Climate change 'fast forwarding' nature

Farmers need to plan ahead to keep up with climate change's effect on nature, according to the Environment Agency.

Jane James, spokeperson for the Environment Agency told the Farming Today programme on BBC Radio 4 that warmer summers would result in the south of England being able to produce "the crops that you would expect to see in more Mediterranean climates now".

SciGuy: A bad week for climate change skeptics

Eric Berger:
I am in favor of a healthy debate on climate change. Few people will honestly say the Earth isn't warming. Heck, July has been the hottest month in the Netherlands since records were first kept in 1706, and Germany is reporting the same. Humans have clearly influenced the climate before (ozone hole, anyone?), and are almost certainly doing so through greenhouse gas emissions. How much of the current warming we responsible for? That's a reasonable question. I would guess quite a bit, but the final answer isn't in.

Satellite Images Reveal State Of Health Of World's Coral Reefs

A first-of-its-kind survey of how well the world's coral reefs are being protected was made possible by a unique collection of NASA views from space. The assessment found that less than two percent of coral reefs are within areas designated to limit human activities that can harm the reefs and the sea life living in and around them.

World View of Global Warming

The World View of Global Warming project is documenting the changes brought about by Global Warming through science photography from the Arctic to Antarctica, from glaciers to the oceans, across all climate zones. Rapid climate change and its effects is fast becoming one of the prime events of the 21st century. It is real and it is accelerating across the globe. As the effects of this change combine with overpopulation and weather crises, climate disruptions will affect more people than does war.

Global Warming -- Signed, Sealed and Delivered

Naomi Oreskes, author of a published study, affirming the existence of a scientific consensus on the reality of global warming, discusses a Wall Street Journal OpEd article, claiming her study had been refuted.

"I'm here to tell you that the consensus stands. The argument put forward in the Wall Street Journal was based on an Internet posting; it has not appeared in a peer-reviewed journal — the normal way to challenge an academic finding. (The Wall Street Journal didn't even get my name right!)"

See also:
The original study: BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER: The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change
The Washington Post article: Undeniable Global Warming
The Wall Street Journal Op-Ed article: Don't Believe the Hype

GLOBAL WARMING; Reason for Alarm?

The REAL TRUTH magazine has a nice summary of the pros and cons related to global warming...

"Few dispute that the earth is growing warmer and that there are signs identifying this. The debate lies in the seriousness of this warming trend, who or what is to blame, and whether there is a direct connection to hurricane frequency and intensity.

The term “global warming” is at the forefront of many minds, and for several reasons. Should we be concerned?"

Half-Baked Smears against Climatologists

Scientific America (.com) has this note about how a press release from the Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works castigated Tom Brokaw for employing James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, one of the leading scientific experts on the subject of global warming, as a scientific adviser on the Global Warming: What You Need to Know special on the Discovery Channel. It appears that the EPW press office was apparently content to attack Hansen's integrity without bothering to verify whether and where the his statements were really made.

Schwarzenegger Proposes Change To Emissions Bill

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is seeking changes to a bill that would make California the first state in the nation to cap greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources.

But Democrats fear Schwarzenegger's requested changes could undermine the effectiveness of the Assembly bill, which would limit emissions from businesses such as power plants and oil refineries. Both sides agree on the basic framework of the bill -- notably the timelines and goals of reducing emissions -- but differ over how to accomplish state targets.

Report warns of financial melt-down from abrupt climate change

A financial services firm has published a report forecasting far-reaching and "dire" impacts from the prospect of rapid climate change.

Toronto-based Sprott Asset Management recently released a report called "Investment Implications of Abrupt Climate Change," which said that there is potential for disruptions to the global economy if there is a rapid change in climate from global warming.

See the news.com article for some commentary and other links.

However, their link to the report is incorrect. Here is the correct link to the report: Investment Implications of an Abrupt Climate Change.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

The WHOI Ocean and Climate Change Institute has published a collection of reports are quite interesting reading. Most of the studies and debates on potential climate change have focused on the ongoing buildup of industrial greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and a gradual increase in global temperatures. But recent and rapidly advancing evidence demonstrates that Earth's climate repeatedly has shifted dramatically and in time spans as short as a decade. And abrupt climate change may be more likely in the future.
See: The Abrupt Climate Change Reports.