This information is compiled from many different sources, and updated (almost) daily. No doubt this web site will continue to grow in size as more data and features are added. I hope you find it useful. Please send questions / comments / and suggestions to me by email and/or signing my guest-book (see below). thanks, Dan

?

 the shape of things to come

Only seven years left to avoid global climate catastrophe
 08/29/2008 The Washington Post - The world may have only seven years 
to start reducing the annual buildup in greenhouse gas emissions that 
otherwise threatens global catastrophe within several decades. 
Reflecting a consensus of hundreds of scientists around the world, 
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has affirmed that 
greenhouse gas emissions are raising the Earth's temperature. The Earth
is on a trajectory to warm more than 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit by around 
mid-century.
Exceeding that threshold could trigger a series of phenomena: 
Arable land will turn into desert, higher sea levels will flood coastal
areas, and changes in the convection of the oceans will alter currents,
such as the Gulf Stream, that determine regional weather patterns.
Manhattan and Florida would be under water, while Nevada would have no
water at all. 


Global Catastrophe by 2040 - and there's NOTHING we can do about it
 3/22/08 (dailymail.co.uk) - According to the climate change scientist
James Lovelock, this is the beginning of the end of a peaceful phase 
in evolution.
By 2040, the world population of more than six billion will have been
culled by floods, drought and famine. 
He has been proclaiming his Gaia Theory for a generation. This states 
that the Earth is a living, self-regulating system and that by filling
its atmosphere with CO2 (carbon dioxide emissions) we have destroyed 
the balance and overheated the planet. We are in the phase when the 
thermometer suddenly shoots up.
Lovelock believes it is too late to repair the damage. Government 
targets are "futile". Britain contributes such a tiny amount of 
emissions compared with countries such as China that our self-
regulatory measures are pathetic. 
 longer article on the Spotlight page.  Dan.


LONGEST, HOTTEST SUMMER (UK)
 10/15/06 (mirror.co.uk) - It was the longest, hottest summer 
ever - and that's official.
The Met Office says the five months from May to September were
the warmest since records began in 1659.
...the average temperature from May to September was 16.2C, 
two degrees higher than average.
The last time it got even close (15.9C) was 1947.
David Parker, of the Met Office, said: "This is a dramatic 
confirmation that we are now experiencing significant levels 
of global warming."


 9/6/06 (Washington Post) - The End of Eden
"It's going too fast," he says softly. "We will burn."
Sulfurous musings are not James Lovelock's characteristic style; 
he's no Book of Revelation apocalyptic. In his 88th year, he remains
one of the world's most inventive scientists... Four decades ago, 
his discovery that ozone-destroying chemicals were piling up in the 
atmosphere started the world's governments down a path toward repair. 
Not long after that, Lovelock proposed the theory known as Gaia, which
holds that Earth acts like a living organism, a self-regulating system
 balanced to allow life to flourish.
Biologists dismissed this as heresy, running counter to Darwin's theory
of evolution. Today one could reasonably argue that Gaia theory has 
transformed scientific understanding of the Earth.
Within the next decade or two, Lovelock forecasts, Gaia will hike her 
thermostat by at least 10 degrees. Earth, he predicts, will be hotter 
than at any time since the Eocene Age 55 million years ago, when 
crocodiles swam in the Arctic Ocean.
"There's no realization of how quickly and irreversibly the planet is 
changing," Lovelock says. "Maybe 200 million people will migrate close
 to the Arctic and survive this. Even if we took extraordinary steps, 
it would take the world 1,000 years to recover."


Amazon rainforest 'could become a desert' and Then it gets BAD!
 7/23/06 (the Independent) -  The vast Amazon rainforest is on the 
brink of being turned into desert, with catastrophic consequences 
for the world's climate, alarming research suggests. And the process,
which would be irreversible, could begin as early as next year.
 Scientists say that this would spread drought into the northern 
hemisphere, including Britain, and could massively accelerate global
warming with incalculable consequences, spinning out of control, 
a process that might end in the world becoming uninhabitable.
 ...  entire article on Spotlite page. Dan.


Earth-solar cycle spurs greenhouse gases
 5/22/06 (Reuters) - Greenhouse gases are known to spur global 
warming, but scientists said on Monday that global warming in 
turn spurs greenhouse gas emissions -- which means Earth could 
get hotter faster than climate models predict.
Two scientific teams, one in Europe and another in California, 
reached the same basic conclusion: when Earth has warmed up in 
the past, due to the sun's natural cycles, more greenhouse gases
have been spewed into the atmosphere.
As greenhouse gas levels rose, so did Earth's temperature, the 
scientists reported.
Earth has not endlessly warmed up, though, because these natural
solar cycles ended, letting the planet cool down and prompting 
a corresponding drop in greenhouse gas emissions, the scientists
reported.
But these previous periods of heating and cooling were not 
influenced by the burning of fossil fuels, and the current 
resulting trend toward higher global average temperatures, 
according to Margaret Torn of Lawrence Berkeley National 
Laboratory.
"It means the warming is happening faster, each decade is 
actually warming faster than it would have," Torn said in a 
telephone interview. "It's the pace of change that will be one
of the big problems. It's how humans adapt and the cost that 
will depend on the rate of change of climate."
... funny thing, this is EXACTLY what I've been saying
 for TEN years... Dan.

Melting Ice Threatens Sea-Level Rise
• At the current warming rate, Earth's temperature by 2100 will
probably be at least 4 degrees warmer than now, with the Arctic
at least as warm as it was 130,000 years ago, reports a research
group led by Jonathan T. Overpeck of the University of Arizona.
• Computer models indicate that warming could raise the average 
temperature in parts of Greenland above freezing for multiple 
months and could have a substantial impact on melting of the polar
ice sheets, says a second paper by researchers led by Bette Otto-
Bliesner of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Melting
could raise sea level one to three feet over the next 100 to 150 
years, she said.
• And a team led by Goeran Ekstroem of Harvard University reported
an increase in "glacial earthquakes," which occur when giant 
rivers of ice — some as big as Manhattan — move suddenly as melt
water eases their path. That sudden movement causes the ground to
tremble.
According to the studies, increases in greenhouse gases in the 
atmosphere over the next century could raise Arctic temperatures 
as much as 5 to 8 degrees.
The warming could raise global sea levels by up to three feet this
century through a combination of thermal expansion of the water 
and melting of polar ice.
...blah blah blah - ain't news to us is it? Dan.


APOCALYPSE NOW?
 1-17-06 (timesofindia) Global warming is with us. Canada's 
Inuit see it in disappearing Arctic ice and permafrost, 
Europeans and Australians see it in forest fires and searing 
heatwaves, the Americans see it in deadlier hurricanes.
And we see it in hotter summers, colder winters, early springs
and ever-changing monsoon patterns. A child born some years 
from now may not know what a polar bear or penguin is...
The three warmest years on record have all occurred since 1998;
19 of the warmest 20 since 1980. 
According to projections by the UK's Hadley Centre for Climate 
Prediction, before the end of the century a warming of at least
3°C would probably eventually trigger the melting of the entire
Greenland ice sheet.
The glacial collapse would take years but could raise sea 
levels by six metres. Alarmist? No, say experts who agree that 
global warming is happening now, not day after tomorrow. 

 Some nations are in a near panic, some are spending fortunes 
on preparing, meanwhile the U$ won't even (officially) admit 
anything is wrong... Dan


Global warming to speed up as carbon levels show sharp rise
 1-15-06 (news.independent.co.uk)  Global warming is set to 
accelerate alarmingly because of a sharp jump in the amount 
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Preliminary figures, exclusively obtained by The Independent
on Sunday, show that levels of the gas - the main cause of 
climate change - have risen abruptly in the past four years.
Scientists fear that warming is entering a new phase, and may 
accelerate further.
Through most of the past half-century, levels of the gas rose 
by an average of 1.3 parts per million a year; in the late 
1990s,this figure rose to 1.6 ppm, and again to 2 ppm in 2002 
and 2003. But unpublished figures for the first 10 months of 
thisyear show a rise of 2.2 ppm.
Scientists believe this may be the first evidence that climate
change is starting to produce itself, as rising temperatures so
alter natural systems that the Earth itself releases more gas,
driving the thermometer ever higher.


Global Warming Can Cause Extreme Climate Change
 1-6-06  Research funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation 
(NSF) shows that global climate change quickly may have disrupted
ancient ocean processes and could lead to drastic shifts in 
environments around the world.
Researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 
California say the events -- which unfolded millions of years 
ago and spanned thousands of years -- historically are similar 
to current warming-induced changes in large-scale sea circulation
and may help illuminate potential long-term effects of today's 
climate warming.
 read entire article on Spotlight page... Dan


World is at its hottest since prehistory
 12-18-05(independent.co.uk)  The world is now hotter than at 
any stage since prehistoric times, a top climatologist announced
last week. 
Scientists in Bern, Switzerland, and Oregon in the United States
analysed levels of the gas in tiny air bubbles trapped in 
Antarctic ice during the past 650,000 years. They found current 
levels were 27 per cent greater than the highest level over that
period.
Meanwhile, top climatological bodies around the world report that
2005 is vying with 1998 as the warmest year on record. Nasa says 
it just beats it, while the Met Office says it is just behind it,
and the US government's National Climatic Data Centre says the 
two years are statistically indistinguishable.
Whichever is right, 2005 has been a remarkable year, for 1998 was
made much hotter by a strong El Niño, the warm Pacific current that
strongly affects weather around the globe.
This year Arctic sea ice dropped to its smallest ever extent, the 
Atlantic suffered a record hurricane season and an unprecedented 
drought reduced the flow of the Amazon to its lowest ever level. 
Canada and Australia had their hottest ever weather this year, 
while India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Algeria suffered heatwaves
touching 50C.


MORE EXTREME WEATHER AHEAD
 10-17-05  Purdue University scientists say extreme weather 
events,such as floods and heat waves, may increase in frequency
and severity during the next century. 
The most comprehensive climate model to date of the continental 
United States predicts more extreme temperatures throughout the 
country and more extreme precipitation along the Gulf Coast, in 
the Pacific Northwest and east of the Mississippi. 
The climate model, run on supercomputers at Purdue University, 
takes into account a large number of factors that have been 
incompletely incorporated in past studies, such as the effects 
of snow reflecting solar energy back into space and of high 
mountain ranges blocking weather fronts from traveling across 
them, said Noah S. Diffenbaugh, the team's lead scientist. 
Diffenbaugh said a better understanding of these factors – 
coupled with a more powerful computer system on which to run 
the analysis – allowed the team to generate a far more coherent
image of what weather we can expect to encounter in the 
continental United States for the next century. 
Those expectations, he said, paint a very different climate 
picture for most parts of the country. 
"... the changes our model predicts are large enough to 
substantially disrupt our economy and infrastructure." 


GREENLAND...CANARY IN A MINE SHAFT 
 9-10-05 ILULISSAT, Greenland (AP) -- The gargantuan chunks of ice 
breaking off the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier and thundering into an 
Arctic fjord make a spectacular sight. But to Greenlanders it is 
also deeply worrisome. 
The frequency and size of the icefalls are a powerful reminder that
the frozen sheet covering the world's largest island is thinning - 
a glaring sign of global warming, scientists say. 
"In the past we could walk on the ice in the fjord between the 
icebergs for a six-month period during the winter, drill holes and 
fish," said Joern Kristensen, a fisherman and one of the indigenous
Inuit who are most of Greenland's population of 56,000. 
"We can only do that for a month or two now. It has become more 
difficult to drive dog sleds because the ice between the icebergs
isn't solid anymore." 


Hottest June-July-August period in Buffalo's 135 years of recorded weather
 9-4-05 (buffalonews.com)  For the three-month period, the average 
temperature was 73.2 degrees, easily beating the previous high of 72.7 
degrees, set in 1949. It's not that any one of the months was a record-
setter, but each of the months was among the warmest the area had seen 
in a long time. "For example, we had our warmest June in 39 years, our 
warmest July in 50 years and our warmest August in 46 years. It's not 
unusual for one such month in a summer, but all three in one summer? 
Amazing." 
Some highlights: 
• Seventy-seven of the 92 days recorded above-average temperatures; 
• Ten days recorded high temperatures above 90, when the normal number
is three. 
• Twenty-one days recorded a low temperature of 70 degrees or higher, 
when the normal number is six days.

T-shirts on for an Arctic heatwave 
 7-17-2005 (The Observer) These are unusual times for Ny-Alesund, the 
world's most northerly community. Perched high above the Arctic Circle,
on Svalbard, normally a place gripped by shrieking winds and blizzards,
it was caught in a heatwave a few days ago.
Temperatures soared to the highest ever recorded here, an extraordinary
19.6C, a full degree-and-a-half above the previous record. Researchers
lolled in T-shirts and soaked up the sun: a high life in the high Arctic.
Carbon dioxide, produced by cars and factories across the globe, is the
real interest here. Over the past 15 years, not only have levels
continued to rise from around 350 to 380 parts per million (ppm), but 
this rise is now accelerating.
In 1990 this key cause of global warming was rising at a rate of 1 ppm;
by 1998 it was increasing by 2ppm; and by 2003 instruments at Mount
Zeppelin showed it was growing by 3ppm. 


125 LARGE NORTHERN LAKES DISAPPEAR
 03 June 2005 (LiveScience)  A new study finds 125 large lakes in the
Arctic have vanished as temperatures rose over the past two decades. 
Many other lakes have shrunk.
The lakes once sat atop permanently frozen soil called permafrost. 
Other studies have shown permafrost is melting around the world, causing
low-lying ground to slump and rock to fall from mountains.
"We think that climate warming is thawing the permafrost," said lead 
researcher Laurence Smith of the University of California, Los Angeles. 
"It's like pulling the plug out of a bathtub. There's nothing to prevent
lake water from percolating through the soil to aquifers below."
Changes seem to come abruptly.
The sudden draining could alter entire continental ecosystems, affecting
birds and other wildlife that depend on the waterways, Smith and his 
colleagues say. Migratory birds count on the lakes during summer to 
feed their young.
The research is reported today in the journal Science.


Worst Drought in Century... again
 CANBERRA, May 20 (Reuters) - Prime Minister John Howard toured the 
country's drought-stricken areas on Friday to lend an ear to farmers 
struggling against one of the worst droughts in a century.
With dams dried up, paddocks turned to dust and cattle and sheep 
starving, Howard travelled up to 800 km (500 miles) west of Sydney to 
the towns of Wentworth, West Wyalong and Lake Cargelligo ahead of a 
cabinet meeting on Monday to discuss further drought help.
The National Farmers' Federation told a gathering of 1,000 farm 
industry leaders on Tuesday that the present drought could could cause 
as much damage as the country's worst drought in a century in 2002, 
which wiped one percentage point off GDP growth.


Greenland Sea Cold Water Re-Cycling Has Nearly Stopped
 May 11, 2005  Cambridge, England - Normally in the Atlantic Ocean, 
warm water moves from the Equator up to the British Isles, keeping 
England and parts of Europe warmer than Labrador which is at the 
same northern latitude. The warming is caused by a huge convection
process called the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation, or North 
Atlantic Drift. Equatorial warm water is circulated to the Labrador 
Sea and Greenland Sea, cools off, and then sea ice forms. The ice 
does not take up the sea salt which is left behind in the ocean and 
makes the water denser and it sinks. For more than a century, at 
least a dozen cylinder-shaped columns of cold water have been 
sinking into the deep ocean and heading back south toward the Equator
which has kept the big conveyor belt of warm-to-cold-to-warm water 
going in the Atlantic Ocean.
But now for the first time, Cambridge University Physicist, Peter 
Wadhams, has discovered that those dozen cold water columns in the
Greenland Sea have nearly disappeared.  He reported last week in 
Vienna at the European Geosciences Union meeting about his field 
research in the Greenland Sea. With a changing, slowing thermohaline
circulation, Great Britain and parts of Europe will become colder 
over this century as the rest of the planet gets warmer.


Undersea, Space Data Back Global Warming
 4-27-05 (FoxNews) NEW YORK — Climate scientists armed with new data 
from the ocean depths and from space satellites have found that Earth
is absorbing much more heat than it is giving off, which they say 
validates computer projections of global warming...
Average atmospheric temperatures rose about 1 degree Fahrenheit in the
20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N.-
organized network of scientists, says computer modeling predicts
temperatures rising between 2.5 degrees and 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit by
the year 2100.
Besides raising ocean levels, global warming is expected to intensify 
storms, spread disease to new areas, and shift climate zones, possibly
making farmlands drier and deserts wetter. 


World On Brink Of Disaster
 3-31-05 (The Independent - UK)  Planet Earth stands on the cusp of 
disaster and people should no longer take it for granted that their 
children and grandchildren will survive in the environmentally 
degraded world of the 21st century.  This is not the doom-laden talk
of green activists but the considered opinion of 1,300 leading 
scientists from 95 countries who will today publish a detailed 
assessment of the state of the world at the start of the new 
millennium.
The report does not make jolly reading.  The academics found that 
two-thirds of the delicately-balanced ecosystems they studied have
suffered badly at the hands of man over the past 50 years. 
 ...  Longer article on the SpotLite page. Dan. ...


Another Quake still to come ?
 3-28-05 (theScottsman.com)  Professor John McCloskey predicted in the
wake of the Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami that there was a 
likelihood of two more quakes in the region.
The University of Ulster based Geophysics expert, who studies 
earthquake dynamics said: "The location of the latest quake is 
exactly were we warned it would be.
"We were concerned about two events and it looks like this is one of 
them."
"It seems to me that this earthquake will also increase the stresses 
on the other site and make another quake more likely."
The fault line for the other site "runs right through the city of 
Banda Aceh" on the northern tip of Sumatra, he said.
 ...  I'll post more info ASAP.  Dan... 


Seafloor earthquakes signal eruption off Vancouver Island
 3-5-05 (seattletimes)  Mount St. Helens may not be the only Northwest
volcano spitting out lava these days.
A scientific SWAT team from Seattle is sailing this afternoon for a 
spot off the coast of Vancouver Island, where they suspect an 
underwater eruption is under way.
"We really don't know what to expect," said Edward Baker, an
oceanographer at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, which 
is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Their observations will help improve understanding of the Juan de Fuca
plate, a tectonic time bomb capable of producing earthquakes and
tsunamis on par with the disaster that struck the Indian Ocean in
December.
Baker is co-leader of the 20-person team, which has been scrambling
since Sunday, when swarms of earthquakes started rattling the ocean
bottom 200 miles offshore. In the past six days, the area has been 
rocked by nearly 4,000 temblors, most tiny, but some exceeding 
magnitude 4. 


Scientists Baffled As Bird Numbers Plummet
 2-28-05  (The Independent - UK)  It has hardly been noticed, but it 
is another sinister warning sign of a world going badly wrong.  
Populations of some of Britain's most attractive woodland birds are 
plummeting at a rate that threatens them with extinction, and nobody
knows why.
Precipitous declines in the numbers of some species, of up to four-
fifths, have been registered over the past 30 years, but scientists 
are just realising what is happening, and they have no simple 
explanation.
In its scale and its range, the phenomenon is one of the most ominous
events in the natural history of Britain over the past half-century.  
In southern England, where the situation is worst, some of these 
species have virtually disappeared.  "These birds are falling off the 
radar in a quite catastrophic way and we have no real idea why," said 
Graham Appleton of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), Britain's 
leading bird research organisation.
...  yep, scientists are 'Baffled' again... Dan.


2005 TO BE HOTTEST ON RECORD
 2-25-05 (MSNBC)  Last year was the fourth warmest since recordkeeping
began in the 1880s and 2005 could go down as the warmest ever recorded,
NASA scientists reported in a new analysis of temperature data.
"There has been a strong warming trend over the past 30 years, a trend
that has been shown to be due primarily to increasing greenhouse gases
in the atmosphere," said James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for 
Space Studies, based in New York.
The most common greenhouse gas emitted by human activity is carbon 
dioxide. The burning of fossil fuels and trees, both of which store 
carbon, have added CO2 emissions to Earth's natural levels.
Hansen and NASA colleague Makiko Sato noted that two additional 
factors are expected to play into 2005 temperatures. 
One is the presence of El Nino, when warm water spreads over much of
the tropical Pacific Ocean.
The other, they said, is that the Earth's surface now absorbs more 
of the sun's energy than gets reflected back to space.
"The Earth is now out of energy balance," Hansen and Sato wrote. 
"One result of this imbalance is that it makes it likely that global 
temperature in 2005, aided also by a weak El Nino, will exceed those 
of 2003 and 2004 and perhaps even the temperature of 1998, which had 
stood out far above the temperature of any year in the preceding 
century."
Last year was the the fourth-warmest on record, with a global mean 
temperature of 57 degrees Fahrenheit. That's about 1.5 degrees 
warmer than the middle of the century.


Spring has sprung (and it's only February)
 2-14-05 (timesonline.co.uk)  Scotland's seasons are changing beyond
all recognition as a result of global warming.  Nature watchers have 
compiled a list of astonishing sightings the last few years.
Spring arrives in Scotland two weeks earlier than it did 30 years
ago and is now a full month earlier than it was in 1920. The
trend is accelerating and 2005 may be the earliest ever.  It is not 
just spring that is changing.  Summers are hotter and drier. 
Autumn is taking a long time to arrive and lasts longer. 
Leaves are still on many trees in November and winter is being 
squeezed.
Climate change is touching all parts of the globe, but the effect 
is more pronounced in northern latitudes.  Global temperatures have
increased by 0.6C since the start of the 20th century whereas 
Scotland saw a 1C rise between the 1860s and the 1990s.
In recent years, alarm bells have been ringing louder. 
In Scotland six of the 10 warmest years since 1857 have occurred 
since 1989. 


Rivers of change
 1-20-05 (metoffice.gov.uk)  New research by Met Office scientists 
shows that man-made greenhouse gases are probably causing increasing 
river flows into the Arctic Ocean, and this could be evidence of 
changing rainfall patterns on a global scale.
Water exchanges between the ocean, atmosphere and land are called the
global hydrological cycle. As the earth's climate warms up, the rate 
of these exchanges is expected to increase. As part of this process, 
amplified high-latitude rain and snowfall will result in increased 
river run-offs. This could change the distribution of water on the 
earth's surface with important social and economical impacts. It could 
also have implications for the circulation of the Atlantic, which is 
important for European climate.
"This is evidence that changes in the global water cycle, predicted to 
follow global warming, are already happening. Our model predicts that 
these changes will intensify in the coming decades, with implications 
for water supply and risks of flooding."


Record warm winter stirs sleepy bears
 1-14-05 Estonia(Reuters)  Estonia's warmest winter for two centuries 
has woken some of its 600 bears several months early from hibernation, 
wildlife experts said on Friday.
Temperatures have stayed above freezing, compared with the average 
temperature of minus 5 Celsius (23.00F) for January.
Neighboring Russia's normally ferocious winter has also been mild.
Interfax news agency reported this week that a bear in a zoo awoke from
hibernation two months early, while another did not go to sleep at all. 


Upgraded To 9.2 - Largest Earthquake Known to Modern Civilization 
 12-28-04 (indiadaily)  It is one of largest earthquakes known to modern 
civilization with a reading of close to 9.2 in Richter scale. 
It started with a precursor near the coastline of Sumatra, a series of 
shocks happened one after the other and before all was done, 625 miles 
(1000 Kilometers) of Andaman thrust or fault line broke.  The result was 
devastation never seen before in modern times. 45 feet tall Tsunamis 
(coastal tidal waves) originating from the epicenter of the earthquakes, 
crushed onto the shores of Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, Thailand, 
Indonesia, Singapore and other countries in the region.
According to reports we are receiving, this is not a simple earthquake, 
it is the mega quake that happens once every thousand years.  No one knows 
how much after shock will devastate the area. 


Quake, Tsunami Devastate Asia
 12-26-04  Sri Lanka (Reuters) - One of the most powerful earthquakes 
in history hit southern Asia Sunday, unleashing a tsunami on Sri Lanka
and India and swamping tourist isles in Thailand and the Maldives.
The tsunami - a menacing wall of water - caused death, chaos and 
devastation across southern Asia. The tsunami, up to 30 feet high, was 
triggered by an 8.9 magnitude underwater earthquake off the 
Indonesian island of Sumatra. 
The earthquake was the world's biggest since 1964, said Julie Martinez,
geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado.
"It is multiple earthquakes along the same faultline."
It was the fifth-largest earthquake since 1900, she said. 


Bizarre Weather Slams Japan Yet Again
 6-Dec-2004 TOKYO (AFP)  Seventeen typhoons in one season followed by 
earthquake after earthquake has caused frightened Japanese to drive up
the price of gold because they are buying it against hard times ahead.
Now more extreme weather has struck the island nation, bringing gale 
force winds and a sudden extreme temperature increase that is 
unprecedented in the climatic history of the country.  At 11:29 AM 
yesterday, the temperature in Tokyo rose to 77 degrees Fahrenheit
breaking a record for temperature in the city set in 1923.
90 MPH gales were registered in central Tokyo earlier in the morning, 
marking the highest wind speeds ever recorded there.
Air and rail transport were paralyzed.  Drivers were urged to stay off 
roadways, and there were widespread power outages.  Citizens in northern 
areas were warned to expect extreme weather as the unseasonably powerful 
warm front causing the havoc continued to race northeast.


Fierce Storm Whips Across Europe
 11-21-04 BERLIN (AFP)  As predicted by global warming models, Europe 
continues to bear the brunt of unusually ferocious seasonal storms. 
The latest devastation took place over the past 48 hours when a winter 
storm generated sustained winds of over a hundred miles an hour in many 
areas, leading to extensive damage and at least fifteen deaths, mostly 
in road accidents associated with the extreme weather.
In Bavaria, wind gusts in excess of 112 mph were recorded, and heavy snow
fell on lower Saxony. Road traffic was seriously disrupted, and there 
were incidents of heavy trucks being blown over by wind gusts, including
fire trucks attempting to respond to emergency calls. 


REPORT: GLOBAL WARMING NOW INEVITABLE 
 Oct. 30 (UPI)  The Arctic Council, an international group of northern 
nations, says global warming will be both a blessing and a curse. 
Nearly 300 scientists contributed to the analysis of the Arctic, which 
finds heat-trapping gases from tailpipes and smokestacks around the world 
are causing sharp retreats of glaciers and sea ice, thawing of permafrost 
and shifts in the weather, the oceans and the atmosphere. 
The study, commissioned by eight nations that share Arctic territory, also
stresses that -- even with public policy adoptions to the phenomenon -- 
further warming and melting are unavoidable, given the century-long buildup
of the gases, mainly carbon dioxide. 
Council members are the United States, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, 
Norway, Russia and Sweden. 
... its been "inevitable" for some years now... Dan.


Ireland Battered by Year's Worst Storm
 10-27-04  DUBLIN, Ireland (AP)  The city of Cork and several towns were 
severely flooded Wednesday as the year's strongest Atlantic storm arrived 
with heavy rain and wind gusts of more than 70 mph.
The River Lee, which runs through Cork, burst its banks and flooded the 
southwestern city's main roads with up to 9.5 feet of water.  Records 
indicated it was the worst such flood since 1962. 
The surging tide caught shop workers in Ireland's second-largest city and 
homeward-bound commuters by surprise.  Scores of cars, with water lapping 
at their windows, were abandoned on roads.
The Irish Coast Guard advised people to avoid harbors, piers, cliffs, 
coastal walkways and other exposed seaside spots because of the risk of 
being blown or swept into the ocean. 


Amphibians in Dramatic Decline
 October 14, 2004 (Gland, Switzerland) � The world's amphibian species are
under unprecedented assault and are experiencing tens of thousands of years
worth of extinctions in just a century, according to the most comprehensive
study ever conducted.  More than 500 scientists from over 60 nations 
contributed to the Global Amphibian Assessment, the key findings of which 
were published on-line by Science Express this afternoon, and will appear 
within the next few weeks in the journal Science.  
Over the past three years, scientists analyzed the distribution and 
conservation status of all 5,743 known amphibian species � which include 
frogs and toads, salamanders, and caecilians.  Of these, 1,856 � or 32 
percent � are now considered threatened with extinction.  In addition, 
sufficient data are lacking to accurately assess the status of nearly 
1,300 other species, most of which scientists believe are also threatened.
Amphibians are widely regarded as "canaries in the coal mine," since their
highly permeable skin is more immediately sensitive to changes in the 
environment, including changes to freshwater and air quality.  
"Amphibians are one of nature's best indicators of overall environmental 
health," said Russell A.  Mittermeier, president of Conservation 
International (CI).  "Their catastrophic decline serves as a warning that 
we are in a period of significant environmental degradation." 
 ...  Sooo Not Good... Dan.


Climate fear as carbon levels soar 
 10-11-04 (The Guardian)  An unexplained and unprecedented rise in carbon 
dioxide in the atmosphere two years running has raised fears that the 
world may be on the brink of runaway global warming. 
Scientists are baffled why the quantity of the main greenhouse gas has 
leapt in a two-year period and are concerned that the Earth's natural 
systems are no longer able to absorb as much as in the past. 
Measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere have been continuous for almost 50
years at Mauna Loa Observatory, 12,000ft up a mountain in Hawaii, regarded
as far enough away from any carbon dioxide source to be a reliable 
measuring point. 
 ... entire article on Spotlite page... Dan.


Global Warming Puts China�s Yulong Glacier in Peril
 9-25-04 China (abcnews)  It is one of China's scenic wonders: the Yulong, 
or Jade Dragon Mountain. 	
But, if one of China's leading environmental scientists is correct, future 
generations will only be able to experience the Yulong glacier through their
history books. 
"This glacier is melting," said He Yuanqing. "And it is melting very fast." 
ABC News joined He and his scientific team recently on their annual visit to
the glacier to measure and analyze its height and length and depth. The team
doesn't like what it sees. 
According to He, the icy tongue of the glacier has shrunk by 800 feet in the
past 20 years. 
 ... longer article on the Spotlite page... Dan.


Antarctic Glaciers Melting Faster 
 9-22-04 WASHINGTON (Reuters)  Glaciers once held up by a floating ice shelf
off Antarctica are now sliding off into the sea -- and they are going fast, 
scientists said on Tuesday. 
Two separate studies from climate researchers and the space agency NASA show
the glaciers are flowing into Antarctica's Weddell Sea, freed by the 2002 
breakup of the Larsen B ice shelf. 
Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers said 
their satellite measurements suggest climate warming can lead to rapid sea 
level rise. 
 ...  more info on the Spotlite page... Dan..


Strange twist to stormy weather
 9-19-04 (news.com.au)  A Severe storm system caused bizarre weather along 
New South Wales' east and central coasts, the Southern Highlands and Blue 
Mountains yesterday, spawning hailstorms, a waterspout, high winds and heavy 
rain.
Hailstones about the size of a 10c coin fell in southwestern Sydney - at 
Razorback, between Camden and Picton - at 3.30pm as wild weather hit for the 
second time in two weeks. 
The Bureau of Meteorology's severe weather specialist Andrew Haigh said the 
rain storm then moved across parts of Liverpool and Blacktown towards 
northwest Sydney. 
A spectacular water spout erupted at Newcastle, alarming hundreds of people 
out on a Sunday stroll on the foreshore. 
A separate storm in southern NSW forced flights heading from Sydney and 
Melbourne to Canberra to turn back and grounded outbound flights for almost 
two hours. 
Other storms also developed to the west of Sydney, in the Richmond area, and
were forecast to move on towards Sydney's northwest later in the night. 


Mussels Found Near N.Pole in Global Warming Sign
 9-18-04 OSLO (Reuters)  Mussels have been found growing on the seabed just
800 miles from the North Pole in a likely sign of global warming, scientists 
said on Friday. 
The blue mussels, which normally favor warmer waters like off France or the 
eastern United States, were discovered last month off Norway's Svalbard 
archipelago in waters that are covered with ice most of the year. 
"The climate is changing fast," said Geir Johnsen, a professor at the 
Norwegian University for Science and Technology who was among experts who 
found the bivalves. Molluscs were a "very good indicator that the climate 
is warming," he said. 
 ... entire article on Spotlite page... Dan.


Natural disasters 'on the rise'
 9-17-04 (BBC)  The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said the 
increase in numbers vulnerable to natural shocks was due partly to global 
warming. 
It said 254 million people were affected by natural hazards last year - 
nearly three times as many as in 1990. 
The assessment comes as the Caribbean and the US are being hit by a series 
of devastating hurricanes. 
Releasing its statistics jointly with the Centre for Research on the 
Epidemiology of Disasters (Cred) at the University of Louvain in Belgium, 
it said there was a consistent trend over the last decade of an increasing 
number of people affected by disasters. 
There were 337 natural disasters reported in 2003, up from 261 in 1990. 
The problems, it said, are exacerbated because more and more people are 
living in concentrated urban areas and in slums with poor building standards 
and a lack of facilities. 
"Not only is the world globally facing more potential disasters but increasing
numbers of people are becoming vulnerable to hazards," the ISDR said. 
 ... amazingly some folks still don't think Global Warming is real... Dan.


Ivan May Just Be a Messenger 
 9-15-04 (wired news)  Hurricane Ivan is among the most powerful Atlantic 
storms in recent history, and more such storms are likely in the future due 
to global warming, say climate experts. 
The extra energy from this "greenhouse effect" has already warmed the Earth 
by about 1 degree Fahrenheit, according to the 2001 report by the 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  The report is based on evidence 
and research from more than 2,500 scientists from about 100 countries. 
 ...  longer article on the Spotlite page... Dan.


Sea engulfing Alaskan village 
 9-11-04 (BBC)  The village of Shishmaref lies on a tiny island on the edge of
the arctic circle - and it is literally being swallowed by the sea. 
Houses the Eskimos have occupied for generations are now wilting and buckled. 
Some have fallen into the sea.  Not only is the earth crumbling underfoot, but
the waves are rising ominously all around. 
Because temperatures in Alaska have increased by as much as 4.4C over the last
30 years, glaciers are starting to melt, causing the sea levels to rise. 
The increased temperature is also thawing the frozen ground, which is known as
permafrost, on which the arctic communities such as Shishmaref were built. 
Soon this entire village will be relocating to the mainland - making the people
of Shishmaref the first refugees of global warming. 


Warnings from the Wild
 9-11-04 (CBC.CA)  In the Arctic, climate changes are tangible.  As the Earth 
warms, the ice caps melt.  Polar bears depend on the ice to hunt.  If the ice 
breaks up in early spring, the bears go hungry and scientists have noticed a 
change in the bears' weight and survival rate of cubs.  At the other end of 
the world in the Antarctic, the pattern is repeated, only it's penguins that
depend on the ice. 
In the more temperate zones of Europe and the United States, scientists are 
using the long-term records of amateur naturalists to show how trees are 
leafing and birds are migrating a full two weeks earlier. 
 ... longer article on the Spotlite page... Dan.


"Extreme Weather Will Kill Millions"
 9-7-04 (Reuters)  Millions of people across the globe are set to die early 
due to extreme weather events such as floods and heat waves caused by 
climate change, a British scientist said Tuesday. 
Professor Mike Pilling cited the heatwave in Europe last year that killed 
thousands of people from a combination of heat exhaustion and an increase 
in atmospheric pollution. 
"We will experience an increase in extreme weather events," he told 
reporters at the annual meeting of the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science.  "There are predictions of a 10-fold 
increase in heat waves. 
Pilling, professor of Physical Chemistry at Leeds University in northern 
England, said atmospheric pollution was like a plague stretching across 
the planet -- although far worse in the industrialized northern hemisphere 
than the southern -- as pollutants drifted from Asia to the United States 
to Europe and back to Asia. 


Manitoba has Worst Summer Ever
 8-31-04  The entire globe was a fraction of a degree colder than normal 
in July.  But Manitoba dropped about three degrees below normal from May 
to August, tied with Siberia for the worst summer in the hemisphere. 
Winnipegs mean temperature was the chilliest since records started being 
kept in 1873. 
Even excluding May, the three summer months will add up to one of the two 
coldest summers on record -- and the only competitor is 1992, when a 
Philippine volcano caused a worldwide chill. 
 ...  entire article on Spotlite page... Dan.


Mercury in many lakes, rivers
 8-26-04 (usatoday)  One third of the nation's lake waters and one-quarter
of its riverways are contaminated with mercury and other pollutants that 
could cause health problems for children and pregnant women who eat too 
much fish, the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday. 
States issued warnings for mercury and other pollutants in 2003 for nearly 
850,000 miles of U.S. rivers a 65% increase over 2002 and 14 million 
acres of lakes.  The warning level is the highest ever reported by the EPA.


California Steamin 
 8-25-04  The forecast for America's most populous state is for dangerous 
heat and shortages of water.  That's according to a study of California's 
climate published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 
A just-published study on the impact of global warming on California says 
even if fossil fuel use is curtailed, residents there should, by the end of
the century, expect "heat-related mortality increases  2-3 times" over 
today's rate, but that the rate could be "increasing 5-7 times" if fossil 
fuel use continues like today. 
Under the second scenario the one with higher emissions the report says 
that by 2100, "heatwaves in Los Angeles are 6-8 times more frequent, with 
heat-related excess mortality increasing 5-7 times; alpine/subalpine 
forests are reduced by 75-90%; and snowpack declines 73-90%."  The report 
goes on to say such a decline "could fundamentally disrupt California's 
water system." 
 ...  won't be that long ...  Dan.


Close-to-Shore Quakes Baffle Scientists
 8-21-04  Researchers at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science
Center are somewhat perplexed after a close-to-shore earthquake rumbled 
across Lincoln County for the second time in two months. 
Seismologists for marine science center and the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration - called Wednesday night's 4.7-magnitude quake 
"very odd."  It followed in the wake of a 4.9-magnitude earthquake that 
briefly shook things up July 12. 
Off-shore earthquakes are extremely common, but those with magnitudes 
higher than 4.0 are - "extraordinarily rare" so close to shore (within 20 
to 35 miles).  In fact, there is no record of any earthquake of similar 
magnitude that close to the Oregon shoreline in the past 30 years. 
Now two have occurred within five weeks of each other, 
and researchers can't say why... 


Summer storms lash Europe
 August 18, 2004 (news.com.au)  FREAK storms packing howling winds and 
heavy rain that lashed Britain and France this week were set to continue 
today, after already causing significant destruction and the deaths of at
least four people.
Rescuers in southern France resumed searches for at least five swimmers 
caught by surprise by the sudden change in the weather yesterday, roiling 
waters into huge waves and pushing out powerful wind gusts of up to 80km/h. 
In Britain, residents of Boscastle, a coastal village in north Cornwall, 
were bracing for more rain two days after flash floods sent a wall of water
tearing through the village, collapsing buildings and sweeping more than 50
cars into the sea. 


Record Alaskan Temps!
 8-17-04 (the Anchorage Daily News)  Acrid smoke from Interior wildfires 
drifted into Anchorage, the Mat-Su and other areas of Alaska on Monday, 
irritating eyes and throats, prompting health warnings and disappointing 
visitors who expected Alaska's legendary clear skies and long-distance 
vistas. 
And the haze won't disappear soon, the National Weather Service says. 
The atmospheric conditions that drew the smoke 250 miles or more should 
linger at least several more days. 
The pall, which helped boost the temperature to a record-shattering 84 
degrees, is giving Anchorage a taste of the worst wildfire season in 
Alaska history. Nearly 5 million acres have burned, according to the 
Alaska Interagency Coordination Center in Fairbanks on Monday afternoon. 


'Dead Zone' Found off Oregon Coast
 8-10-04 CORVALLIS, Ore.  For the second time in three years, a hypoxic 
"dead zone" has formed off the central Oregon Coast.  It's killing fish,
crabs and other marine life and leading researchers to believe that a 
fundamental change may be taking place in ocean conditions in the northern
Pacific Ocean. 
In 2002, the dead zone appeared to be a one-time anomaly, an odd 
combination of climate, winds and upwelling patterns that led to a hypoxic
event � a situation in which the oxygen level was so low it could not 
support most marine life � which had not been seen in the region's recent
history. 
But continued research has shown that the same thing almost occurred last
year and is now happening in full force again this year.  Dissolved oxygen
levels are a great deal lower than those seen in the past 40 years.  
This is a disturbing trend with an unknown cause that scientists now say 
may reflect a major change in ocean circulation patterns, with serious 
impacts on marine biology. 
 ...  just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak... Dan.


'Dead Zone' Spreads Across Gulf Of Mexico 
 8-4-04 HOUSTON (Reuters)  A huge "dead zone" of water so devoid of oxygen 
that sea life cannot live in it has spread across 5,800 square miles of the
Gulf of Mexico this summer in what has become an annual occurrence caused 
by pollution. 
In the last 30 years, the dead zone has become an annual summer phenomenon,
fed by rising use of nitrate-based fertilizers by farmers in the Mississippi
watershed. 
The nitrates, carried into the gulf's warm summer waters by the river, feed 
algae blooms that use up oxygen and make the water uninhabitable. 
Virtually nothing is being done to stop the flow of nitrates into the river,
meaning the dead zone will reappear every year.


Beaches Awash With Dead Fish 
 8-3-04 OCEAN CITY, Md. (AP)  A surge of cold water generated from
an offshore current killed nearly a million adult Atlantic croaker, 
leaving maintenance crews at local resorts with their hands full of 
carcasses to clean up. 
``They were probably swimming in water temperature around the 60 degrees,
``Then it got down to the 40s.  Just like humans, some of us suffer 
heatstroke or suffer frostbite at different temperatures.  Same thing 
with fish. They couldn�t handle the rapid temperature drop. 
 ...  *more* signs of a problem in the Atlantic current! ...Dan 


1,500 Homing Pigeons Get Lost During Race 
 July 22, 2004 (Sweden)  Organizers of a race for homing pigeons were 
still scratching their heads in wonder Thursday after about 1,500 
of the birds, famous for their ability to find their way home, went 
missing during the contest.
Of the 2,000 pigeons let loose last week, only about 500 have returned 
to their lofts after the 150-kilometer (93 mile) flight between the 
cities of Ljungby and Malmoe in southern Sweden, said Lars-Aake Nilsson 
of the Malmoe Homing Pigeon Club. 
"The weather was perfect - no rain, no thunder and no strong winds," he 
said.  "I have worked with pigeons since 1960 and have never experienced 
anything like this," adding that the birds might have been thrown off 
course by subtle changes in the earth's magnetic field. 
The pigeons have a natural homing instinct and are believed to navigate by 
the sun and the magnetic waves of the earth, Nilsson said. 
 ... NOT Good... 4th article in the past few months of missing birds... Dan.


Record High Temps in Tokyo
 7-21-04 TOKYO (AFP)  The temperature in central Tokyo hit a record 39.5 
degrees Celsius (103.1 Fahrenheit) as a heat wave continued to scorch many 
parts of Japan, the Meteorological Agency said. 
The mercury reading was the highest in the capital since the agency began 
recording data in 1923, surpassing the previous record of 39.1 Celsius 
reached on August 3, 1994. 
  ... and ...
Extreme Peru Cold Snap 
 July 19, 2004 � LIMA, Peru (Reuters)  Extreme cold in Peru's high Andes as 
temperatures have plunged as low as minus 13 Fahrenheit (minus 25 C), 
government and U.N. officials said on Monday.  Even though it is the Southern
Hemisphere's winter, the temperatures have been as much as five times 
lower than normal. The conditions have been caused by a cold front over 
the Pacific Ocean that has sparked intense snowfall when it meets an area of 
humidity, meteorologists said.
  ... also ...
Australians amazed by snowfalls 
Surprise snowfalls prompted people in Sydney, Australia, to flock to the 
mountains today to catch a glimpse of what for them is a rare winter 
phenomenon. 
The unexpected wintry weather brought a warning from traffic officials to 
stay at home. 
Snowfall is rare in the region and officials trying to deal with icy roads 
in the mountains advised curious sightseers to stay away. 


Alaska Natives Say Warming Imperils Villages
 7-16-04 (Anchorage, Alaska)  A warming climate is bringing expensive and 
potentially dangerous erosion and floods to Native Alaskan villages.
Storms tear off chunks of beach once shielded by permafrost or Arctic pack 
ice.  Buildings are in danger of toppling into the sea, and many have already
been moved, at great expense. 
Of the 213 Native Alaskan villages, 184 face flooding and erosion problems, 
with very serious problems in about 20.
Residents have already moved 18 homes and two National Guard buildings. 
The Inupiat village of Point Hope, established 2,600 years ago on the
northwestern Alaska coast.  Flooding problems will likely force the village 
of 725 people to move,


QUARTER MILE LONG FISSURE OPENS UP
 7-15-04 (Arizona Daily Star)  Authorities today are investigating the cause 
of a fissure north of Willcox that spans a quarter mile and is up to five feet
wide at some points. 
Authorities do not know how deep the fissure is but a spokeswoman for the 
Sheriff's Department said it's too deep to see the bottom. 
Officials with various utility companies have been called to the site along 
with officials from the University of Arizona to help determine what caused 
the fissure and how to deal with it. 
 ... important - see the 7-2-04 post below ... Dan.


Extreme temperatures continue to plague Europe
 7-12-04 Bucharest (AFP)  In Romania fierce winds damaged 400 houses, mainly
in the north, ripped up trees and cut power supplies to 300 areas, while 
hailstorms destroyed 4,600 hectares (11,360 acres) of crops. 
Storms that had provoked floods and power cuts in Britain and Germany during 
the week turned to snow in the Bavarian mountains on Sunday. 
Northeast Italy was hit by unseasonally chilly weather over the weekend and 
snow in the Italian Alps. 
In France, where nearly 15,000 people died in an extended heatwave last year,
summer 2004 continued to be a rain-drenched washout. 
The authorities in Athens, which hosts the Olympic Games  next month, advised 
people with respiratory or heart problems to stay out of the sun, which sent 
temperatures up to over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts 
of the city. 
 ...  and ... 
Cold weather in Argentina ,Chile and Peru
 BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - Winter storms have violently struck several South 
American countries in recent days in Argentina and Chile and record below 
freezing temperatures in southern Brazil. 
In Argentina, temperatures reached minus 11 degrees Celsius (12 degrees F)in 
Tierra del Fuego over the weekend. 
Heavy snow and rain in southern Peru left 53 people homeless and damaged 
thousands of houses.


Sunspots reaching 1,000-year high 
 7 -5 -04  (BBC)  A new analysis shows that the Sun is more active now than
it has been at anytime in the previous 1,000 years. 
Scientists based at the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich used ice cores 
from Greenland to construct a picture of our star's activity in the past. 
They say that over the last century the number of sunspots rose at the same 
time that the Earth's climate became steadily warmer.  This trend is being 
amplified by gases from fossil fuel burning, they argue. 
Looking at the past 1,150 years the Sun has never been as active as it has 
been during the past 60 years. 
Over the past 20 years, however, the number of sunspots has remained roughly
constant, yet the average temperature of the Earth has continued to increase. 
This is put down to a human-produced greenhouse effect caused by the 
combustion of fossil fuels. 


Mile Long Crevasse opens along Fault in Mexico
 7-2-04 Mexico City (AP)  A gaping, mile-long crevasse opened early Tuesday
along what officials described as a geological fault line in western Mexico.
The crevasse reportedly opened without warning early Wednesday. It stretches 
about one mile (2 kms) across farm fields in a sparsely populated area in 
Zapopan, a suburb of the western city of Guadalajara. 
It is as much as 15 feet (5 meters) wide in some places. 


Experts say dearth of rain in Western states 'historic'
 6-30-04 (Union-Tribune)  Lakes are drying up, water districts are ramping 
up conservation efforts and farmers are searching the skies in vain for 
drops of rain. 
As the official rain season ends today, San Diego County is in the grip of 
a drought that is being felt throughout the Western United States. 
"The bottom line is we are dry and it is a historic drought," said 
Douglas Le Comte, a senior meteorologist and drought specialist for the 
federal Climate Prediction Center. 
Some experts are saying this could be the worst drought in 500 years.


Western Drought Now Beats 1930s Dust Bowl
 6-17-04 LAS VEGAS (AP)  The drought gripping the West could be the biggest 
in 500 years, with effects in the Colorado River basin considerably worse 
than during the Dust Bowl years, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey 
said Thursday. 
The report said the drought has produced the lowest flow in the Colorado 
River on record, with an adjusted annual average flow of only 5.4 million 
acre-feet at Lees Ferry, Ariz., during the period 2001-2003.  By comparison, 
during the Dust Bowl years, between 1930 and 1937, the annual flow averaged 
about 10.2 million acre-feet, the report said. 
Scientists use tree-ring reconstructions of Colorado River flows to estimate
what conditions were like before record-keeping began in 1895.  Using that 
method, the lowest five-year average of water flow was 8.84 million acre-feet
in the years 1590-1594.  From 1999 through last year, water flow has been 
7.11 million acre-feet. 
"These comparisons suggest that the current drought may be comparable to or 
more severe than the largest-known drought in 500 years," the report said. 


N.D. Probes Disappearance of Pelicans
 5-31-04 MEDINA, N.D. (AP)  Wildlife officials estimate nearly 27,000 
American white pelicans have abandoned their summer nesting grounds at the 
Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge.  The question is why - and where they 
went.  The birds were noticed missing about two weeks ago.  Left behind were 
thousands of eggs, which are unlikely to hatch.  
 ... more ....
 June 17, 2004  Another 2,000 American White Pelicans have disappeared from 
the Chase Lake Wildlife Refuge, leaving behind hundreds of chick carcasses 
and eggs on an island.  There are only about 300 adult pelicans left on the 
entire island.  Pelicans have nested at Chase Lake for more than a hundred 
years without such baffling disappearances.  So far, none of the 29,000 
pelicans have showed up anywhere else and no one yet has an answer to the 
mystery. 
 ... more ...
 7-1-04  Four of approximately 30,000 white pelicans that left
the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge in south central North Dakota have 
been tracked, but they took different paths, federal officials say.
The pelicans still are not giving clues to wildlife officials about why they 
abandoned the refuge last month.


Fast Arctic Thaw Portends Global Warming
 5-26-04 (OSLO)  Global warming is hitting the Arctic more than twice as
fast as the rest of the planet in what may be a portent of wider, 
catastrophic changes, the chairman of an eight-nation study said on Monday.
Inuit hunters are falling more frequently through the thinning ice with 
habitats for plants and animals also disrupted.  The icy Hudson Bay in 
Canada could be uninhabitable for polar bears within just 20 years.  
The melting is also destabilizing buildings on permafrost and threatening 
an oil pipeline laid across Alaska. Benefits, for human commerce, might 
accrue from the opening up of a now largely icebound short-cut sea route 
from the Pacific to the Atlantic.  Russia might also win easier access to 
oil and gas as the icecap shrinks and permafrost retreats.  The broader 
consequences are however disturbing. 
"There is dramatic climate change happening in the Arctic right now...about 
2-3 times the pace of the whole globe," said Robert Corell, chairman 
of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessement (ACIA).  "If you want to know what the 
rest of the planet is going to see in next generation, watch out for the 
Arctic in the next 5-10 years," he told Reuters.  The report combines input 
from scientists, indigenous peoples and eight Arctic rim nations.  
The Arctic reacts most to global warming, blamed largely on emissions of 
gases like carbon dioxide from fossil fuels in cars and factories, partly 
because dark-colored water or earth, once exposed, soaks up heat far faster 
than white ice or snow.  Some parts of Alaska have heated up 10 times more 
than the global average, said Corell, a senior fellow at the American 
Meteorological Society.  Future temperature rises in the Arctic were 
likely to be twice the 1.4-5.8 Celsius (3-11 F) gain by 2100 forecast 
by a U.N.-led panel of scientists, he said. 
...  the Day After Tomorrow ?  - probably Not, the end of this Century ? 
  probably Sooner... Dan


Arctic temperatures warming rapidly
 19/05/2004 (ABC News)  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. 
Ben Saunders, forced by the warm weather to abandon an attempt to ski 
solo from northern Russia across the North Pole to Canada, said he had 
been amazed at how much of the ice had melted. 
"It's obvious to me that things are changing a lot and changing very 
quickly," a sunburnt Saunders told Reuters less than two days after 
being rescued from the thinning ice sheet close to the North Pole. 
"I do know it's happening because that was my third time in the Arctic 
(in the last three years)," said Saunders, who explored the region in 
2001 and 2003. 
"The temperatures were incredibly warm ... I had days when I could ski 
with no gloves and no hat at all, just in bare hands, because I was too 
hot," said Saunders. 
"I saw open water every single day of the expedition, which is not what 
I was expecting," said Saunders, who had to don a special thermal suit 
and drag his sled across open patches of water nine times during the 71 
days he spent alone.


Canada May Face Worst Drought in Years
 May 13, 2004 (AP)  VANCOUVER, BC  With dry weather predicted for a 
third summer in a row, British Columbia may experience its worst 
drought since the Great Depression, water experts warned. 
Amid a warm, dry spring and facing predictions of more of the same 
throughout the summer, British Columbia could face even more forest 
fires than last year's record season. 
So far there have been 206 fires in the province between April 1 and 
May 11, compared with 134 in the same period last year.


Water crisis as Mexico City sinks faster than Venice
 30 April 2004 (independent.co.uk)  Mexico City's underlying aquifer
is now collapsing at a staggering rate beneath the streets.  While 
Venice slips into the Adriatic at a fraction of an inch each year, 
Mexico City is lurching downwards by as much as a foot a year in some 
areas. Over the past century, it has dropped 30ft.
Chugging the equivalent of one Olympic-sized swimming pool full of 
water every minute, the city's strained aquifers are dragging much of 
the capital's rich heritage down with them, while the 20 million 
residents face problems that include water-borne diseases, power 
outages and the threat of riots.
Below street level, the ongoing subsidence is wreaking havoc with the 
water distribution and drainage systems.  The city's 8,300-mile network
of water pipes routinely fracture, losing up to 40 per cent of potable 
water supplies, according to some estimates.


California Sizzles in Record Spring Temps
 AP April 27, 2004  LOS ANGELES - A spring heat wave blistered 
California with record temperatures Monday as firefighters kept 
a close eye on dry brush, power officials monitored electricity 
use, and residents sought refuge at beaches and in swimming pools. 
Hundred-degree or greater highs were reported in coastal cities as 
well as through inland valleys and into the desert. Long Beach 
topped out only four degrees under Death Valley�s 105. 
The National Weather Service reported 99 degrees in downtown Los 
Angeles, shattering the record of 91 set in 1972. Other records 
included 100 in Santa Maria on the central coast, 91 in San 
Francisco, which usually averages 65 degrees this time of year, 
and 93 in San Jose. 
Sacramento hit 98, the capital�s hottest April 26 since record-
keeping began in 1849! 


Ocean 'dead zone' alert 
 March 29, 2004   So-called "dead zones" - oxygen-starved areas of the 
world's oceans that are devoid of fish - top the list of emerging 
environmental challenges, the United Nations Environment Program warned 
today in its global overview.
The spreading zones have doubled over the last decade and pose as big a 
threat to fish stocks as overfishing, UNEP said in its Global Environment 
Outlook Year Book 2003, released at the opening of the agency's 8th summit 
for the world's environment ministers.
The new findings tally nearly 150 dead zones around the globe, double the 
number in 1990, with some stretching 70,000 square kilometres.
Dead zones have long afflicted the Gulf of Mexico and Chesapeake Bay, but 
are now spreading to other bodies of water, such as the Baltic Sea, Black 
Sea, Adriatic Sea, Gulf of Thailand and Yellow Sea, as other regions 
develop, UNEP said.  They are also appearing off South America, Japan, 
Australia and New Zealand.


2003 Likely Europe's Hottest in 500 Years
 3-5-04 Washington (AP)  Last year's deadly summer in Europe probably was the
hottest on the continent in at least five centuries, according to researchers
who analyzed old records, soil cores and other evidence.  
"The summer of 2003 exceeded 1901 to 1995 European summer temperatures by 
around 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit)," the study said. "Taking into 
account the uncertainties, it appears that the summer of 2003 was very likely 
warmer than any other summer back to 1500."
  Longer article on the SpotLite page... Dan


Insurer warns of global warming catastrophe
 3-3-04 GENEVA (Reuters)  The world's second-largest reinsurer, Swiss Re, 
warned on Wednesday that the costs of natural disasters, aggravated by 
global warming, threatened to spiral out of control, forcing the human race 
into a catastrophe of its own making. 
In a report revealing how climate change is rising on the corporate agenda, 
Swiss Re said the economic costs of such disasters threatened to double to 
$150 billion (82 billion pounds) a year in 10 years.
"Sea levels will continue to rise, glaciers retreat and snow cover decline,"
the insurer wrote. 


Global Waring will plunge Britain into new ice age "within decades"
 1-25-04 (independent.co.uk)  Britain is likely to be plunged into an ice age
within our lifetime by global warming, new research suggests.
A study, which is being taken seriously by top government scientists, has 
uncovered a change "of remarkable amplitude" in the circulation of the 
waters of the North Atlantic.
Scientists have long expected that global warming could, paradoxically, 
cause a devastating cooling in Europe by disrupting the Gulf Stream, which 
brings as much heat to Britain in winter as the sun does: the US National 
Academy of Sciences has even described such abrupt, dramatic changes as 
"likely". But until now it has been thought that this would be at least
a century away.
The new research, by scientists at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries 
and Acquaculture Science at Lowestoft and Canada's Bedford Institute of 
Oceanography, as well as Woods Hole, indicates that this may already be 
beginning to happen.
 ...  longer article on SpotLite page... Dan.


Record Swiss glacier melting in 2003 
 1-14-04 (AFP/Terra Daily)   Switzerland's glaciers melted by a record amount
during 2003 due to long-term climate warming, according to the Swiss Academy 
of Natural Sciences.  The retreat of the glaciers in the Swiss Alps reached 
up to 150 metres in 2003, with overall melting exceeding that observed in any
year since measurements began in the 19th century.  "The overall view that 
emerges is of a clarity never seen before since annual measurements started
in 1880"  the academy in Bern said in a statement.  "The glacier measurements
are one of the best ways of documenting climate change".  The Swiss length 
measurements were based on regular data recorded on 96 Alpine glaciers.


Europe's 2003 heatwave was 1-in-46,000 event!
 1-12-04 (AFP/Yahoo News)  The heatwave that paralyzed Europe last summer 
was hailed as a harbinger of global warming by many, including climatologists
who predicted wilder extremes in floods, droughts and storms thanks to 
climate change.  More than 20,000 people are thought to have died as a result
of Europe's heatwave during the summer of 2003.  
During June and July, temperatures across much of the continent topped 40 �C.
Now results from a climate model have added more evidence to the idea that 
extreme temperature events are set to rise due to global warming, Nature 
Science Update reports.  Christoph Sch�r of the Swiss Federal Institute of 
Technology in Zurich and his colleagues calculate that, based on average 
temperatures since 1990, a European summer such as that of 2003 should come 
along only once every 46,000 years - even after taking global warming into 
account.  "Statistically, this event should not have happened," Sch�r says.


US Climate Policy 'Bigger Threat Than Terrorism'
 1-9-4 (The Independent - UK)  Sir David King, the Government's chief 
scientific adviser, says in an article today in the journal Science 
that America, the world's greatest polluter, must take the threat of global 
warming more seriously. 
"In my view, climate change is the most severe problem that we are facing 
today, more serious even than the threat of terrorism," Sir David says. 
The Bu$h administration was wrong to pull out of the Kyoto protocol, the 
international effort to limit the emission of greenhouse gases, and wrong 
to imply the protocol could adversely affect the US economy, Sir David says.
"As the world's only remaining superpower, the United States is accustomed 
to leading internationally co-ordinated action. But the US government is 
failing to take up the challenge of global warming. 
Results of a major study showed yesterday that more than a million species 
will become extinct as a result of global warming over the next 50 years.  
Sir David says the Bu$h administration is wrong to dispute the reality of 
global warming. The 10 hottest years on record started in 1991 and, 
worldwide, average temperatures had risen by 0.6C in the past century. 
Sea levels were rising, ice caps were melting and flooding had become more 
frequent.  The Thames barrier was used about once a year in the 1980s to 
protect London but now it was used more than six times a year. 


Australian government report on global warming
 1-2-04   The BBC reports that a new Australian government report on 
expected climate changes over the next 70 years, written by that country's
leading climate scientists, gives a devastating assessment of what can be 
expected due to global warming.  It predicts that Australia will be hotter, 
with average annual temperatures rising by up to six degrees by 2070, and 
experience more severe droughts and storms, raging bushfires, as well as 
major outbreaks of tropical diseases such as dengue and Ross River Fever.  
Climate change caused by global warming will, say the authors of the study, 
also put great pressure on Australia's water supplies, while the Great 
Barrier Reef could be badly damaged by coral bleaching caused by higher 
ocean temperatures.


Melting Ice 'Will Swamp Capitals'
 12-6-03 (The Independent - UK)  Measures to fight global warming will have
to be at least four times stronger than the Kyoto Protocol if they are to 
avoid the melting of the polar ice caps, inundating central London and many 
of the world's biggest cities, concludes a new official report. 
The report, written by eight leading German professors, says that "dangerous
climatic changes" will become "highly probable" if the world's average
temperature is allowed to increase to more than 2 degrees centigrade above what 
it was before the start of the Industrial Revolution. 
Beyond that level the West Antarctic ice sheet and the Greenland ice cap would 
begin gradually to melt away, eventually raising sea levels world wide by up to 
30 feet, submerging vast areas of land and key cities worldwide. London, 
New York, Miami, Bombay, Calcutta, Sydney, Shanghai, Lagos and Tokyo would be 
among those largely submerged by such a rise.


No Doubts Global Warming Is Real Say US Experts
 12-5-03 WASHINGTON (Reuters)  There can be no doubt that global warming is
real and is being caused by people, two top U.S. government climate experts 
said.  Industrial emissions are a leading cause, they say -- contradicting 
critics, already in the minority, who argue that climate change could be 
caused by mostly natural forces. 
"There is no doubt that the composition of the atmosphere is changing because
of human activities, and today greenhouse gases are the largest human 
influence on global climate," wrote Thomas Karl, director of the National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center, and 
Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center 
for Atmospheric Research. 
"The likely result is more frequent heat waves, droughts, extreme 
precipitation events, and related impacts, e.g., wildfires, heat stress, 
vegetation changes, and sea-level rise,"* they added in a commentary to 
be published in Friday's issue of the journal Science. 
Karl and Trenberth estimate that, between 1990 and 2100, there is a 90 
percent probability that average global temperatures will rise by between 3.1 
and 8.9 degrees Fahrenheit (1.7 and 4.9 degrees Celsius) because of human 
influences on climate. 
  * predicted by yours truly in --- 1997 !


France braced for "floods of century"
 12-3-03 LYON, France (Reuters)  Torrential rain drenching parts of 
southeastern France threaten to worsen flash floods that have cost at least
three lives and forced about 4,000 people to evacuate their homes.
Flooding along the Rhone River from Lyon to Marseille was due to hit its 
peak during the day, while winds of up to 150 kph were expected to lash the
Mediterranean coast, officials said. 
Heavy rain moving west also set off flood alerts reaching as far as the 
Pyranees Mountains.
A spokeswoman for the government nuclear safety authority ASN said two 
reactors were shut early on Tuesday as a precaution after the heavy rains. 
She said the restarting of the reactors would depend on river levels.
  ... didn't we just have a 'flood of the century'? 


Global Warming 'Could Close Half Of Alpine Ski Resorts'
 The Telegraph - UK (12-3-3)  More than half of all ski resorts in the Alps 
could be forced out of business in the next 50 years by rising temperatures, 
according to research published yesterday. 
Its predictions are based on scientific estimates that temperatures will 
increase by between 1.4C (2.5F) and 5.8C (10.4F)* during this century.
This is expected to raise the snowline by up to 1,000ft, jeopardising the 
future of resorts below 5,900ft.  Conversely, those above 6,500ft may fall 
victim to more avalanches. 
The research focused on Switzerland, where the loss of places such as 
Wildhaus and Unterwasser could cost the country �1 million a year through 
lost revenue. 
Already some European banks are refusing to lend money to low-level resorts.
 ... oh wait - the word 'money' is used here, 
  maybe this will get noticed... Dan

 * as pointed out on this page many times before - a 10 degree rise in 
  temperature will have a Huge impact on mankind.


Oblivion threat to 12,000 species
 11-18-03 (BBC)  Another 2,000 species have been added to the annual Red List
of the world's most endangered animals and plants. 
The "official" catalogue produced by IUCN-The World Conservation Union now 
includes more than 12,000 entries. 
Among the countries with the highest numbers of threatened birds and animals 
are Indonesia, India, Brazil, China and Peru. Plants are declining fast in 
Ecuador, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil and Sri Lanka. 


Arctic Warming Is Accelerating - NASA
 10-30-3  OTTAWA (CP) -- A NASA study warns that the rate of warming in the 
Arctic is speeding up and may be a harbinger of climate changes that will 
affect the entire globe. 
The rate of warming in the Arctic over the last 20 years is eight times 
greater than the rate over the entire last 100 years, says the study, to 
be published in the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate. 
The biggest temperature increases are occurring over North America. 
The study is based on infrared satellite pictures taken from space. 
 ...  sigh  ...


North Sea Facing Collapse Of Its Ecosystem
 The Independent (UK) 10-19-3  The North Sea is undergoing "ecological 
meltdown" as a result of global warming, according to startling new 
research. Scientists say that they are witnessing "a collapse in the 
system", with devastating implications for fisheries and wildlife. 
Record sea temperatures are killing off the plankton on which all life in the 
sea depends, because they underpin the entire marine food chain.  Fish stocks 
and sea bird populations have slumped. 
This year stocks of young cod were at their lowest for 20 years.  The numbers 
of wild salmon have almost halved over the past two decades and this year the 
numbers returning to British rivers to spawn fell to a record low.  Meanwhile,
warm-water fish such as red mullet, horse mackerel, pilchards and squid are 
becoming increasingly common.


Warmest September on record, worldwide
 10-17-03 WASHINGTON (AP)  Last month was the warmest September on record,
federal climate experts said Friday.  Worldwide, the average temperature for 
the month was about 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius), according to 
the National Climate Data Center.  That's 1.0 degree Fahrenheit above average
on records going back to 1880. 
The second and third warmest Septembers on record occurred in 1997 and 1998, 
respectively. 
In the U.S., Virginia had its wettest October-September on record, with 
rainfall exceeding the next wettest October-September by 10 inches. 
More than 65 inches of rain fell in Virginia from October 2002 to September 
2003, more than twice the amount that fell during the previous 12-month period. 
Three other states had their wettest 12 months on record Delaware, Maryland and 
North Carolina and the Southeast as a whole was the wettest in 108 years of 
record keeping for that 12-month period. 
...  Warmer and wetter - wish I could have seen that one coming 
 - oh wait, I did, SIX YEARS AGO... Dan.


Europe Had Hottest Summer In 500 Years
 9-24-03 GENEVA (AFP)  Europe this year experienced its hottest summer for
at least 500 years, providing further evidence of man-made global warming,
Swiss university researchers said on Tuesday.
During the crushing heat wave between June and August this year, average 
temperatures eclipsed the previous record set in 1757, according to a 
study by the University of Bern's geography department. 
The overall rise in summer temperatures in Europe has picked up over the 
last 26 years, with an average rise of 2.8 degrees Celsius(~5F) between 
1998 and 2003. The last decade was the hottest of all, the study said. 
 ...  5 Degrees in 5 Years !!  This is bad folks, very - very BAD... Dan


Arctic ice shelf splits
 9-23-03 (BBC)  The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf is located on the north coast of 
Ellesmere Island in Canada's Nunavut territory. 
The huge mass of floating ice, which has been in place for at least 
3,000 years, is now in two major pieces. 
The immediate consequence of the rupture has been the loss of almost all of 
the freshwater from the Northern Hemisphere's largest epishelf lake (a body 
of mostly freshwater trapped behind an ice shelf). 


Baked Alaska on the Menu?
 AKTOVIK, Alaska (NY Times 9-17-03)  Skeptics of global warming should come 
to this Eskimo village on the Arctic Ocean, roughly 250 miles north of the 
Arctic Circle.  It's hard to be complacent about climate change when you're 
in an area that normally is home to animals like polar bears and wolverines, 
but is now attracting robins.
A robin even built its nest in town this year (there is no word in the 
local Inupiat Eskimo language for robins).  And last year a porcupine 
arrived.
Alaska has warmed by eight degrees, on average, in the winter, over 
the last three decades, according to meteorological records.  The U.S. Arctic
Research Commission says that today's Arctic temperatures are the highest 
in the last 400 years, and perhaps much longer.
For hundreds of years, the Eskimos here used ice cellars in the permafrost.  
But now the permafrost is melting, and these ice cellars are filling with 
water and becoming useless.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, reflecting a consensus of 
scientists, concluded that human activity had probably caused most global 
warming in recent decades.  It predicted that in this century, the seas will 
rise 4 to 35 inches.
Some 14,000 years ago, a warming trend apparently raised the sea level by 70 
feet in just a few hundred years. 
Unless we act soon, we may find waves lapping the beaches of Ohio. 


Not just warmer: it's the hottest for 2,000 years
 September 1, 2003 The Guardian
The earth is warmer now than it has been at any time in the past 2,000 
years, the most comprehensive study of climatic history has revealed. 
Confirming the worst fears of environmental scientists, the newly published
findings are a blow to sceptics who maintain that global warming is part of
the natural climatic cycle rather than a consequence of human industrial 
activity. 
Scientists looked at tree trunks, which keep a record of the local climate:
the rings spreading out from the centre grow to different thicknesses 
according to the climate a tree grows in. The scientists looked at sections 
taken from trees that had lived for hundreds and even thousands of years 
from different regions and used them to piece together a picture of the 
planet's climatic history. 
The scientists also studied cores of ice drilled from the icy stretches of 
Greenland and Antarctica. As the ice forms, sometimes over hundreds of 
thousands of years, it traps air, which holds vital clues to the local 
climate at the time. 
"What we found was that at no point during those two millennia had it been 
any warmer than it is now. From 1980 onwards is clearly the warmest 
period of the last 2,000 years," said Prof Jones. 


Heatwave A Sign Of Times Ahead
 8-16-03 LONDON  Europe's worst heatwave in decades has left a trail of
death, destruction and dehydration in its wake, raising urgent questions 
about the impact of global warming and how prepared even developed 
countries are to deal with extreme heat.  
Climate experts say the heatwave, which eased yesterday after setting 
record highs in Britain, France, Germany and Italy, is one of the clearest
indications that the planet is not only warming but probably at a far 
faster rate than previously thought.  	
In Britain, four of the five hottest years since daily recordkeeping 
started more than 300 years ago have come in the past 10 years, and 
climatologists believe 2003 may surpass 1998 as the hottest year. 
Worldwide, nine of the warmest years on record have happened in the 1990s 
and 2000s. 
Unless humans change the way they use the planet and adapt to high-
temperature living, experts fear that the fatalities, water shortages, 
power cuts and devastating forest fires experienced across Europe may 
well be the shape of things to come.  
...  now - where have I heard that before ...
United Nations-sanctioned predictions are for an average 1.5- to 5.8-
degree increase in global temperatures this century because of greenhouse
emissions, with most climatologists erring on the low side.  But with 
recent events, the higher figure looks closer to the mark. 
  It pains me that these issues are still being 'debated', while 
humanity suffers.  It will only get WORSE... Dan 


London Temps Hit 100 for First Time
 8-10-03 PARIS - Melting Alpine glaciers unleashed a cascade of rocks, 
London choked in a record 100-degree temperatures and with wildfires 
raging in seven countries, and there was no immediate relief in sight
for much of the continent. 
The German weather service reported Sunday it had registered a new 
countrywide temperature record in the Bavarian city of Roth, which hit 
nearly 105 degrees on Saturday.  Britons also gasped through a record-
breaking day, watching thermometers climb above 100 for the first
time in Britain since temperatures have been recorded.  
Germany is expected to swelter until midweek; France is counting on at 
least another week of abnormally high temperatures; and weather experts
in Italy expect the country to be steamy until September. 


Atlantic's Sudden Temperature Dive A Midsummer Mystery
 8-7-03  Surfers, lifeguards, anglers and others who regularly dip a toe
into the Atlantic have noticed this summer that water that is typically 
bathwater-warm has occasionally become fjord-cold.  Beachgoers from as far
afield as Virginia Beach, Nags Head, N.C., Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Daytona
Beach, Fla., have been curious about the precipitous drop.  So many people 
have contacted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that 
William Tseng, an oceanographer at NOAA's Silver Spring headquarters, is 
investigating the phenomenon. 
He's examining three possible causes: increased river runoff from this 
spring's frequent rains; a current of cold seawater snaking down from the 
North Atlantic; and an event known as "coastal upwelling." 
 ...  I would like more info on this, from either side of the pond... Dan.


TEMP RECORDS SMASHED ACROSS EU
 8-5-03  Forecasters said thermometers in Paris could break through the 
symbolic 40 degrees Celsius mark (104 Fahrenheit) which has happened
only once before in the 130 years of modern-day record-keeping. 
Forecasters said there were no signs of the weather breaking and the heat
was set to continue at least to the start of next week.
The punishing temperatures have sparked a spate of forest fires in Portugal,
and there have also been major blazes in Spain, Croatia and Italy.
Polish fire crews battled 35 forest blazes on Monday and about a quarter of 
its woodlands were at serious risk of fire, authorities said. 
Workers at the Fessenheim nuclear plant near the German border were dousing 
the outside of the reactor with water to keep it within regulation 
temperatures, prompting outrage from environmentalists who said it should be
simply shut down till the heat subsides.
In Britain many trains were running at half speed because of fears the rails
could buckle in the heat.  The Czech Republic also ordered speed restictions 
after some track was seen to have twisted out of shape.
A mile-long island of sand has appeared in the North Sea off the German coast
as a result of low water-levels.


Geyser closed due to geothermal activity
 7-30-03 (MSNBC)  At Norris Geyser Basin, new steam vents and mud pots are 
popping up, some geysers are draining themselves and Porkchop geyser has 
erupted for the first time since 1989.
All that, and the ground temperature has risen to 200 degrees Fahrenheit in
places, hot enough to boil water at Yellowstone's altitude.
Things are changing rapidly enough that the National Park Service has closed
about half of the famous geyser basin to visitors due to safety concerns.
The increased activity was first noticed July 11 and Porkchop geyser erupted
July 16, the first time it's blown in 14 years.


Global warming - a weapon of mass destruction
 London (AFP)  Human induced global climate change is a weapon of mass 
destruction at least as dangerous as nuclear, chemical or biological arms, 
a leading British climate scientist warned
John Houghton, a former key member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 
Change, said Monday that the impacts of global warming are such that "I have 
no hesitation in describing it as a weapon of mass destruction." 
"Like terrorism, this weapon knows no boundaries," Houghton said. "It can 
strike anywhere, in any form -- a heatwave in one place, a drought or a flood
or a storm surge in another" 
The US mainland was struck by 562 tornados in May, killing 41 people, and
pre-monsoon temperatures this year in India reached a blistering 49C (120F), 
5C (9F) above normal. 
"But the U$ government, in an abdication of leadership of epic proportions, is 
refusing to take the problem seriously".


Experts Say Bu$h's Global Warming Position 'Ludicrous'
 7-26-3 RENO(AP)  International experts at a gathering of more than 1,000 
scientists studying climate change and the future of mankind said the threat of
global warming is real and growing worse. 	
Bu$h and his advisers maintain reducing emissions through costly near-term 
measures is unjustified.  
The White Hou$e argues forecasting climate change is too imprecise to agree to 
long-term, international, mandatory cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions. 


Violent Storms, Thousands Without Electricity
 7-23-03 MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Storms packing wind of up to 100 mph! tore across
parts of the East, killing at least six people and knocking out electricity for 
hundreds of thousands of customers.  Memphis was among the hardest hit, with 
hundreds of trees down, homes and businesses damaged and entertainment landmarks
endangered. More storms rippled across the region Wednesday, soaking parts of 
the South, the East Coast and the Ohio Valley.  Up to 70 percent of the 450,000
homes and businesses served by Memphis Light, Gas & Water were without 
electricity after the storm.  The power outages virtually shut down Memphis 
International Airport, and Northwest Airlines, which uses the airport as a hub,
diverted flights to other cities.  In nearby northern Mississippi, more than 
22,000 customers lost power, along with 18,000 in eastern Arkansas, utilities 
said.  Most electrical service had been restored in New Jersey, where 18,000 
customers were blacked out, but meteorologists warned of a threat of flooding 
as more rain fell Wednesday.  Utilities in New York state tallied more than 
128,000 customers blacked out during storms late Monday and on Tuesday.


Swiss Alps Crumbling in Heat Wave
 July 15 (Bloomberg)  A heat wave in Europe is melting Switzerland's glaciers
and causing chunks of the Swiss Alps to break off, prompting the evacuation of
climbers and hikers.
Daytime temperatures in most of Switzerland have stayed above 30 degrees 
centigrade (86 F) for most of the past five weeks and June was the hottest 
month on record since weather observations began in 1864.
 ... hottest month in a hundred and forty years? - time for a debate!  ... Dan.


European Heat Wave
 Jul 14, 2003 (AFP)  The Italian government on Monday considered whether to 
declare a state of emergency in the drought-stricken north of the country as
other parts of Europe continued to swelter and watch the skies for rain.
Italians in the affected areas have been asked to reduce consumption of water
and electricity. 
The Po, which drains most of northern Italy, fell to a record 7.58 metres 
(over 24 feet) below its normal level at the weekend.  
The region accounts for some 35 percent of Italy's agricultural production. 
The river normally carries up to 1,200 cubic meters of water a second but has 
been seen to swell up to 3,000 cubic meters.  On Sunday it carried no more than
350 cubic meters of water a second. 
Ostiglia power station, also in northern Italy, has been forced to shut down 
due to a lack of water to cool its turbines.
In Britain - bookmakers said there was a chance temperatures would hit a 
symbolic 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius) this week for the first time
since records began. 
In Germany, the Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper warned that if Europe continues to 
experience hotter, drier weather, Berlin and the surrounding Brandenburg region 
could become a desert by the middle of this century.  "Already parts of 
Brandenburg have become Steppe-like," it said in a report on global warming. 
A heat wave hit record levels in June in Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and
some parts of the Balkans.


Severe Weather Prompts Unprecedented Global Warming Alert
 7-3-3  In an astonishing announcement on global warming and 
extreme weather, the World Meteorological Organisation signalled
last night that the world's weather is going haywire.  
In a startling report, the WMO, which normally produces detailed
scientific reports and staid statistics at the year's end, 
highlighted record extremes in weather and climate occurring all 
over the world in recent weeks, from Switzerland's hottest-ever 
June to a record month for tornadoes in the United States - and 
linked them to climate change.
 ...  entire article on SpotLite page ... Dan


Global Warming Removed from EPA Report !
 6/20/03  The White Hou$e has removed references to problems caused by global 
warming from next week's Environmental Protection Agency report on the state 
of the environment.  The report was commissioned in 2001 by EPA head Christie 
Whitman, who is leaving her federal job this month.  The original climate 
information, along with the changes ordered by the White House, were slipped 
to the New York Times by a former EPA official. 
The eliminated material refers to many studies that conclude that warming 
is at least partly caused by rising concentrations of smokestack and tail-pipe 
emissions and can threaten health and ecosystems.  A 2001 climate report by the
National Research Council about the human contribution to global warming was 
removed, as well as references to a 1999 study showing that global temperatures 
have risen sharply in the last 10 years, compared with the last 1,000 years.  
In place of this, the admini$tration added information from a study $ponsored by 
the American Petroleum In$titute that questions global warming. 
An April 29 memorandum circulated among EPA staff members says that after the 
changes by White Hou$e officials, the section on climate "no longer 
accurately represents scientific consensus on climate change." 
  ... Unbelievable, simply unbelievable... Dan.


Global Warming 'Threatens Mass Extinction'
 6-20-3  Global warming over the next century could trigger a catastrophe to 
rival the worst mass extinction in the history of the planet, scientists have
warned.
Researchers at Bristol University have discovered that a mere 6 degrees of 
global warming was enough to wipe out up to 95 per cent of the species which 
were alive on earth at the end of the Permian period, 250 million years ago.
Global warming author Mark Lynas, who recently travelled around the world 
witnessing the impact of climate change, said the findings must be a wake up 
call for politicians and citizens alike.  He said: "This is a global emergency.
 ...  entire article on SpotLite page... Dan.


New Climate Model Predicts Greater Warming Ahead
 5-20-03  Washington - For the first time, scientists have incorporated multiple 
human and natural factors into a climate projection model.  They predict that 
increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, due to changes in the carbon cycle, 
combined with a decrease in human-produced sulphates, may cause accelerated 
global warming during the 21st century, as compared with simulations without 
these feedback effects
The model predicts that the resultant warming will enhance soil respiration, 
meaning that the increased amounts of carbon stored in the soil during the 20th
century will be released into the atmosphere, causing a faster rise in 
atmospheric carbon dioxide.  By the end of the 21st century, the authors state,
the increase in carbon dioxide and decrease of sulphates will cause a 
substantially higher global warming of 5.5 degrees Celsius [9.9 
degrees Fahrenheit] compared with 4 degrees Celsius [7 degrees Fahrenheit] 
when these interactions are neglected. 
 ...  Entire article on the SpotLite Page... Dan.


Only 10% Of All Big Ocean Fish Left !
 5-16-03  LONDON (Reuters) - Large predatory fish - marlin, tuna and swordfish - 
are disappearing from the world's oceans, with their numbers down by 90 percent
in the past 50 years, Canadian scientists said on Wednesday. 
Estimates are that compared with when industrial fishing began in the 1950s, 
less than 10 percent of large predatory fish species have survived.
The great fish are not only dwindling in numbers, they are also getting smaller
Top predator fish are about one fifth to one half the size they used to be. 
Many fish never get the chance to reproduce, according to the researchers. 
As well as the big predators, there are also fewer large ground fish such as cod, 
halibut, skate and flounder. 
 ...  oh man, this ain't good news .... Dan.


Worst week of tornadoes on Record
 5-11-03  Oklahoma (CNN) -- More tornado warnings were issued Saturday as the 
United States nears the end of the most active week of tornadoes on record. 
Nearly 300 tornadoes have occurred during the past week in the 
United States, according to the National Weather Service.  States from Kansas 
to Georgia have suffered storm damage, injuries and deaths. 
That total is about 100 more than the most recent comparable rash of storms, 
in 1999.  The 1999 barrage had held the record for any 10-day period since 
record-keeping began in the 1950s.
 ... see my note below ... Dan

Large Storms... expected part of Earth Changes
 5-9-03 (MSNBC)  At least 104 people were injured, and 2,000 homes destroyed or 
damaged, by several twisters during the Thursday evening rush hour.  Forecasters 
said the severe weather would taper off over the weekend but that by midweek 
conditions would worsen again.
What looked like one tornado was actually a series of twisters spawned by the 
same storm, the National Weather Service said.  The twisters raced across a 
35-mile stretch in an undulating fashion, one rising into the clouds as another 
dropped from the sky.
In the South, the most recent severe weather has come in the form of flooding.  
Since last weekend, more than a foot of rain has fallen on the region.
...  allow me a moment to Re-Repeat myself, as the Earth warms - more water 
vapor is pumped into the atmosphere, changing weather patterns, and resulting 
in Larger and More Frequent Storms... Dan.


Mankind's Final Century ?
 U.K. Astronomer Royal Martin Rees says the human race has only a 50/50 chance 
of surviving another century.  In his new book "Our Final Century," he says 
this will be caused by a combination of natural events, such as global warming 
and asteroid impacts, and man-made disasters, like engineered viruses and 
nuclear terrorism.  
He says, "I think the odds are no better than 50/50 that our present 
civilization will survive to the end of the present century." 
He thinks scientists shouldn't do certain types of scientific research, such as 
cloning and genetic modification, that could eventually lead to our destruction.  
Other people have voiced such ideas, but Rees' position as a leading cosmologist 
that makes his statements especially important. 


World's wettest area dries up
 4-28-03 (BBC)  The Khasi Hills, in a remote part of north-east India, usually 
experience torrential rains.  Famously, the area once recorded more than 1,000 
inches (2,540 centimetres) of rain in just one year - a global record - but now 
the annual rainfall there has sharply fallen to less than a third of that.  
But villagers in the region, which was named after the rain-filled clouds that 
supplied the waterfalls and streams, now have to bring water from other areas. 
Increases in pollution and deforestation have been blamed for the environmental
changes. 


World warming in 2002 'near record'
 4-12-03 (BBC)  It continued a warming trend that has set records for the last 
five years.  Only 1998 was warmer.  The planet is now 0.6 Celsius warmer 
than in 1900, an increase that scientists attribute to human activity.  
The findings appear in The State Of The Climate, an annual report from the US 
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), based on research 
from eight countries.  
Researchers say even a fractional boost in average temperatures has significant 
consequences for the health of the planet. 
 ...  well - took nearly a decade but now the 'experts' agree with me... Dan.


Andean Glacier Threatens Flooding in Peru
 3-22-03 LIMA, Peru - A chunk of glacier was threatening to fall into an 
Andean lake and cause major flooding in a Peruvian city of 60,000, officials 
said Saturday.  A fissure has appeared in the glacier that feeds Lake 
Palcacocha near the city of Huaraz, 170 miles north of Lima.  If the piece 
breaks off, experts calculate ensuing floods would take roughly 12 minutes 
to reach the city.  In 1941, the lake overflowed and caused massive flooding 
in the city, killing 7,000 people. 


Glacier Turns into Lake
 11-Feb-2003  A new lake has been born in Nepal, that's half a mile long and 
over 300 feet deep.  It's also 4 miles above sea level, because twenty-five 
years ago it was a glacier.  "It's an important piece of evidence that the 
climate is actually warming," says Chris Folland of the U.K. Hadley Center 
for Climate Research .
Right now, the lake in Nepal is held together by a wall of frozen rock, but 
that�s melting too and soon this natural dam will burst, releasing a massive 
wall of water into the valley below, the most densely populated Sherpa valley 
in Nepal.  The only way to get there is on foot and everything is carried in 
and out on paths.  When the dam breaks, it will be a local disaster. 


Greenhouse gases 'at record levels' 
 2-11-03 (BBC)  British scientists say greenhouse gases are at the highest 
background levels ever recorded in the atmosphere.  They say stabilising the 
amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) will be harder, because a warming 
world will trigger feedback mechanisms. 
The report's key findings include: 
- Atmospheric concentrations of many greenhouse gases reached their highest-
  ever levels in 2001.
- The three hottest years on record were 1998, 2001 and 2002. 
- Positive carbon cycle feedbacks from forests and vegetation could sharply 
speed up future warming. A positive feedback occurs when warming sets off a 
further warming trend - when thawing permafrost, for example, releases a 
greenhouse gas.


Global Warming and Mercury Pollution
 10-Feb-2003  The UN Environment Program (UNEP) says pollution from everything 
from gold mining to burning coal in power stations has tripled mercury levels 
in the air. Mercury gets into the food chain, and can cause brain and nerve 
damage resulting in impaired coordination, blurred vision, tremors, irritability 
and memory loss.  Klaus Toepfer of UNEP says, "Things could get worse in the 
coming years, as increases in temperature also appear to help the spread of the 
mercury."  

 ... and ....

Global Warming And Hay Fever
 10-Feb-2003  Global warming is making the hay fever season last longer, because 
trees and grasses are sprouting earlier than normal. "Higher temperatures and 
climate change is adding to people's woes still further. This really is the first 
time there has been a medical, or consumer angle, to the climate change story," 
says a spokesman for the Woodland Trust. "We've all heard about its impact on 
species but this is the first time that we will actually see an impact on people 
as well." 
18,000 Woodland Trust volunteers in the U.K. write down the first signs of spring 
every year, such as the flowering of grasses, blooming of flowers and trees and 
arrival of certain birds and butterflies, in order to build a database about 
seasonal changes. "What we are seeing is a trend to a much earlier spring. 
Basically what is happening is that winter is being squeezed in the middle. 
Autumns are lasting for much longer and springs are arriving earlier," the 
spokesman says. 

Information shared times since 11/6/97
... plus about 31,000 that Tripod LOST ...