Current News
on Global
Warming
“So we’ll wait. Not
enough people dying yet, and not enough
property destroyed. We’ll
keep our
heads in the blazing hot sand until we actually feel the flames of a
full-fledged catastrophe.” (N.Y Times Bob Herbert)
March 25 , 2008..
.Satellite imagery from the University of
Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center shows a portion
of Antarctica's massive Wilkins Ice Shelf has begun to collapse because
of rapid climate change in a fast-warming region of the continent. So
begins a press release from researchers at NSIDC. Ted Scambos, lead
scientist at NSIDC, says "If there is a little bit more retreat, this
last 'ice buttress' could collapse and we'd likely lose about half the
total ice shelf area in the next few years."
See
NSIDC Press Release
January 15, 2008...The year 2007 tied 1998 as the second warmest year
on record; 2005 being the warmest year. An analysis by NASA's Goddard
Institute for Space Studies (GISS) showed that "the unusual warmth in
2007 is noteworthy because it occurs at a time when solar irradiance is
at a minimum and the equatorial Pacific Ocean is in the cool phase of
its natural El Nino – La Nina cycle."
See
GISS 2007 Temperature Analysis
August 30, 2007...NOAA recorded that last year came very close to
being the warmest on record, since 1998. Of the past 12 years 11 of
them have been found to be the warmest on record, since record-keeping
began in 1895.
See NOAA web
page
June 21, 2007...China is now producing the most CO2 of any country in
the world, surpassing the United States. However, per capita the U.S is
emitting over 4 times as much as China, 21 tons per American vs 5 tons
per Chinese. (See
San
Francisco Chronicle &
Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency )
March 22, 2007...In a historic event in Congress today former
Vice-President Al Gore spoke before the Senate Environment and Public
Works Committee, warning the panel of the onrushing impacts of climate
change. Gore also spoke before the House Science and Technology
Committee, where he said, referring to our grandchildren and future
generations: "Either they will ask, 'What in God's name were they
(Congress and the President) doing?' " or "they'll say, 'How did they
find the uncommon courage to rise above politics and redeem the promise
of American democracy?' "
See
San Francisco Chronicle Article
February 2, 2007...The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has
released their latest assessment on global climate change. See their
Summary for Policymakers.
January 31, 2007...The Bush Administration tried to distorted the
science on climate change and "mislead the public", says
Rep.
Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, the chairman of the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee. See
San Francisco Chronicle Article
December 12, 2006...Arctic summer sea ice is projected to
disappear by
2040.
See BBC
News Online
November 10, 2006...
"The
global growth in carbon dioxide emissions
from fossil fuels was 4 times greater in the period between 2000 to
2005 than
in the preceding 10 years.... Despite efforts to reduce carbon
emissions, the global growth rate in CO2 was 3.2% in the five years to
2005 compared to 0.8% in the period 1990 to 1999.
" Earth
System Science Partnership Press Release
October 30, 2006...
A report by
British government economist Nicholas Stern says that climate
change inaction could lead to economic upheaval throughout
the world, decades
before the end of the century. See
Planet Ark article Read
Stern Report
September
8, 2006...According to
NOAA,
"the first seven months of 2006
was the warmest January-July of any year the
United
States since records began in 1895."
August 31, 2006...California passed landmark climate change
legislation, reducing future greenhouse gas emissions by about 25%, by
2020.
August 11,
2006...Greenland ice is melting at an astonishing
pace,
according to data collected from satellite images.
See
San Francisco Chronicle article
June 21, 2006...The US
Energy
Information Administration said in its annual forecast that
"carbon dioxide (CO
2) emissions from energy use are
projected to increase from 5,900 million metric tons (1.593 billion
tons of carbon) in 2004 to 7,587 million metric tons (2.049 billion
tons of carbon) in 2025 and 8,114 million metric tons (2,191 billion
tons of carbon) in 2030."
April 26, 2006... Temperatures at the Earth's surface increased by an
estimated 1.4°F (0.8°C) between 1900 and 2005. The past decade
was the hottest of the past 150 years and perhaps the past millennium.
The hottest 22 years on record have occurred since 1980, and 2005 was
the hottest on record.
Pew Global Climate Change Center
March 14, 2006...Atmospheric CO2 has climbed to 381 parts per million
(ppm), 100 ppm above pre-industrial times. Dr. Pieter Tans, senior
scientist with NOAA says,
"We don't see
any sign of a decrease; in
fact, we're seeing the opposite, the rate of increase is accelerating,"
The UK's chief
scientific adviser, Professor Sir
David King, says "Today
we're over 380 ppm. That's
higher than we've been for over a million years, possibly 30 million
years.
Mankind is changing the climate."
Read
more in BBC report
February 17, 2006...A new study demonstrating the accelerated pace of
glaciers meltdown in Greenland has alarmed climate scientists.
In 1996, the
amount of water produced by melting
ice in Greenland was about 90
times the amount consumed by Los Angeles in a year.
Last year, the melted ice amounted to 225
times the volume of water that L.A. uses
annually. See
San Francisco Chronicle Article
January 24, 2006...NASA announced today that 2005 was the warmest year
on record. Previous year with the highest temperature was 1998,
See
Planet Ark Report
January 12, 2006...In a new study published in the journal Nature, lead
author,
J.
Alan Pounds of the Tropical Science Center's Monteverde
Cloud Forest Preserve in Costa Rica, and 13
other researchers point to climate change as the cause of the
dying off of 65 amphibian species in Central and South America. Chytrid
fungus has wiped out dozens of species of harlequin frogs and these
researchers indicate that climate change is the underlying reason.
Pounds says that, "Disease is
the bullet killing frogs, but
climate change is pulling the trigger.Global warming
is wreaking havoc on amphibians and will cause staggering losses of
biodiversity if we don't do something first." See
San Francisco Chronicle Article
December 30, 2005...According to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space
Studies, "the highest global surface temperature in more than a century
of instrumental data was recorded in the 2005 meteorological year
(December 2004 through November 2005) in the GISS annual analysis.
However, the error bar on the data implies that 2005 is practically in
a dead heat with 1998, the warmest previous year. The same conclusion
should apply to the calendar year, as differences between
meteorological year and calendar year are usually negligible."
NASA Goddard Institute
for Space Studies web site
December 28, 2005...Record losses of $57.6 billion came in the
aftermath of the three major hurricanes, Katrina, Rita and Wilma that
hit southeastern U.S, said Advisen,, Ltd.
See
Planet Ark Report
November 25, 2005...European researchers analyzing Antarctic ice core
samples determined there is more carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere now than at any point during the last 650,000 years.
See
San Francisco Chronicle Article
October 21, 2005..."Well, in my 15 years of operational forecasting,
I've never seen a storm go from a tropical storm, then to a hurricane,
then to a Category 5 in 12 hours." (Bernie Rayno, senior meteorologist
at
Accuweather, speaking of Hurricane Wilma on the
NewsHour
with Jim Lehrer)
September 27, 2005...Article by Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press
Writer: According to a new NOAA index recently released, atmospheric
greenhouse gases have increased about 20% since 1990.
See Climate
Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory page and
See
San Francisco Chronicle
Some
References to Web Sites May Have Lost Link
September 16, 2005...
The deadliest hurricanes, that is, category 4 and 5 hurricanes (
See
Saffir-Simpson Scale), have, during the period 1990 through
2004, almost doubled, since the period 1970 - 1985. That is, globally
there has been an increase of an annual average of 10 to an annual rate
of 18 category 4 and 5 hurricanes, during the years 1990 through 2004.
The increase in intensity of hurricanes is the direct result of an
increase in water temperature of .5 to 1 degree Fahrenheit says
researcher
Professor
Peter Webster and other researchers.
(See
September 16, 2005 article in the journal
Science)
August 29, 2005...On this day the eye of hurricane Katrina made
landfall in Louisiana, especially New Orleans. Katrina hit Mississippi,
Alabama, the Florida Panhandle, and the worst hurricane in US history
went on to yield a death toll of 1289. While costing $23 billion
in insurance claims, estimated reconstruction cost of Katrina is about
$200 billion.
August 12, 2005...Scientists,
John R.
Christy and Roy W. Spencer of the University of Alabama, who
disputed the threat of climate change, have now conceded that they had
miscalculated in their findings that the troposphere (that
portion of the atmosphere that extends up about five miles) was not
showing any evidence of warming. Three papers
were published yesterday in the
online edition of the journal Science that challenges Christy and
Spencers' findings. "Things
being debated now are details about the (climate)
models," said Steven Sherwood, the lead author one of the studies and
an atmospheric physicist at Yale. "Nobody is debating any more
that significant climate changes are coming." (Article by Andrew
C. Revkin in
New
York Times )
June 6, 2005...Ending a five-day UN World Environment conference in San
Francisco, .more than 50 city mayors from around the world signed a
series of pacts on Sunday, addressing climate change, safe drinking
water and other conditions of urban centers. See
Planet Ark Story
June 1, 2005...California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an
executive order establishing aggressive emissions targets for the
state, calling for reductions in greenhouse
gas emissions by 11% below current levels by 2010, 25% by 2020, and 80%
by
2050. See
Governor Schwarzenegger's Press Release at
http://www.governor.ca.gov/state/govsite/gov_htmldisplay.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1468121853.1118599868
@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccccaddelhgldkfcfngcfkmdffidfnf.0&sCatTitle=Exec+Order&sFilePath=/govsite/executive_orders
/20050601_S-3-05.html&sTitle=Executive+Order+S-3-05&iOID=69591
April 29, 2005...Dr. James Hansen
, who is
director of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Institute for Space
Studies at
the Columbia University Earth Institute says that if a trend, as
signified by warming oceans, is allowed to continue unabated, there
could be a 10 degree jump. See
San Francisco Chronicle Story
March 31, 2005...
Atmospheric carbon
dioxide levels have
increased from about 315 ppm in 1958 to 378
ppm at the end of 2004, which means human activities have increased the
concentration of atmospheric CO2 by 100 ppm or 36 percent, since the
mid-1800’s.
The growth rate of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere over the past decade was
about twice
as fast as that found in the 1960s. http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2412.htm
Some
References to Web Sites May Have Lost Link
"The most
striking thing about the data is that we've seen an increase in carbon
dioxide
levels every single year since 1958." Says Dr. Pieter Tans, director of
US
government's Climate Monitoring
Diagnostics Laboratory, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4395817.stm
February
16, 2005…Today
the Kyoto Protocol becomes effective for 34 industrial countries, which
produce
55% of global emissions of carbon dioxide. The United
States, the sole nonparticipating
industrial
country, and the biggest emitter of CO2 (emitting 23% of global carbon
dioxide
emissions) stands to gain economically by excluding itself from the
treaty.
While rainforests, tundra are now becoming net emitters of CO2, while
permafrost
housing billions of tons of carbon over10s of thousands of years begin
emitting
greenhouse gases, while the planet loses the reflective ability of
diminishing
ice on the poles, while fire and insects are destroying CO2 absorbing
forests, while
the planet and its species gallop towards extreme weather and loss of
life and
property, President George W. Bush and his administration have chosen
the
exploitive low road.
January 13, 2005...“Global
temperatures in 2004 were 0.54°C (0.97°F) above the long-term
(1880-2003)
average**, ranking 2004 the fourth warmest year on record. The warmest
year on
record is 1998, having an anomaly of 0.63°C (1.13°F), followed
by 2002 and 2003
both having an anomaly of 0.56°C (1.01°F). Land temperatures in
2004 were
0.83°C (1.50°F) above average, ranking fourth in the period of
record while
ocean temperatures were third warmest with 0.42°C (0.76°F)
above the 1880-2003
mean.” NCDC:
Climate of 2004 - Annual Review
December 2, 2004…Peter Stott, of the Hadley Centre
for
Climate Prediction and Research in England, said, "We are responsible
for
increasing significantly the risk of such heat waves, largely through
greenhouse gas emissions" …. "If we carry on as usual with
emissions, our predictions indicate that every other year will be as
hot as
2003 by the middle of the century."
See
Planet Ark Story
September
25, 2004...Hurricane
Jeanne, a Category 3 storm, will be the Florida's
fourth hurricane in six weeks -- a scenario unmatched in more than a
century.
Hurricane Charley struck Aug. 13 striking southwest Florida, then
followed by
Frances, which struck Labor Day weekend; and then followed by Ivan,
which hit
the western Panhandle on September 16. See
Associated Press article by Jill Barton in San Francisco Chronicle
September 24, 2004...Glaciers in Antarctica are flowing up to eight
times faster
than before and entering the Weddell Sea. NASA researchers' findings in
two
separate studies suggest climate change can lead to rapid sea level
rise. See
Planet Ark Story
Some
References to Web Sites May Have Lost Link
June 10, 2004...Swiss Re, the world's second largest reinsurer,
has said the cost of natural disasters, aggravated by climate change,
could
double to $150 billion annually in 10 years. See
Planet Ark Story See 40 year
Graph
May 20, 2004...A
thawing
of vast ice-like deposits of gas under oceans and in permafrost could
sharply
accelerate global warming in the 21st century, British-based scientists
said
yesterday. See
Planet Ark Story Also See
Environmental
News Network Story
May 18, 2004...
Arctic
temperatures are warming rapidly, says polar explorer. Summer
temperatures in
the Arctic have risen at an incredible rate
over the
past three years, and large patches of what should be ice are now open
water, a
British polar explorer said Monday. Read the Entire
Environmental News Network Story
May 17, 2004...Britain has urged the United States to join urgent
efforts to
combat global warming even though President George W. Bush has rejected
cooperation under the U.N.'s Kyoto protocol.Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw reiterated that Britain reckoned that global
climate
change, largely blamed on emissions from burning oil, gas and coal, was
"the most important long-term issue which we face as a global
community". See
Planet Ark Story
May 13, 2004...Australian
scientists have found the Earth may be more resilient to global warming
than
first thought, and they say a warmer world means a wetter planet,
encouraging
more plants to grow and soak up greenhouse gases."The
global water cycle has changed in response to greenhouse emissions,"
almost 100 Australian greenhouse scientists said in an annual statement
on
their research received on Wednesday. "As the world warms it is, on
average, getting wetter," said the scientists, who met recently under
the
banner of Australia's
Cooperative Research
Center for Greenhouse
Accounting.
Read the Entire Environmental News Network Story
Some
References to Web Sites May Have Lost Link
May 12, 2004...It
is
just another digitally enhanced disaster movie, but campaigners hope
"The
Day After Tomorrow," a climate change Armageddon blockbuster, will have
a
lasting special effect on respect for the planet. 20th Century Fox's
$125
million film opens in cinemas worldwide on May 28. Riding on its coat
tails is
an army of environmentalists hoping it will win new recruits to their
cause.
Roland Emmerich of "Independence Day"
and
"Godzilla" fame directs a story of how global warming caused by man's
insatiable desire to keep burning oil, gas and coal, melts the polar
ice caps
and neutralizes warm ocean currents to trigger an Ice Age. Read
the Entire Planet Ark Article
May 11, 2004...The
Indian Ocean could lose most of its coral islands in the next 50 years
if sea
temperatures continue to rise and reefs badly damaged by global warming
do not
recover, a marine scientist said Monday. Global warming triggered the
death of
between 50 and 98 percent of coral reefs in a region stretching from
northern Mozambique
to Eritrea
to Indonesia
in 1998 and although there has been some recovery, scientists remain
concerned. Read
the Entire Planet Ark Article
March 21, 2003...Atmospheric
CO2 content, as measured by the Mauna Loa Observatory, has reached 379 ppm, compared with 376 ppm
last
year. This is a big jump, as the average annual increase has been about
1.8 ppm over the last 10 years. (San
Francisco Chronicle
article, by Charles J. Hanley, Associated Press);
December 12, 2003...At the U.N. climate conference in Milan, Italy,
Thomas Loster, head of weather and climate
risks research at
Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurer
said,
"The extremes around the world are on the increase.....We will have to
get
used to the fact that extreme summers, like the one we had in Europe
this year,
are to be expected more frequently in the future and that they will
become more
or less the norm by the middle of the century." See
Planet Ark Story
December 11, 2003...Yesterday in Milan, Italy during an
international
conference on the Kyoto Protocol, Senator James Inhofe, R-Okla.,
the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public
Works, said
that "Kyoto and its policies are inconsistent with freedom, prosperity,
and environmental policy progress..........I'm becoming more and more
convinced, as time goes by and we look at the research, that global
warming is
the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people and the
world." See
Environmental News
Network Story
Some
References to Web Sites May Have Lost Link
December 2, 2003...The
hurricane season ended Sunday, November 30, with 14 named tropical
storms, 7 of
which became hurricanes. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
said that the years from 1995 through 2003 was a record period for
Atlantic
hurricanes. See
Planet Ark Story
November 26, 2003...For states that typically get snow, 197 of 260
weather
stations have reported fewer days with snowfall since 1948, according
to
statistics provided by Dale Kaiser, a meteorologist in the Carbon
Dioxide
Information Analysis Center at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge
National
Laboratory. The survey looked at the 30-day period from Nov. 25 to Dec.
24 from
1948 to 2001. The decrease in the number of snow days has been
especially
pronounced east of the Mississippi River, where
117 of
125 stations reported an average of five fewer days with snowfall
during the
past 5 1/2 decades. See Newswise
Story
November 21, 2003...Global
carbon emissions are expected to increase by 3.5 billion tons, from
about 6.5
billions to around 10 billion by 2020, according to ExxonMobil
global planning manager, Randy Broiles. See
Planet Ark story
October 6, 2003...According
to lead author NASA biologist Watson W. Gregg and other researchers,
climate
change is causing loss productivity of phytoplankton, bottom of the
food chain.
Due to increasing ocean temperatures during the last two decades,
primary
production of plankton in the North Pacific decreased by more than 9
percent,
by 7 percent in the North Atlantic and 10 percent in the Antarctic
basin (San
Francisco Chronicle, October 6, 2003, article by David Perlman;
see also OCEAN
PLANT LIFE SLOWS DOWN AND ABSORBS LESS CARBON )
Some
References to News Sources May Have Lost Link
September 26, 2003...France's
August heat wave claimed around 15,000 lives, more than previously
thought, the
Inserm national medical research institute
said
yesterday in a report commissioned by the government. See
Planet Ark Story
September 25, 2003...In
the journal, Nature, todays issue,
researchers Ken Caldeira and Michael Wickett, at
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have reported in a study that
their
computer models and experiments point to carbon emissions as a source of increasing acidity to the planet's oceans,
threatening marine species. Acidity of the seas will increase more
rapidly over
the next 1000 years than it has over the past 300 million years. Such
acidity
would endanger coral, home to 25% of the world's marine species, many
types of
calcium-containing plankton and all the shelled marine animals (Taken
from San
Francisco Chronicle article by David Perlman,
September 25, 2003).
September 12, 2003...Italian
officials have now numbered at least 4,175 deaths from the European
heat wave
that hit in August.
August 29, 2003...France
reported that the number of deaths from the August heat wave has soared
to
11,435. The country's top health official has resigned but Health
Minister
Jean-Francois Mattei has so far refused
calls to step
down. See CNN.com
August 19, 2003...France's
equivalent of the U.S. Surgeon General, Director-General of Health
Lucien Abenhaim, resigned after that
country's health minister disclosed
that up to 5,000 people may have died in the heat wave that hit Europe
this month. Abenheim's resignation was
expected to
increase pressure on Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei
to resign. (Story by Jamey Keaten,
Associated Press)
August 7, 2003...Because
of a prolonged drought and heat wave in Europe,
the Danube River
in eastern Serbia
is at its lowest point in over a hundred years. See ENN Story
Some References to News Sources May Have Lost Link
July 21, 2003...Study
shows that some coral reefs in Caribbean have
declined
by up to 80 percent. See Environmental
News
Network (ENN) Story
June 10, 2003...An
unrelenting heat wave hit India
this summer, killing over 1500 people, as temperatures soared to 115
degrees
Fahrenheit. Read
on
March 28, 2003...The
UK's House of Commons will vote today on the second reading of the
Sustainable
Energy Bill, which includes a measure that will target a 60% reduction
in
carbon emissions by 2050.
March 7, 2003...A
new
federal study finds increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere
could
lead to an increase in the number of extreme precipitation events in
the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
This could then increase the frequency of flooding in California,
according to the study funded by the National Space and Aeronautics
Administration's (NASA) Earth Science Enterprise. See
ENS
article
Some References to News Sources May Have Lost Link
February 4, 2003...Many
of the federal government's renewable energy and energy efficiency
research
programs would see little new money or would be cut under President
Bush's
proposed 2004 budget that was sent to Congress Monday. Global warming
still has
not made an impression on the President as research funding for the
Energy
Department's energy efficiency and renewable energy programs would
increase
just $1.3 million, or 0.1 percent, to $1.32 billion for the 2004
spending year
that begins this Oct. 1. However, research money for wind energy would
fall 5.5
percent, while solar energy funding would increase 0.1 percent. See ENN Article By Tom Doggett, Reuters
January 31, 2003...A
new
study says that about 4,500 square kilometres
(1,740
square miles) of land, including beaches and farmland, in Italy
is threatened by permanent flooding from rising seas. See
Planet Ark news item
December 18...The World Meteorological Organisation
(WMO), a United Nations agency, said that 2002 was the second warmest
year in
weather-recorded history, 1998 remaining the warmest year on record.
The 10
warmest years had all occurred since 1987, nine since 1990. "Clearly
for
the past 25 or 26 years, the warming is accelerating...The rate of
increase is
unprecedented in the last 1,000 years," Kenneth Davidson, director of WMO's world climate programme
told a news briefing. See
Planet Ark
news item
November 25, 2002...VANCOUVER, British Columbia - An epidemic of
tree-killing beetles is spreading rapidly through the forests in
Canada's
largest lumber exporting province, with the deadly insects now found in
a area
nearly three-quarters the size of Sweden, officials said....The tiny
pine
beetles, which have been spreading almost unchecked through British
Columbia
for several years because of unusually warm winters, have seriously
infested 9
million acres (3.6 million hectares) of forests and have now destroyed
up 108
million cubic metres of lodgepole
pine timber..."This is clearly an epidemic of catastrophic
proportion," said Larry Pedersen, British Columbia's chief
forester.
See
Planet Ark story and see this site's Threat
of
Global Warming for more detail
Some
References to
News Sources May Have Lost Link
November 20, 2002...Toyota
Motor Corp said it had become the first automaker to win government
approval to
market fuel-cell passenger cars, touted as the eventual answer to most
of the
environmental concerns caused by conventional vehicles. The vehicles
will be
leased at a cost of 1.2 million yen ($9,970) a month under a 30-month
contract.
They will be made available to government bodies, research institutions
and
energy-related companies.
See
Planet Ark story
October 31, 2002...Prime
Minister Jean Chretien said this week "My
intention - as long as something unusual doesn't happen - is that we
will
ratify Kyoto before
Christmas," he told reporters in French after a cabinet meeting. See
Planet
Ark story
October 30, 2002...Only
3.5 % of 2003 passenger vehicles (just 33 of the 934 new models) get 30
miles/gallon or more, according to the EPA's 2003 Fuel Economy Guide.
In terms
of addressing global warming, this is a major dropoff
from last years figures (48 of the 865 vehicles), 5.5% of the 2002
vehicles
getting 30 mpg or better.
(San Francisco Chronicle, story by Carol Emert)
September 4, 2002...China
has ratified the Kyoto Protocol. As a developing country, China
is not bound by emission reductions of the Kyoto
agreement. However, ratification of the Kyoto
document by the world's second largest polluter is an important event
in
environmental history. Planet
Ark story on China's ratification
July 18, 2002...Attorneys
General from 11 states criticized President Bush for failing to adopt a
comprehensive policy to fight global warming.(see
Environmental
News Network - Note that many of the reference items found on this
page may
be discontinued on the web by the media source)
June 19, 2002...The
Union of Concerned Scientists released polling results,
conducted by Zogby International, showing
that
Americans are not supporting the Bush administration's approach in
addressing
climate change. Moreover, the poll demostrates
overwhelming support for the use of renewable energy in overcoming
global warming.
Some
References to
News Sources May Have Lost Link
June 19, 2002...Today the Los Angeles City Council passed a
resolution
endorsing the Kyoto Protocol and calling for Senators Dianne Feinstein
and
Barbara Boxer to push for ratification.
June 14, 2002... In western China floods killed 223 people and drove
320,000
people out of their homes due to the heaviest rains on record, said
disaster
officials. Floods and mudslides stretched for hundreds of miles across
six
provinces, from Xinjiang to Hubei,
bringing death and destruction. (San Francisco Chronicle) Also see threat of increasing floods
June 6, 2002...Conservative organizations called on President Bush
to
withdraw EPA report (see June 5, 2002 below item) that says humans
causing
climate change. (Scripps Howard News Service as reported in San
Francisco
Chronicle)
June 5, 2002...By
the
2030s, climate change may be causing more damage to the ozone layer
than
chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), suggests a new study by the National Aeronautics and Atmospheric
Administration (NASA). (Environmental News Service,
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-05-09.asp#anchor3)
Some
References to
News Sources May Have Lost Link
June 5, 2002...President
Bush disavows EPA report made public yesterday, saying that the report
was a
product of government "bureaucracy." (Reuters News Service - See
article )
June 4, 2002...The EPA issued a major report saying that greenhouse
gas
emissions will increase in the coming decades due to mostly human
activities.
Fossil fuel emissions are important causes of global warming.(Reuters
News Service - See
article )
May 31, 2002...Greece and Italy became the last two European
Countries to
ratify the Kyoto Protocol today. Ratification documents of all EU
countries are
jointly deposited with the United Nations. Japan is scheduled to ratify
within
a week and Poland sometime in June. Russia is expected to ratify by
summer's
end, which will enable developed countries to meet the final criterion
for the
Kyoto Protocol to become effective, that is, ratification by those
industrial
countries producing 55% of greenhouse gases.
May 21, 2002...A press conference took place today in Venice, Italy,
making
public a letter to President George W. Bush, asking him to reconsider
his position
on the Kyoto Protocol. Participants were Venice Mayor Paolo Costa,
Oakland
Mayor Jerry Brown, Barcelona Mayor Joan Clos
and
members of the Italian Senate and Parliament .
See letter and signatory list
May 3, 2002...Japan and New Zealand yesterday affirmed their
commitment to
the Kyoto climate change pact aimed at cutting the emission of
greenhouse
gases. (Planet Ark,
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15784/story.htm)
March 27, 2002...The National Climatic Data Center says that 2001
was the
second warmest year on record behind the year 1998.
Some
References to
News Sources May Have Lost Link
January 31, 2002...In a ten year study appearing today in the
British
medical journal, Lancet, University of Southern California scientists
have
determined that smog not only aggravates asthma, but is also a cause of
the
respiratory illness. (See the Washington Post web site
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6057-2002Jan31.html)
December 18, 2001... "The year 2001 is projected to the second
warmest
on record, the World Meteorological Organization said today. Record
floods and
record droughts across the globe accompanied this year's high
temperatures." (Environmental News Network article)
December 13, 2001...Yesterday at the American Geophysical Union in
San
Francisco, Dr. Richard Alley, climate expert at Pennsylvania State
University
and lead author of a new National Academy of Sciences report on the
threat of
rapid climactic shifts, said that temperatures could ratchet up a
possible 18
degrees Fahrenheit over just a few decades. The higher temperatures
could then
endure for thousands of years.(Environmental
News
Network article by Andrew Quinn, Reuters, see
http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/12/12132001/reu_45873.asp)
November 10, 2001...Carbon emissions increased by 3.1% in the U.S.
in 2000.
This is the biggest jump since the 3.6% increase in 1996. Presently we
are
13.6% higher in carbon emissions than we were in 1990. (AP article by
John Heilprin, appeared in November 10
edition of the San
Francisco Chronicle)
November 9, 2001...Final agreement on the terms for implementing the
Kyoto
Protocol was reached today in Marrekech.
While the
United States stood by on the sidelines, representatives of 171
countries
agreed to rules governing the enforcement of the Kyoto agreement,
signed
December 11, 1997.
October 5, 2001...Few 2002 models will get more than 30 mpg. The
average
fuel economy of all car and truck models sold in the U.S. has fallen to
20.4
miles per gallon, the lowest level in two decades, the U.S.Environmental
Protection Agency reported this week. (Environmental News Service)
August 24, 2001... Writing in today's issue of the journal
"Science," associate professor Mark Jacobson and teaching professor
Gilbert Masters, two energy experts from Stanford's Department of Civil
and
Environmental Engineering, conclude that wind power is an abundant,
clean and
affordable alternative to coal and other fossil fuels. The cost of wind
energy
is now less than that of coal. (See How a
Mobilization of Renewable Resources Would Work )
Some
References to
News Sources May Have Lost Link
July 23, 2001...Environmental ministers from 180 nations reached
agreement
in implementing the Kyoto Protocol. At this point there will be no
participation by the United States in this international agreement.
(ENN)
March 29, 2001..."We'll
be working with our allies to reduce greenhouse gases, but I will not
accept a
plan that will harm our economy and hurt American workers," said
President
Bush to reporters today, soundly rejecting the Kyoto
Protocol....(Environmental News Network, March 30, 2001)
March 14, 2001...President Bush today backed off his campaign pledge
to
reduce carbon emissions from the country's power plants. Nationwide
coal-burning power plants produce the most carbon dioxide and account
for more
than 50% of the electricity generated. (Washington Post)
February 19, 2001...According
to a United Nations report, 'Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation
and
Vulnerability,' third world countries, including island states, will
bear the
brunt of global warming . The report - the
second of
three - states that Africa will suffer desertification, poorer harvests
and
water shortages. Drought, floods and population migrations will affect
Asia.
Worldwide damage to ecosystems will hit fisheries, coral reefs and ice
caps and
glaciers. (International Herald Tribune, 19 February, p4)
January 23, 2001...The IPCC has issued a new assessment and projects
an
increased range of potential temperature increases from 2.5 to 10.4
degrees
(Fahrenheit). United Nations Environment Programme
Executive Director Klaus Topfer warns, "
We must
move ahead boldly with clean energy technologies, and we should start
preparing
ourselves now for the rising sea levels, changing rain patterns and
other
impacts of global warming." ..............New analyses of data from
tree
rings, corals, ice cores and historical records for the northern
hemisphere
show that the increase in temperature in the 20th century is the
largest of any
century during the past 1000 years. (Environmental News Service,
January 22,
2001, article titled Evidence of Rapid Global Warming Accepted by
99
Nations)
November 26, 2000...Negotiations have been going on for two weeks in
an
attempt to get agreements among the industrial countires
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. The talks ended today
without an
agreement. Disagreement among the industrial countries centered around
a
dispute between the European Union and the United
States,that is, the desire
of the
U.S to use its forests as carbon sinks to offset part of its emissions
reductions targets. Also environmentalists were antagonistic towards a
proposal
that would allow the U.S to fund the building of nuclear power plants
in
developing countries, thereby providing a commensurate reduction of
U.S.
emissions.
October 26, 2000...The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) released
a preliminary summary of revised findings, which will be finalized at a
January, 2001 meeting in Shanghai. Among the new assessments was the
finding
that the higher estimate of predicted temperature increase by the end
of the
century was revised from 6 degrees to
11 degrees
Fahrenheit. Comparatively, the planet has experienced a 5 to 9 degree
Fahrenheit increase from the depths of the last ice age about 18,000
years ago.
(New York Times, October 26, 2000, article by Andrew C. Revkin).
Some
References to
News Sources May Have Lost Link
October 5, 2000...During the Vice-President debates, Joseph
Lieberman
mentioned an interesting statistic. "If we can get 3 miles more per
gallon
from our cars, we'll save 1 million barrels of oil a day, which is
exactly what
the (Arctic National Wildlife) Refuge at its best in Alaska would
produce."
September 25, 2000...In a report appearing in the journal Science
last week,
scientists at the Max Planck Institute or Biogeochemistry in Jena,
Germany
indicated that old trees were best at fighting global warming. The
researchers
showed that old, wild forests are much better than plantations of young
trees
in taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The United States and
other
industrial countries want to use plantations of new trees to meet the
goals of
the Kyoto Protocol. These researchers say that the old forests must be
protected by the Kyoto agreement, while new plantations are established
to optomize the absorption of atmospheric
CO2. So far there is
no indication that such protections will be included in the agreement.
(San
Francisco Chronicle, September 25, 2000).
September 22, 2000...A new study appearing in the journal Science
says that
old forests are far more effective in taking carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere
than plantations of young trees. The U.S. and other countries want to
use new
tree plantations as a method of meeting the goals of the Kyoto
Protocol.
However, without a provision in the treaty to prevent the cutting down
of old
trees, the temptation is strong to replace the old with the new trees.
The
study's authors are Dr. Ernst-Detlef
Schulze,
director of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena,
Germany and
two other scientists at the institute. (New York Times, September 22,
2000,
article by Andrew C. Revkin)
September 18, 2000...According to the National Climatic Data Center,
this
year, as of August 31, has been the warmest year in U.S history.
Globally,
temperatures in 2000, so far, have been the second warmest on record.(Natural Resources Defense Council journal,
Amicus, Fall,
2000)
September 15, 2000...In a study appearing today in the journal,
Science, a
research team led by Lonnie G. Thompson, and including Ellen
Mosley-Thompson,
analyzed ice cores from some of the most remote mountains in the world.
Their
results point to a rapid melting of glaciers, and particularly show
that the
last century has been the hottest period in 1000 years in the Himalayan
Mountains. See More on Melting Ice
September 1, 2000...The World Wildlife Fund has just released a
landmark
report on global warming and its effect on the future of many plants
and
animals. According to the report, a doubling of atmospheric carbon
dioxide may
lead to loss of 35% of the world's existing terrestrial habitats, with
no
certainty there will be replacement ecosystems bringing similar species
diversity. Download
Full WWF Report (A PDF File) On This Page
August 19, 2000...In a recent study, Dr.James
E.
Hansen, one of the prevailing voices on global warming, says that the
emphasis
on carbon dioxide may be a mistake. He and other colleagues of NASA's
Goddard
Institute for Space Studies state that the quickest way to slow climate
change
is to cut other greenhouse gases first. Some scientists criticized
parts of the
study, but agreed that an emphasis in reducing other greenhouse gases
could
make an impact in slowing global warming, as
long as carbon dioxide reductions were also made. (Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times) (for
a look at this study see Global
Warming in
the 21st Century: An Alternative Scenario )
July 21, 2000...According to a study appearing today in the journal
Science,
global warming is melting ice to the tune of 50 billion tons of water a
year
from the Greenland ice sheet. This is increasing the likelihood of
coastal
flooding around the world. (Associated Press)
June 17, 2000...The
National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reports that Spring
2000 has been the warmest yet in the U.S, since weather record keeping
began
back in the mid-1800's. From March through May all
of the 48
contiguous states experienced above normal temperatures for the 3-month
period.
(Carl T. Hall, San Francisco Chronicle).
June 12, 2000...The
U.S.
Global Change Research Program released
today
its National Assessment of Potential Consequences of Climat>
Transfer interrupted!
assesses the impact of
global
warming on various regions and economic and resource sectors in the U.S.
For a look at the report see National
Assessment.
May 30, 2000...Greenhouse
gases threaten to aid in growing arctic ozone hole.
See page Future Threat of Global Warming.
(Washington
Post article based on the journal, Science, May 26, 2000 issue)
Some
References to
News Sources May Have Lost Link
April 30, 2000...Research
just published in the Royal Swedish
Academy of Science reports
that the
Earth is now hotter than at any time in recorded
human
history. Until now, many scientists believed that this planet was
hotter in the
Middle Ages. The new research by scientists,
Professor
Thomas Crowley and Thomas Lowery of Texas A & M University and
published by
the Royal Academy in its magazine, Ambio-
has
examined 15 different records (including tree rings, ice cores from
Tibet, old
English shipping records, ancient Chinese writings, mud from the bottom
of the
Sargasso Sea) of past climates from around the world. (Article by
Geoffrey Lean
appeared in the London Independent)
February 23, 2000...According
to Thomas Karl, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's National Climatic
Data Center,
the current pace of temperature rise is "consistent with a rate of 5.4
to
6.3 degrees Fahrenheit per century." This represents the top extreme of
the IPCC's projection of temperature
increase by the
end of this century.
November 17, 1999...Scientists
have discovered that the average thickness of Arctic sea ice during the
years
from 1993 through 1997 was about six feet. But during the years from
1958
through 1976, the average thickness was 10 feet. Since
the ice is already floating in water, there would be no effect
on sea
level rise. Researchers say that the thinning is continuing at four
inches per
year. Although there is a question whether this is climate change
related, some
scientists claim that global warming is behind the thinning.(New
York Times)
November 6, 1999...At
the Bonn conference on
climate
change most countries voiced their approval of advancing the effective
date of
the Kyoto Protocol
from
2008-2012 to 2002.(Associated Press)
October 25, 1999...Representatives
from 168 countries opened a two-week conference today in Bonn,
Germany, taking
aim at
reducing global greenhouse emissions. In December, 1997, a United
Nations
conference in Kyoto, Japan
agreed to a 5.2% cut in greenhouse gases for industrialized nations
from 1990 levels by 2008-2012. Today,
German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder surprised conference attendees by calling for nations to
implement
the Kyoto Protocol by 2002. (Reuters)
October 21, 1999...Climate
experts have punctured the balloon of US hopes to plant trees to absorb
its
carbon emissions. Scientists say that planting trees is totally
inadequate to
compensate for 6 billion tons of carbon emitted annually.(New
Scientist Magazine)
September 15, 1999...
President Clinton speaking in New
Zealand
said," Unless we change course, most scientists believe the seas will
rise
so high they will swallow whole islands and coastal areas. Storms like
hurricanes and droughts both will intensify. Diseases like malaria will
be
borne by mosquitoes to higher and higher altitudes and across borders,
threatening more lives, a phenomena we
already see
today in Africa."
August 25, 1999...The
well-preserved body of an ancient man, thought to be at least 5000
years old,
was discovered yesterday at the site of a melting glacier in Glacier
Bay National Park
in Alaska. (Source:
James Brooke,
New York Times) As melting of glaciers on 5 continents is escalating,
the
discoveries of ancient life forms should increase, accordingly.
August 14, 1999...The
Gutz Glacier in the Swiss Alps crumbled
today, sending
chunks of ice falling into the valley below. Authorities closed off
fields and
roads that lead to the popular resort of Grindelwald
near the Alpine glacier. (Source: Earth Week by Steve Newman, San
Francisco
Chronicle)
August 2, 1999...Death
toll rose today to 80 in Illinois
in the aftermath of last week's record-breaking heat wave. Many east
coast
cities set heat records for the month of July. (Source: Associated
Press)
June 19, 1999...Melting
Alaskan
glacier, the Columbia Glacier, is spawning icebergs, threatening
shipping
lanes. (Source: Reuters)
June 6, 1999...Researchers
at the University of Miami
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say there is a
link
between deep pockets of warm water emanating from the Yucatan
Strait and the ability of
storms to
intensify. (Source: Scott Gold, Sun-Sentinel, South Florida)
April 30, 1999...
Honda
stops making fully electric car. Honda will offer instead in December a
one-liter, three-cylinder gas engine, boosted by a separate electric
motor.
Honda expects the car to get about 70 miles per gallon, and will sell
for less
than $20,000.
Some
References to
News Sources May Have Lost Link
March 5, 1999...Greenland's
ice sheet has thinned dramatically at the southern and eastern edges,
many
parts of which have lost 3 to 6
feet
in thickness per year since 1993, a new study by NASA's Goddard
Space Flight
Center
facility at Wallops Island, Virginia.
"There was very consistent thinning along the east coast and southern
tip
of Greenland," said William B.Krabill,
project scientist. (Source: Curt Suplee, Washington
Post)
January 26, 1999...President
Clinton has proposed $4 billion in spending and tax breaks to help deal
with
global warming.
January 12, 1999...NASA
announced today that 1998 was the hottest year on record. This makes it
6 years
in the 1990's that have produced the highest temperatures since
recordkeeping
began in the mid-1800's.
November 28, 1998...Today
the San Francisco Chronicle ran an Associated Press article, reporting
startling figures provided by Worldwatch
Institute,
an environmental think-tank in Washington D.C and Munich Re, world's
largest
insurer. This year's dollar damages from weather-related disasters
(floods,
storms, droughts, fires) total $89 billion. Weather-related
damages for the entire decade of the 1980's was less than $89
billion.
So far weather-related natural disaster damage totals have soared in
the 1990's
to $340 billion, a 300% increase over the 1980's. And we're obviously
not
through with this decade yet.
November 12, 1998...Today
in Buenos Aires the Clinton
administration, through its acting U.N. ambassador, Peter Burleigh,
signed the
United Nations accord on global warming. The signing was denounced by
Congressional
critics, who have vowed to deny U.S. Senate ratification of the Kyoto
Protocol.
October 16, 1998...
A
giant iceberg, with an area significantly larger than Delaware,
has broken off an Antarctic ice shelf. Mary Keller, a scientist at the National
Ice Center
in Suitland, MD,
spotted the new berg, which is 92 miles long. (Reported
today
in the San Francisco Examiner).
October 16, 1998...An
article published today in the journal Science says that the Antarctic
ice cap
is scarcely melting as a result of global warming (see August 2, 1998 item).
Scientists are however
disturbed by their findings, which demonstrate that sea level will rise
3.3
feet over the next 100 years, mostly from the thermal expansion of
warming sea
water.
August 5, 1998...Worst
heat
wave in 50 years has swept over Eastern Europe,
causing
20 deaths in Romania
alone. In Bucharest the
temperature
has registered at least 97 degrees every day since early July. Wheat,
corn and
sunflowers around Bucharest
have
been seared by the heat. In Budapest, Hungary
a 77 year-old record for August 3 was broken when the temperature went
to 98
degrees. Downtown Budapest
was even
hotter at 104 degrees. (Reported today by the
Associated
Press).
Some
References to
News Sources May Have Lost Link
August 2, 1998...In
July
reports cited in Nature and Science journals, scientists noted that
Antarctic
ice might be disintegrating at a faster pace than previously thought.
Satellite
data show the groundling line - that border between floating ice and
ice above the
Antarctic continent - has been retreating at a pace of 6/10ths of a
mile per
year.
July 4, 1998...
More and
more species of tropical fish are making their way to the Mediterranean
Sea, because of global warming. According to Icram, Italy's
leading marine research center, the temperature of the Mediterranean
has risen 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit during the past 30 years. The tropical
fish
came from that region of the Atlantic Ocean off
Africa
and from the Red Sea. They are thriving because
native
fish stocks have been depleted from over-fishing and worsening
environmental
conditions. (Reported today in the San Francisco
Chronicle).
April 28, 1998...In
a
Nature journal from an issue this month, researchers say they have
evidence
that the years 1997, 1995 and 1990 were the warmest in 500 years.
Michael Mann,
one of the researchers, (and professor of geosciences at the University
of Massachusetts at Amherst)
specified that either 1997 or 1995 could be considered to be the
warmest,
depending on whether one considers temperatures over land or at the
ocean
surface of both. In their research Mann and his colleagues used a
system of
indirect indicators such as ancient tree rings, coral and ice as well
as
historical records.
January 31, 1998...The
publication State of the World 1998, published by the Worldwatch
Institute included the following excerpt: If current predictions by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change prove true, in the next
50-100 years
climate change will have a greater impact on the health of world
fisheries than
overfishing itself.
January 9, 1998...The
National Climate Data Center has announced today that 1997 was the
hottest year
on record, the previous record-holder being 1995. The five hottest
years since
record-keeping began on climate activity have all occurred in the
1990's.
December 15, 1997...
A
Harris Poll showed that nationwide of 1099 people surveyed, 75% of
those
familiar with the pact approved of the Kyoto
agreement. However, the poll also showed that 45% of the sample
were not knowledgeable about the agreement. The poll also
revealed that
67% of Americans thought that greenhouse gases can cause climate
change, and
50% said that global warming is a serious problem.
December 11, 1997...
The Kyoto Conference ended today bringing forth a modest, but yet a
landmark
agreement that faces a hostile reception in the U.S.Senate.
Last July the Senate voted 95-0 to require that any global warming
agreement
must include active participation by the developing countries. The Kyoto
agreement did not mandate that developing countries adopt emission
limits of
their own. The U.S, the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide will
have to
cut carbon emissions by 7%, below 1990 levels by 2012, while the
European Union
will seek a cut by 8% and Japan,
a 6% cut in emissions. However, to bring real stability to the
atmosphere, cuts
of 50 to 60% in greenhouse gases are necessary, so there's a long way
to go.
It's a very small beginning in a perilous, long-term process. Please
let your
senators know that you support the Kyoto
agreement, as meager as it is. In California
please e-mail your support for the Kyoto
agreement to Senators Diane
Feinstein and Barbara
Boxer.
December 1, 1997...An
historic conference begins today that will challenge the nations of
this planet
to come to grips with global warming.
November 21, 1997...It
was found that of 1200 individuals surveyed in a nationwide poll
conducted by
the Pew Research
Center for the People and
the
Press, that 60% would pay 25 cents more per gallon of gasoline to
address
global warming.
October 3, 1997...CEO's
of auto manufacturing companies and UAW president, Stephen Yokich
lobbied the White House not to accept an agreement in Kyoto
that excluded the participation of developing countries in greenhouse
gas
emissions reductions.
October 1, 1997...Close
to 1500 of the world's top scientists issued an urgent call for a
strong,
binding agreement on greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Secretary of
the
Interior Bruce Babbitt said the Administration was prepared to fight
for such
an agreement in Kyoto.
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