Rise
ROME, Italy, June 10, 2002 (ENS) -- Food, that most basic of human needs, is in critically short supply for nearly one in every eight people on Earth. "Every day, more than 800 million people worldwide - among them 300 million children - suffer the gnawing pain of hunger, and the diseases or disabilities caused by malnutrition," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the delegates at this morning's opening session of the World Food Summit: Five Years Later. "As a result, according to some estimates, as many as 24,000 people die every day," Annan said.

posted by West 8:53 AM

 

The Sky is Indeed Falling Bush Says, Get Used to It
(David Corn, Alternet.org, June 7, 2002)
The Bushies succeeded in burying the air toxics assessment. They failed with the global warming report. Written in keeping with obligations the United States has under an early climate change treaty signed by Bush's father, the study says the United States will experience dramatic environmental changes due to global warming in the coming decades. A partial list includes heat waves and other extreme weather, loss of wetlands and coastland, pest outbreaks, more air pollution, and water shortages. Bush tried to distance himself from the study, dismissing it as a "report put out by the bureaucracy," and his chief mouthpiece, Ari Fleischer, said there still is "considerable uncertainty" on the scientific causes of global warming. . . . Now that pro-business Republicans finally concede global warming is under way and caused by human activity, they claim it's too late to do anything and argue that decreasing greenhouse gases -- as called for by the Kyoto treaty the Bush administration trashed -- won't matter. The message contained in the report is, global warming is indeed coming, but nothing can really be done, so get used to it. . . . Here's a philosophical question. Is it worse to deny a problem exists, or to recognize the problem but then, rather purposefully, do nothing of substance? The air, according to government scientists, is a threat to the nation. Yet Bush refuses to act upon the evidence. With this less-than-serious response, he signals that, really, really, the air is just fine. It's a reverse Chicken Little position -- which can be quite dangerous when the sky is actually falling.

posted by Lorenzo 7:22 PM

 

Ministers Fail to Agree on Earth Summit Plan
BALI, Indonesia (Reuters) -- Ministers failed on Friday to agree on a draft action plan for a major U.N. summit in August that hopes to slash poverty and protect the environment, with rich and poor nations divided, officials said. Officials made no attempt to hide their disappointment at the result of preparatory talks on Indonesia's island of Bali, but insisted the setback did not mean the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg was headed for failure. Dubbed Earth Summit 2, the conference in Johannesburg is being billed as the largest-ever U.N. gathering. More than 100 heads of state and 60,000 delegates are expected to attend. Environmental groups pinned much of the blame on the United States, accusing it of being reluctant to commit to some targets for action at home in the interests of business profits, charges members of the U.S. delegation here have denied.

posted by West 1:10 PM

 

Breaking the Global-Warming Gridlock
Atlantic Monthly -- Both sides on the issue of greenhouse gases frame their arguments in terms of science, but each new scientific finding only raises new questions -- dooming the debate to be a pointless spiral. It's time, the authors argue, for a radically new approach: if we took practical steps to reduce our vulnerability to today's weather, we would go a long way toward solving the problem of tomorrow's climate.

posted by West 10:48 AM

 

Microbes 'Control Weather'
Sky News -- Tiny airborne bugs in the atmosphere could control our weather. Scientists have set out to discover whether microbes in the air play a role in forming clouds and making it rain. It is thought the bugs are part of a self-sustaining microsystem in the clouds that help determine the weather.

posted by West 10:20 AM

 

United Press International: Analysis: Climate report marks watershed
UPI -- The Bush administration's release of its Climate Action Report 2002 marks a watershed in the global warming debate. All but a few diehards concede global warming is real and caused by humans. The issue now is: Who pays? This administration report should lay to rest most of the wrangling over the scientific validity of the main global warming conclusions. Early on, the report states, "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing global mean surface temperature and subsurface ocean temperature to rise." Scientific certainty being an elusive goal, the report carries caveats about natural climate variability influencing interpretation of the data. In general, however, it is the strongest statement yet by a U.S. administration that we face pervasive, human-caused global climate change. Not everyone is convinced, of course. The Competitive Enterprise Institute, of Washington, D.C., immediately filed a petition with the administration "to prevent the distribution of a fatally flawed report on global warming."

As reported in a front page story in The New York Times, the North polar ice cap melted in 2000. As widely reported just recently, the glaciers on Mt. Everest have retreated three miles. How much more evidence do we need that the earth is warming?

posted by West 9:15 AM

 

New BBC drama about genetically modified crops
Every so often, British intelligence officials do a tour of our universities to drop a quiet word of advice about foreign nationals who want to enrol on certain science courses. You would expect them to take a keen interest in anyone studying nuclear fission. But more recently they have begun to express concerns at, for instance, Libyans or Iraqis wanting to study plant sciences. Did you know that? And do you find that knowledge reassuring, alarming, alarmist or merely interesting? . . . What would happen if something went seriously wrong with a GM crop trial? We have in this country a prime minister who dismisses sceptics about the new technologies as Luddites and a science minister with an extensive personal and financial interest (held in trust) in biotechnology. The big biotech and pharmaceutical companies are notoriously rich and powerful and, say their critics, increasingly sophisticated in discrediting those who threaten their vested interests.

posted by Lorenzo 3:44 PM

 

Oil Refiners Can Make 'Clean' Hydrogen Too -Shell
MONACO (Reuters) - Oil companies can wrest the initiative from the green lobby by making the clean fuels of the future from their own refineries, but they will need to act quickly if they are to stay ahead of the game, a Shell executive said on Friday. Hydrogen was likely to be a vital clean source of energy, Michiel Boersma, the head of Shell's Global Solutions consultancy, told an industry conference. But he said producing it through the solar-powered electrolysis of water, as green groups would like, would remain costly and difficult for a long time. "While some environmentalists are reluctant to admit it, the refining industry offers a number of very practical ways forward on hydrogen. Refineries can convert fossil fuels to usable hydrogen by gasification far cheaper than the solar model," Boersma said. "This would set the ball rolling on hydrogen, build public acceptance and attract investments into research."

posted by West 9:09 AM

 

Global Warming Blamed for Melting Everest Glacier
GENEVA (Reuters) - A glacier from which Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay set out to conquer Mount Everest nearly 50 years ago has retreated three miles up the mountain due to global warming, a U.N. body says. A team of climbers, backed by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), reported after their two-week visit last month that the impact of rising temperatures was everywhere to be seen. The landscape bears the scars of sudden glacial retreat, while glacial lakes are swollen by melted ice, UNEP spokesman Michael Williams told Reuters on Thursday.

How many more glaciers must melt? How many more icebergs must break off? How many more coral reefs must die? How strong must hurricanes become? How many inches must sea level rise? How high can "record breaking temperatures" get? Just how many more signs do industrialized nations need before we actually believe our leading scientists who are telling us that the Earth is heating up at a rate that can not be explained away by any known natural phenomenon other than homo sapien activity?

posted by West 9:01 AM

 

Australia follows US and rejects Kyoto pact
bbc.co.uk -- Australia says it will not ratify the Kyoto pact on global warming unless the United States and developing countries get fully involved. Japan and the 15 countries of the European Union have ratified the protocol and Australia is under pressure to follow suit. But Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Wednesday refused to consider it. "For us to ratify the protocol would cost us jobs and damage our industry," Mr Howard told parliament. The Kyoto pact, signed in Japan in 1997, requires industrialised countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 8% of the 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. Japan ratified the United Nations agreement on Tuesday, making it the 73rd signatory. The protocol needs to be ratified by nations that together account for 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions before it takes effect. But the agreement still only has support from countries responsible for 36% of gases.

posted by West 9:42 PM

 

World ocean map goes online
cnn.com -- In an effort to focus attention on the failing health of the world's oceans the United Nations has marked World Environment Day with the launch online of a global marine atlas. The atlas will be continuously updated and is designed to track the state of ocean resources including threats to the marine environment such as over-fishing and the effects of climate change on the Earth's ice caps, as well as ship piracy, the spread of poisonous algae and offshore oil. The 14 global maps which form the basis of the electronic atlas, maintained by a coalition of scientific institutions working around the world with the U.N., came out of a commitment made a decade ago at the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

posted by West 9:27 PM

 

Environmental Movement at 40: Is Earth Healthier?
National Geographic -- Forty years ago Rachel Carson, a writer and marine biologist, published Silent Spring, a book documenting the chemical warfare that human beings were waging on the natural world. The book is widely credited with launching today's environmental movement.

posted by West 4:33 PM

 

United Press International: Asian war would wreak eco havoc
UPI -- The deaths of millions and mass destruction resulting from an exchange of nuclear weapons between India and Pakistan would be only the beginning of the human and environmental hazards unleashed, experts in the field told United Press International. In addition to the immediate blast and burn effects, long-term effects would include a dramatic increase in cancer deaths, chromosomal damage leading to spontaneous abortions and genetic defects in newborns, and the injection of large new amounts of nitrogen oxides into the upper atmosphere, further damaging Earth's ozone layer.

posted by West 8:39 PM

 

Bush dismisses global warming report...
washingtonpost.com -- President Bush dismissed on Tuesday a report put out by his administration warning that human activities are behind climate change that is having significant effects on the environment. The report to the United Nations, written by the Environmental Protection Agency, puts most of the blame for recent global warming on the burning of fossil fuels that release carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the environment. But it suggests nothing beyond voluntary action by industry for dealing with the so-called "greenhouse" gases, the program Bush advocated in rejecting a treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997 calling for mandatory reduction of those gases by industrial nations. "I read the report put out by the bureaucracy," Bush said dismissively Tuesday when asked about the EPA report, adding that he still opposes the Kyoto treaty. Japan ratified the international accord Tuesday and urged the United States and other countries to join efforts to fight global warming by cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet gave final approval to the Kyoto Protocol, which passed the upper and lower houses of Parliament last month. The report submitted to the United Nations was the first by the Bush administration to mostly blame human activity for global warming.

posted by West 8:36 PM

 

Bush shifts global warming stance
independent.co.uk -- In a striking reversal, the Bush administration has acknowledged that global warming is a significant problem, rather than merely "an issue". It also accepts that the burning of fossil fuels by human beings, first and foremost by American human beings, is the prime cause. The admission � a first for the White House, which has so far rejected the Kyoto Treaty's stipulation that the emission of greenhouse gases must be cut � comes in a report to the United Nations setting out the impact of global warming on the US itself. The changes are likely to include more extreme weather, such as droughts and wildfires, storms and flooding across the country, as well as the disappearance of eco-systems such as alpine meadows in the Rockies and certain forest types in the southern part of the US. However, forest growth in northern parts of the country may accelerate, and as a result of longer growing seasons food production in some regions may grow. The report, White House officials stress, does not signify a Damascene conversion that will turn Mr Bush's environmental policy on its head. Nor will it mean an overnight change to the habits of a country that accounts for 5 per cent of the world's population but creates 25 per cent of the emissions that cause global warming. Entitled US Climate Action Report 2002, the study concludes that Washington can do nothing to mitigate the effects of the pollutants that are already in the atmosphere. In other words, the report fails to challenge the administration's basic position that climate change is inevitable, and that the most sensible approach is not to try to fight it, but to adapt to it.

posted by West 8:17 AM

 

Oceans losing oxygen due to global warming
SAN DIEGO, June 3 (UPI) -- The same principle that makes soda pop go flat when heated could be causing the oceans to lose oxygen due to global warming, killing marine organisms in delicate deep-ocean ecosystems, scientists announced Monday. "The chemistry and biology of the oceans may change significantly as a consequence of global warming," researcher Ralph Keeling of the University of California in San Diego told United Press International from Germany.

posted by West 8:07 AM

 

Bush agrees with Clinton on U.S. climate
WASHINGTON, June 3 (UPI) -- A new report by the Bush administration acknowledges global warming is occurring and strongly embraces the conclusions of a study on projected U.S. climate change completed during the Clinton administration. The report, titled, "U.S. Climate Action Report - 2002," states, "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing global mean surface air temperature and subsurface ocean temperature to rise." Though citing human influence, the report leaves the door open for wiggle room. "While the changes observed over the last several decades are likely due mostly to human activities, we cannot rule out that some significant part if also a reflection of natural variability," it states. A White House official, speaking on background, told United Press International, "There are some who want to suggest that (the report) is some sort of radical departure from what the administration has said in the past. I would indicate to you that that would be an incorrect assessment."

posted by West 8:03 AM

 

Water crisis hurts U.S.-Mexico farmers: 'The Rio Grande isn't a river anymore'
EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) --Water taps spit mud and silt-laden power lines droop lifelessly along a stretch of the Texas-Mexico border, where the land is parched by drought and politics. For the last two years, residents of Matamoros in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, have often done without water from the end of May through the beginning of September. Across the border, the town of Brownsville, Texas, has lost 30,000 jobs and more than $1 billion in agriculture revenues since 1991, as farmers sell off their land because they have no water to irrigate their crops.

posted by West 1:54 PM

 

Climate Changing, U.S. Says in Report; Bush Admin Admits But Sees Little Hope
The New York Times -- In a stark shift for the Bush administration, the United States has sent a climate report to the United Nations detailing specific and far-reaching effects that it says global warming will inflict on the American environment. In the report, the administration for the first time mostly blames human actions for recent global warming. It says the main culprit is the burning of fossil fuels that send heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But while the report says the United States will be substantially changed in the next few decades -- "very likely" seeing the disruption of snow-fed water supplies, more stifling heat waves and the permanent disappearance of Rocky Mountain meadows and coastal marshes, for example -- it does not propose any major shift in the administration's policy on greenhouse gases. It recommends adapting to inevitable changes. It does not recommend making rapid reductions in greenhouse gases to limit warming, the approach favored by many environmental groups and countries that have accepted the Kyoto Protocol, a climate treaty written in the Clinton administration that was rejected by Mr. Bush. The new document, "U.S. Climate Action Report 2002," strongly concludes that no matter what is done to cut emissions in the future, nothing can be done about the environmental consequences of several decades' worth of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases already in the atmosphere.

posted by West 10:49 AM