Climate for change

A report released today by aid, development and church groups shows just how urgent the threat is for the Asia Pacific, yet how immediate the solutions can be.

Australia Responds: Helping Our Neighbours Fight Climate Change, shows efforts to end poverty among our neighbours will be drastically undermined unless action is taken now.

Climate change primer

The science, excerpted from Web sites of the Vermont Governor's Commission on Climate Change and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:

The sun's energy drives weather and heats the Earth's surface. Some of this energy radiates back into space, but some is trapped by greenhouse gases. A natural "greenhouse effect" keeps the Earth warm enough for life, but if too much heat is trapped, the Earth's climate could change in disruptive ways.

Global warming: a hot investment opportunity?

A very important trend involving global warming is sweeping the planet.

Until now, experts the world over have angrily divided over whether or not the globe is really becoming warmer in any long term or permanent way. And, if it is, how quickly and by how much?

Beginning about two or three years ago, and picking up speed and force as time went on, a new body of belief began to take hold. The evidence indicting global warming — and the cause of it — became so irrefutable that even the skeptics dropped their agnosticism. They had just read too many documented reports, and saw too many pictures, of climbing shorelines, retreating icebergs and beleaguered polar bears, among countless other stark images.

As the Indian American venture capitalist Vinod Khosla says: "Ninety-eight percent of scientists, maybe more, believe we have a serious climate problem."

Focusing on the Planet

Religious leaders will gather in Philadelphia tomorrow to discuss global warming, and to recognize special days in several religious traditions.

"Sacred Seasons, Sacred Earth: An Interfaith Call to Reflect and Act" will consider what believers can do to temper the effects of climate change that organizers call a "crisis of global scorching."

"We felt that 'warming' was a term that is too pleasant," said Rabbi Arthur Waskow, who will moderate a panel discussion at tomorrow's event. "It's not honest. The heating is not some kind of benign warmth. It's dangerous."

Global warming: the chilling effect on free speech

Whoever thought that serious commentators would want it made illegal to have a row about the weather? One Australian columnist has proposed outlawing ‘climate change denial’. ‘David Irving is under arrest in Austria for Holocaust denial’, she wrote. ‘Perhaps there is a case for making climate change denial an offence. It is a crime against humanity, after all.’ (1) Others have suggested that climate change deniers should be put on trial in the future, Nuremberg-style, and made to account for their attempts to cover up the ‘global warming…Holocaust’ (2).

The message is clear: climate change deniers are scum. Their words are so wicked and dangerous that they must be silenced, or criminalised, or forced beyond the pale alongside those other crackpots who claim there was no Nazi Holocaust against the Jews. Perhaps climate change deniers should even be killed off, hanged like those evil men who were tried Nuremberg-style the first time around.

The Discovery of Global Warming

A hypertext history of how scientists came to (partly) understand what people are doing to cause climate change.

Global Warming: Focus on Utah's Climate

The Earth is heating up, a trend that has ramifications all over the globe as well as in Utah and the West.

Today, The Salt Lake Tribune begins a weeklong series of stories on the earth's changing climate and how those changes may play out in Utah in coming years.

All can play part in beating global warming

Everyone has a part to play in combating global warming -- whether simply turning off lights in an empty room or making their own electricity from the wind and sun, experts said on Friday.

No matter how small the action in the context of the vast problem of man-made climate change, every little bit counts, was the message from the Energy Saving Trust (EST) on the opening day of the Ideal Home Show in London.

Western Warming Warning

Rising temperatures in the 11 Western states due to global warming will cause more prolonged droughts, more widespread wildfires, and extensive die-offs in regional plant, fish and game habitats, according to a report Thursday from the National Wildlife Federation.

"The American West is truly on the front line," said Patty Glick, the federation's global warming specialist. "The latest science is painting a bleak picture."

Studies show global warming increase incidences of respiratory diseases

Analysts believe that, as a result of global temperature rises, diseases that were previously limited only to tropical areas may show up increasingly in other, previously cooler areas.

Energy, environment ministers from 20 countries renew climate change talks in Mexico

Representatives from 20 of the world's most polluting nations met behind closed doors in this industrial city in northern Mexico on Tuesday to discuss ways to combat global warming.

Officials said energy and environment ministers from G-8 nations as well as developing countries such as China, India and Brazil considered how to create a new framework for tackling climate change before the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Global warming devastates sea ice in Arctic Circle

Sea ice in the Arctic last month melted to its second lowest monthly minimum in the 29-year record of satellite measurements.

Scientists at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in Colorado said the total surface area covered by sea ice during September was smaller than in any previous year apart from 2005, when it reached an all-time record minimum. And it was only a sudden change to cool and stormy weather in August that prevented another record low being set this September, they said.

"At this rate, the Arctic Ocean will have no ice in September by the year 2060," said Julienne Strove, one of the NSIDC's research scientists.

Global Warming Affecting Massachusetts Costal Areas

Global warming is of particular concern to all coastal areas. Experts say that sea levels have already risen about a half a foot around here. We currently lose about 65 acres a year along the southern New England coastline due to erosion, but that's nothing compared to what could happen if global warming isn't checked.

The historic Blizzard of '78 is considered a once in one hundred year storm. That timetable, however, will most likely change with global warming. Paul Kirshen studies weather issues at Tufts University and he says "so what that means, like the Blizzard of '78, instead of occurring on the average every 100 years, it would occur on the average every 10 years. Professor Kirshen has researched how rising sea levels could impact the Boston Area. His computer graphics show wide scale flooding under a worst case scenario at the end of the century.

Indigenous Aussies among first climate change victims

Indigenous communities living on Torres Strait Islands, including the island home of the late land rights campaigner Eddie Mabo, are among the first "official victims of climate change", says Catholic Earthcare executive officer, Col Brown.

Speaking to a Rockhampton Diocesan Commission of Environmental Awareness gathering, Mr Brown said that the available evidence on climate change "calls for urgent responses at both church and government level".

Mr Brown was responding to research recently released by CSIRO scientist Dr Donna Green which highlights that over the past two years, half of the populated islands of the Torres Strait have been hit by unprecedented flooding from surging king tides.

Canberra, take note: climate change is what terrifies us

This year's Lowy Institute poll reveals Australian concern over global warming to be the big "sleeper" issue of national affairs, a problem that worries Australians more than Islamic fundamentalism.

Australian public convictions on climate change have crept up on our political leaders and have now overtaken them. The political party that can best respond will harness a powerful force.

As the institute's executive director, Allan Gyngell, observes, "this has become mainstream; it's no longer just an issue for Greens and people dressed up in koala suits".

Oxford conference on climate change stresses global collective action

The challenges posed by global warming will require a far higher level of collective action and international cooperation than is currently practiced.

That was among the conclusions at a conference at Balliol College here 15-17 September 2006 that sought to explore the relationship between "Science, Faith and Climate Change."

Senators Request Inquiry Into White House Global Warming Activities

A group of 14 senators has called for an investigation of allegations the Bush administration has repeatedly interfered with federal scientists who have tried to publish research or speak to the media about the reality and impacts of global warming. The senators sent letters Friday to the inspector generals of NASA and the U.S. Commerce Department, which oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), requesting formal investigations into the claims.

"These activities do a disservice to the American public and are delaying a rational and comprehensive response to the very grave and real threat of global warming," the letter said. "In light of these and other troubling reports, we respectfully request that your office conduct a full and thorough investigation into the suppression of science and censorship of scientists at these government agencies."

The letter was sent by 13 Democrats and the Senate's lone Independent, James Jeffords of Vermont.

Reichert seeks evidence on climate change, but backs reducing emissions

Rep. Dave Reichert stunned a group of environmentalists this summer when, while seeking the Sierra Club's endorsement, he said he was not convinced that human activity caused global warming.

Not surprisingly, the group offered its seal of approval to Reichert's Democratic challenger Darcy Burner, who says global warming is undeniably connected to burning fossil fuels.

Group pushing towns to adopt global warming initiatives

A bipartisan coalition of environmental groups and individuals hopes to get communities around the state to support national efforts to halt global warming, with an eye toward making climate change an issue in the 2008 presidential primaries for both parties.