Blurbs that are just too good to throw away (part3) ...

Animal Habits Changed by Global Warming
 03-Jan-2003  Some species of birds have been flying in the same 
migration patterns for hundreds of thousands of years. Some fish and 
butterflies follow ancient migratory paths.  Now biologists are finding 
changes in these ancient routes and resting places, due to warmer 
temperatures on Earth. And many animals are migrating earlier than they 
did a few decades ago. 
The University of Texas analyzed more than 1,700 species and found 
"significant" changes in range towards the poles of almost 4 miles per 
decade.  Spring events, such as the arrival of migrant species and the 
laying of eggs, are happening almost 3 days earlier each decade. 

Hurricane Winds, Floods Wreak Havoc Across Europe
 1-3-03  BERLIN (Reuters) - Hurricane force winds and torrential rains 
battered Europe on Friday, killing at least six people, flooding tens of 
thousands of homes and hampering rail, road and waterway traffic.
Winds of nearly 125 mph and flooding caused chaos in Germany, 
France, Britain, Portugal, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands and the Czech
Republic with barge traffic halted on key rivers and toppled trees blocking
roads and rail lines.
There were also widespread power outages from the storms, which refocused 
attention on the odd weather in Europe this winter that has left parts of 
the Alps without snow because of unseasonably warm temperatures while 
leaving northern Europe shivering from a cold snap not experienced for 
decades.


U.S. Moving Backwards on Environment
 26-Dec-2002  Conservation and environmental groups think there will be an 
unprecedented assault on environmental laws in the congress, now that they 
have a Republican majority.  Greg Wetstone, of the Natural Resources Defense
Council (NRDC), says, "In the absence of any clear, aggressive Congressional
oversight we will see a more vigorous, escalated attack that includes new 
efforts to promote more air pollution, more water pollution, more clear 
cutting in the forests and more drilling, mining and logging on public lands.
These actions are broadly out of step with the overwhelming consensus of the 
American public, and it is quite evident that this administration is fully 
aware of that." 
Instead of fighting for increased environmental protection, environmentalists
are going to have to fight hard to keep existing programs.  Wetstone says, 
"We will be using all our resources to keep from moving backwards and that 
is a tragedy." 


UK 'close to record warmth'
 12-17-02 (BBC)  This year will come within a whisker of being the warmest 
recorded in the UK for 350 years, according to weather experts. 
The evidence that the UK has had another warm year comes from the Central 
England Temperature (CET) series, which stretches back to 1659. 
Globally, they think it is going to be the second warmest year recorded 
since 1860. 
Nine of the 10 warmest years have occurred since 1990, including 1999, 2000 
and 2001; the only year warmer than 2002 was 1998. 
 ...  sigh ...


Bolivian glaciers shrinking fast
 12-10-02  Data collected from tropical ice fields near the world's highest
capital, La Paz, show mass loss in the 1990s at rates 10 times greater than
previous decades. 
If rising temperatures and low precipitation continue, many smaller glaciers
will vanish in a decade, the researchers believe. 
Further ahead, the consequence could be water and power shortages for 
millions of Bolivians. 


Record ice loss in Arctic 
 12-9-02  Greenland's unusual summer slush was part of a record-breaking 
year of northern polar ice loss, reported at the American Geophysical 
Union (AGU) conference in San Francisco. 
According to scientists, surface melt on Greenland was the highest in 
recorded history - and extended to elevations previously untouched by 
melt - while the amount of Arctic sea ice also reached a record low. 
Measurements of the Greenland ice sheet taken from passive microwave 
satellite sensors show 685,000 square kilometres of melt, an area more 
than double that of 1992. 


Sparks, Ash Rain Down on Sydney 
 SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Sparks and ash rained down on Australia's most 
populous city Friday after waves of flame jumped a river and roads and 
raced toward its suburbs. 
Some 79 fires burned across New South Wales state, blackening about 
173,000 acres of forest and scrubland, the worst on the outskirts of Sydney.
Firefighters have been warning for months that Sydney faced a devastating 
wildfire season over the hot Southern Hemisphere summer. Almost 90 
percent of Australia has been declared drought-stricken, and some parts of the
country are facing their driest conditions in a century. 


Study: Warming Will Depleat Water
 12-5-02  LOS ANGELES (AP) - Global warming will have a devastating 
effect on water availability in the western United States, a new climate
forecast predicts. 
The report, released Thursday, involved more than two dozen scientists 
and engineers from around the country who undertook the study as a test
of a national climate forecasting effort. 
What they found doesn't bode well for the West. 
Even the report's best-case scenario predicted water supplies would fall
far short of future demands by cities, farms and wildlife, generating
critical water-rights' issues that have already surfaced during the West's
current drought. 


Arctic to lose all summer ice by 2100
 4 December 02  The Arctic Ocean will be completely devoid of summer ice
before the 21st century has ended, a NASA study predicts.
The new work shows that the permanent ice cap over the ocean - the cover
that survives through the warm summer months - is disappearing far faster
than previously thought.
Between 1978 and 2000, 1.2 million square kilometres of apparently permanent
ice melted away.  That is an area five times the size of Britain and 
represents a loss of nine per cent per decade.
"At this rate, permanent ice will have disappeared before the end of this
century," says NASA ice physicist Josefino Comiso.
As the ice disappears, it will speed up the warming of Arctic waters.  
This is because ice reflects most of the Sun's rays back into space, while 
the dark-blue oceans absorb much more heat.


Study Finds Routine Fish Eaters Poisoned With Mercury
 Nov. 5 2002 - A study involving 116 middle- to high-income men and women 
in a San Francisco medical practice shows nearly 90 percent had 
blood levels of mercury surpassing EPA’s safe levels – some by more 
than 17- fold. 
The patients tested – who included surgeons and CEOs, psychiatrists and 
wine-makers, geophysicists and internet executives, and their children were 
chosen based on their levels of fish consumption, or symptoms consistent 
with mercury poisoning, including depression, memory loss, confusion, 
tremors, metallic tastes, and hair loss. 


U.N. Says Environmental Disasters Cost $70 Billion
 NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Crippling droughts, torrential floods and other 
environmental disasters will cost the world more than $70 billion in 
2002, the United Nations Environment Programe said Wednesday. 
Devastating floods ripped through parts of Europe, China, India, Nepal 
and Bangladesh this year, killing thousands of people and leaving millions
more homeless. 
Of the estimated 526 natural disasters in the first nine months, 195 were 
in Asia -- home to almost half the world's people -- 149 in the Americas, 
99 in Europe, 45 in Australasia and 38 in Africa, the U.N. said. 
Recent climate disasters around the world -- from droughts in India, 
Australia and the United States to floods in Europe -- are graphic 
harbingers of some of the expected consequences of global warming. 
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global warming aims to reduce greenhouse gas 
emissions, mainly carbon dioxide, from the developed world to 5.2 percent
below 1990 levels by 2012. 
But the United $tates, the world's biggest air polluter, has refused to 
ratify the protocol, arguing that it will hit its economy and does not 
apply to developing countries. 


80% Of US Sewage Plants Exceed EPA Pollution Maximums
 WASHINGTON (10/21/02) Four of five wastewater treatment plants and 
chemical and industrial facilities in the United States pollute 
waterways beyond what their federal permits allow, according to 
government data compiled by an environmental group. 
More than 90 percent of the plants and facilities in Ohio, New Hampshire,
Rhode Island, Iowa, Puerto Rico, Maine, West Virginia, Delaware, New York,
and Connecticut exceeded permit limits between 1999 and 2001, said 
Thursday's report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. 
The average excess was 10 times what the permit called for, according to 
the report in which U.S. PIRG analyzed Environmental Protection Agency 
records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. 
Releases of the worst toxic chemicals, those known or suspected to cause
cancer and other serious health effects, averaged eight times more than 
is permitted under the Clean Water Act, the report said. For those 
chemicals, the states or territories with the highest percentage of 
facilities in violation — each with more than one-third out of 
compliance — are Puerto Rico, Ohio, Rhode Island, the Virgin Islands, 
the District of Columbia, New York, Arizona, Massachusetts, 
West Virginia, and Indiana. 
  ... whats in your water? 


Kilimanjaro's Glaciers Almost All Melted
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Kilimanjaro's already skimpy glaciers are melting
so quickly that they will be gone by 2020, U.S. researchers reported on 
Thursday. 
Writing in the journal Science, the researchers said the glaciers 
measured 4.8 square miles in 1912 but had shrunk to 1 square mile 
by 2000. 


Land Changes Worse Than Greenhouse Gases
 14-Oct-02  The way humans alter the Earth's surface may be a major
cause of climate change. NASA scientists say the way land is used is 
probably just as important as greenhouse gas emissions, and changes 
in the surface of the land in the tropics may have a greater influence
on climate than El Nino. 
Urban sprawl, the destruction and planting of forests, farming and 
irrigation all have a big effect on regional surface temperatures and 
the amount of rain. Land use changes alter the climate because different
types of surface affect the distribution of the Sun's energy. 


Continuing Climate Change
 LONDON (Reuters) -- More frequent and more devastating storms 
caused by climate change could cost $150 billion a year within 
the next ten years, possibly bankrupting financial services firms,
a United Nations-backed report warned this week. 
The report said a political framework for action on climate 
stability is essential, but said the Kyoto Protocol, under which 
many industrial nations except the United $tates committed to 
curb greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 does not go far enough. 
Worldwide economic losses from natural disasters appear to be 
doubling every ten years, the report said, and called for 
action to decrease the emission of greenhouse gases, particularly
carbon. 


Endangered list now 11,000 species
 10/8/02  Extinction is a real possibility for 11,167 species of
plants and animals, according to the World Conservation Union’s
new Red List of Threatened Species.  Central Asia’s Saiga antelope 
could soon take its last leap, and China’s Bactrian camel its last 
drink, the conservationists said Tuesday. The freshwater gastropod 
mollusk has already become extinct in the last two years, joining 
the long-departed Dodo bird among the ranks of vanished creatures. 
Since 2000, 121 species have been added to the threatened species 
list, and five have been added to the extinct list over the last 
two years.
The primary reason: human activity. Everything from expanding 
cities to deforestation, agriculture and fishing pose a significant
threat to the planet’s biodiversity, the group said.


Record warm start to 2002
 UK scientists say the last three months were globally the 
warmest January, February and March since records began.  
They are also the second-warmest consecutive three months ever 
recorded.  The scientists say it is significant that the record
was broken in the absence of any warming influence from El Nino,
(duh) the climate disturbance that originates in the Pacific. 


Rats And Mosquitoes Sweep Europe After Floods
 The Telegraph (UK) 9-16-2  The floods that swept across 
central Europe last month have devastated wildlife and plants
to such an extent that they will take decades to recover, 
according to reports published last week.  
A plague of mosquitoes, rats and cockroaches has also been 
unleashed by the flood waters. 
Large areas of countryside are either still underwater or 
coated in layers of mud and debris. 
Vienna University produced a report last week which showed
that the flooding was the worst in central Europe for more
than 2,000 years, or as far as records go back. 


2002 Summer Hottest Since 1930s Dust Bowl
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With nearly half the country reeling 
from a blistering drought, this summer is the hottest since 
the depression-stricken "Dust Bowl" era of the 1930s, U.S. 
government weather experts said on Friday. 
The summer's scorching temperatures have sparked raging forest
fires in the West, wilted crops in the Midwest and parched 
pastures in the Plains. 
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the 
average temperature for the contiguous United States from June 
through August was 73.9 degrees, the third hottest summer since
records began in 1895. 
Six states -- North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado, Utah, Arizona
and Nevada -- are suffering their worst drought on record, NOAA
said.  South Carolina, Maryland, Georgia, Delaware and Wyoming 
are also near unprecedented dry levels. 


Global Warming Blamed for Floods
 09-Sep-2002  The recent flooding of European cities has made 
scientists wonder if the weather is permanently changing.  
There is growing evidence of a link between global warming and 
the floods and droughts that have devastated parts of Asia and 
Europe this year.  Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says there is 
undeniable proof that the Earth is warming. 
The IPCC predicts the Earth's surface temperature will increase 
by 2.5 to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, compared with 1990 
levels.  Sea levels will rise from 3.6 to 35 inches, which will 
threaten small island states and low- lying areas. 
 ...  A Three Foot sea rise will threaten MUCH more than 
'low-lying areas'.  Dan ...


Satellites Reveal Rapid Polar Melting
 06-Sep-2002  Recent NASA satellite images and space-based 
measurements of the thickness of Earth's polar ice sheets show 
they are melting much more rapidly than we thought.  Large areas 
of ice in southeast Greenland, West Antarctica and the Antarctic 
Peninsula are changing rapidly and scientists don't understand why 
this is happening so fast. 
The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets together hold enough ice 
to raise sea level by ~230 feet.


Nearly Half Of U.S. Suffers Drought
 WASHINGTON (AP) - Persistent and worsening drought has spread to 
nearly half the contiguous United States, the government reported 
Wednesday. 
The National Climatic Data Center said that as of the end of July, 
49 percent of the 48 contiguous states were affected by moderate to 
extreme drought. 
Areas of extreme drought stretched from the Southwest to Montana and
Nebraska and from Georgia to Virginia, the center reported. 
The past 12 months were the driest August through July on record in 
Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado and 
Wyoming. They were the second driest in Arizona, Nevada and Delaware.
Parts of the Southeast and West have been in various stages of 
drought since 1998. 


A mysterious shift in Earth’s gravity
 8-6-02 (MSNBC)  Something strange has been going on under our feet 
for the past four years.  Earth’s gravity field suddenly shifted 
gears and began getting flatter, reversing a course of centuries 
during which the planet and its gravity field grew rounder each year.
“Sometime around 1998, something began to make the Earth’s gravity
field flatter,” says Christopher Cox of Raytheon Information 
Technology and Scientific Services.  “The result is it looks as if 
post-glacial rebound has reversed itself.  But we do not have any 
reason to think that post-glacial rebound has in any way stopped 
or changed.
The shift is significant.  “The effect is twice as large as post-
glacial rebound in terms of effect on the gravity field, and it’s 
in the opposite direction,” Cox said. “Whatever it is, it’s big.Record warmth intensified drought
 Aug 5th, 2002  Experts say record warmth between November 2001 
and January 2002 is at least partly to blame for the moderate to 
extreme drought plaguing 15 states from Georgia to Maine and 14 
states in the Plains and West.  The January global temperature 
was the warmest in the 123-year surface record. 
 ...  much more than 123 years really.  Dan


Earth Heading For Warmest Year Ever Recorded
 LONDON (Reuters) - The first six months of the year have been the
second-warmest ever and average global temperatures in 2002 could
be the highest ever recorded, British weather experts said Thursday. 
Global temperatures were 1.03 Fahrenheit higher than the long-term 
average of about 59 Fahrenheit in the period from January to June. 
In the nearly 150 years since recording began, only in 1998 has the 
difference been higher, 1.08 Fahrenheit, and that was caused by the 
influence of the El Nino weather phenomenon. 
The figures also showed that the northern hemisphere had its warmest
ever half year, with temperatures 1.31 Fahrenheit above the long-term 
average. 
"The actual rise prior to 1970 was partly man-made and partly due to 
natural effects. But since 1970 scientists are in fairly general 
agreement that warming can be attributed to man's polluting activities." 
 ...  now - where have I heard that before ? ... Dan.


Warmest seas on record stress Barrier Reef
 SYDNEY, Australia, July 27 - Sea temperatures around Australia’s 
Great Barrier Reef early this year were the warmest on record, 
scientists reported Thursday.
Bleaching in early 2002 covered 60 percent of the reef, even more 
than the 1998 event that made headlines worldwide.  The bleaching 
in early 2002 was not during an El Nino year, making the high 
temperatures even more unusual. 


Drought, abnormally dry weather hits 49 states
 7/21/02 (CNN) -- Abnormally dry or drought conditions affect all or 
part of 49 U.S. states and could worsen over the Northeast, government
scientists reported Friday. 
Roughly 36 percent of the country is covered by one of four 
drought categories, which range from "moderate" to "exceptional," 
A large area of "extreme" drought -- the second-worst category -- 
extends from northern Montana to the Mexican border, and from western 
Nebraska to El Paso and San Diego.  A smaller area of "exceptional" 
drought -- the worst conditions measured -- stretches southward from 
southern Wyoming to near the cities of Phoenix and Albuquerque. 
The bad news will get worse, NOAA predicted.  The Ohio River Valley and 
much of Upstate New York can expect drought conditions to develop, with
several dry months on the horizon. 


Alaska glaciers’ meltdown measured
 WASHINGTON, July 18 (AP)  An estimated 24 cubic miles of ice are 
disappearing annually from Alaskan glaciers, turning some imposing ice 
mountains into minor hills and adding to the steady rise in global sea 
level, a study shows.
From the mid-1950s to the mid-1990s, the glaciers lost about 52 cubic 
kilometers (13 cubic miles) a year, in the last five years that rate has 
almost doubled.


Disease 'genie out of bottle'
 7-14-02  Medical experts say staphylococcus aureus, cause of some of 
the most troublesome infections to afflict man, has become resistant to 
the antibiotic of last resort, vancomycin. 
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control announced the first confirmed case 
of vancomycin-resistant staph aureus -- known in the medical world as 
VRSA -- found last month in Michigan.  
"The genie is out of the bottle," Dr. Donald Low, microbiologist-in-chief 
at Mount Sinai Hospital, "It's ominous." 
The experts know the Michigan case is solid proof they will soon have to 
deal with their nightmare scenario -- common staph aureus infections 
untreatable with any antibiotics. 


Earth 'Will Expire By 2050' Says Report
 A study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), warns that the human race
is plundering the planet at a pace that outstrips its capacity to 
support life. 
The report, based on scientific data from across the world, reveals 
that more than a third of the natural world has been destroyed by
humans over the past three decades. 
The report offers a vivid warning that either people curb their 
extravagant lifestyles or risk leaving the onus on scientists to 
locate another planet that can sustain human life.  Since this is 
unlikely to happen, the only option is to cut consumption now. 
  ... entire article on the 'SpotLight' page ... Dan. 


Rising Temperatures Could Ravage Alaska 
 New York Times 7-4-02  In Alaska, rising temperatures, whether caused 
by greenhouse gas emissions or nature in a prolonged mood swing, are not
a topic of debate or an abstraction.  Mean temperatures have risen 
by 5 degrees in summer and 10 degrees in winter since the 1970s, 
federal officials say.  While President Bu$h was dismissive of a report 
the government recently released on how global warming will affect the 
nation, the leading Republican in this state, Senator Ted Stevens, says 
that no place is experiencing more startling change from rising 
temperatures than Alaska.  Among the consequences, Senator Stevens says,
are sagging roads, crumbling villages, dead forests, catastrophic fires 
and possible disruption of marine wildlife.


28 Percent Of All US Lakes Have Contaminated Fish
 Washington (Reuters)  More than one-fourth of the nation's lakes have
advisories warning consumers that fresh-caught fish may be contaminated
with mercury, dioxins or other chemicals, the Environmental
Protection Agency said on Tuesday. 
The EPA said state regulators issued 2,618 fishing advisories or bans in
2001 because of contaminants. 
Some 14 percent of U.S. rivers were covered by advisories in 2001, up 
from 10.5 percent in the previous year. 
States that had the most fishing advisories include Massachusetts, 
Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Nebraska
and New Jersey. 
Some of the affected waterways include Lake Champlain, Florida's Sarasota
Bay, Washington's Puget Sound, and the Potomac River which feeds into 
Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. 


Himalayan Ice Reveals Climate Warming
 Jun 26th, 2002  Ice cores drilled through a glacier more than four miles
up in the Himalayan Mountains have yielded a highly detailed record of 
the last 1,000 years of earth's climate in the high Tibetan Plateau.  
Based on an analysis of the ice, both the last decade and the 
last 50 years were the warmest in 1,000 years.  
The core also showed a clear record of at least eight major droughts 
caused by a failure of the South Asian Monsoon, the worst of these a 
catastrophic seven-year-long dry spell that cost the lives of more 
than 600,000 people.
 ...  uhm, HELLO - is anybody paying attention? ... Dan.


A Warmer Planet is a Sicker Planet
 Scientists warn that infectious diseases will rise as the world gets 
warmer. Human malaria, butterflies with parasites, diseased corals, 
and trees overgrown with fungus are some of the things awaiting us as 
the Earth warms up.  Entire species of animals could be wiped out.  
Human tropical diseases will become more common as tropical weather 
spreads.  Dr. Richard Ostfeld of the Institute of Ecosystem Studies 
says, "Disease now has to be considered another main player on the 
climate warming stage. 
The rise in infectious diseases will be caused by changes in temperature,
rainfall, and humidity, all of which encourage the growth of insects and 
bacteria.  Climate differences will also stress plants and animals, making
them more susceptible to infection. 


Record Kansas Drought Devastates Wheat Crop
 6-23-02 (AP)  It's been nearly a year since much of western Kansas 
has gotten substantial rain.  The drought has devastated the wheat 
crop now being harvested and spurred widespread selling off of cattle
herds, as farmers become increasingly desperate to find enough feed 
and water to carry them through the summer grazing season. 
Weather records dating back to 1913 show that never has there been 
less precipitation here than now.  Even the Dust Bowl days of the 
1930s logged more rain than this year!


More on Antarctic Warming
 Washington, June 13  The Antarctic ice sheet holds enough frozen
water to be a major player in the climate change game if it melts.
Concerned about a range of possibilities, from rising sea level to 
upsets in the oceans’ circulation patterns, scientists have been 
scrutinizing the continent for signs of change.  A new report in 
the journal Science, published by the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, suggests that the ice sheet’s 
edges are most vulnerable to climate warming, and are melting faster 
than scientists had realized.  On average the ice near the grounding 
lines was melting away twice as fast as the rate scientists had 
previously predicted for the ice shelves overall.
 ... well, they're catching on, slowly... Dan.


Greenland's warming ice flows faster
 Jun 7th, 2002  New measurements by US scientists show that since
1996 the Greenland ice sheet has been moving faster during the 
summer melting season.  The rate is accelerating because more 
melted water is trickling down from the surface of the sheet to 
the bedrock.  There it lubricates the sheet, which moves faster 
towards the coast. 
The scientists say this suggests the ice may be responding more 
quickly than thought to a warming climate. 


Global water "crisis" high on Earth Summit agenda 
 Jun 7th, 2002  BALI, Indonesia - Of the myriad issues on the 
table for a U.N. summit in August that aims to cut world poverty
and save the environment, few are as critical as getting safe 
drinking water to the 1.1 billion people who go without it.  
The European Union has warned the world was in a global water 
crisis, and made the issue a priority for the World Summit on 
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg and also at final 
preparatory talks here on Indonesia's resort island of Bali. 


Global Warming Blamed For Melting Everest Glacier
 GENEVA (Reuters) - A glacier from which Sir Edmund Hillary and 
Tenzing Norgay set out to conquer Mount Everest nearly 50 years 
ago has retreated three miles up the mountain due to global warming,
a U.N. body says. 
UNEP recently warned that more than 40 Himalayan glacial lakes 
were dangerously close to bursting, threatening the lives of 
thousands of people, because of ice melt caused by global warming.
 

California Warming
 06-Jun-2002  At the University of California, said Lisa Sloan, 
an associate professor of Earth sciences, has figured out how 
global warming will effect the climate of California.  The amount 
of carbon dioxide in the air has doubled since preindustrial days 
and Sloan found out it will double again by 2050.  Their model also
showed a future in which higher average temperatures will occur 
every month in every part of the state.  The warming will vary, 
however, with the greatest increases in temperature occurring at 
high elevations in the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Range. 
The model showed increased rainfall in northern California but rain 
staying the same in southern California, while snow accumulation in 
the mountains decreases dramatically. "With less precipitation 
falling as snow and more as rain, plus higher temperatures creating 
increased demand for water, the impacts on our water storage system 
will be enormous". 


U.S. sees big impacts from warming
June 3 — The Bu$h administration for the first time has issued a 
report that says manmade emissions are tied to global warming and 
predicts that changes in temperature will deeply affect the United
States.  Environmentalists said Monday the predictions warrant 
stronger action by President Bu$h.  The administration stood by 
its existing $trategy, saying it protects the economy while 
protecting Earth.
 ... my views on this should be obvious.  Dan


Signs of Thaw in a Desert of Snow 
 May 28, 2002  IQALUIT, Nunavut -- And so it has come to be, the 
elders say, a time when icebergs are melting, tides have changed, 
polar bears have thinned and there is no meaning left in a ring 
around the moon.  Scattered clouds blowing in a wind no longer speak
to elders and hunters.  Daily weather markers are becoming less 
predictable in the fragile Arctic as its climate changes.
There is increasing evidence that the Arctic, this desert of snow, 
ice and killing cold wind, one of the most hostile and fragile places
on Earth, is thawing.  Glaciers are receding.  Coastlines are eroding. 
Lakes are disappearing.  Fall freezes are coming later.  The winters are 
not as cold. Mosquitoes and beetles never seen before are appearing. 
While scientists debate the causes of climate change and politicians
debate whether to ratify the Kyoto accord to reduce greenhouse gas 
emissions that many scientists believe cause global warming, the Inuit 
who live in Canada's Far North say they are watching their world melt 
before their eyes.
 ...  nothing I need to add ...  Dan


Earth Warming Faster Than Expected
 21-May-2002  Planet earth is warming up faster than previously 
expected, according to the Hadley Center for Climate Prediction and 
Research.  Dying forests, expanding deserts and rising sea levels will 
wreak havoc on human and animal lives sooner than anticipated as global
warming accelerates. 
A 2001 United Nations report on climate change forecast that global 
temperatures will rise two to five degrees Celsius  by the end of the 
century,  but recent data suggest temperatures could rise even higher 
as a worst case scenario shows four times as much emitted CO2 in the 
atmosphere from today's levels which is significantly higher than 
previously expected. 
 ... no surprises here ... Dan
 

Antarctic ice melt poses worldwide threat
 REUTERS  May 15, 2002  - The Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves are 
cracking up and, on the face of things, it is the most serious thaw 
since the end of the last ice age 12,000 years ago. 
The break-up of the ice shelves in itself is a natural process of 
renewal, but the size and rate of production of icebergs, is alarming
scientists, who blame global warming.
The fear is that a snowball effect will lead to disintegration of the
vast West Antarctic ice shelf, kilometres thick in parts.
A longer-term effect would be if the disintegration led to a meltdown
of the grounded West Antarctic ice sheet, which would cause the world's
oceans to rise by up to five metres (~17 feet).
 ...  beach front property anyone ? ... 


TWO LARGE ICEBERGS BREAK OFF ROSS ICE SHELF
 The National Ice Center reports a two new icebergs (C-18 and C-19) 
have broken off of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.  The iceberg C-19 
is 108 nautical miles long and 17 nautical miles wide 
and is located 77.23 South 173.30 East.  C-18 is 41 nautical miles 
long by 4 nautical miles wide and is located at 77.78 South 178.78 
East.  The iceberg C-18 was spotted by NIC analyst Judy Shaffer on 
May 5 using satellite images from the Defense Meteorological Satellite
Program.  The iceberg C-19 was discovered on May 11.  The icebergs are
named for the Antarctic quadrant in which they were discovered. 


Giant iceberg spells disaster
 4-27-02  Auckland - A giant Antarctic iceberg is causing devastating
damage to the world food chain and already millions of penguins have 
fallen victim to it, polar experts warned on Thursday. 
The B15 iceberg, the size of Jamaica, calved off the Ross Ice Shelf 
in March 2000 and has blocked the Ross Sea. 
Nasa's satellite Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor has revealed 
B15 has cut sea phytoplankton, the foundation of the food chain, by 
40 percent, and the small fish krill has gone. 


2002 'warmest for 1,000 years'
THE first three months of this year were the warmest globally since 
records began in 1860 and probably for 1,000 years, scientists said 
yesterday.
The three months were about 0.71C warmer than the average for 1961 
to 1990, itself the warmest period for 1,000 years according to ice-
core analysis.
The global record comes in the wake of observed changes in the 
British climate since 1900: a lengthening of the growing season for 
plants by one month in central England, a temperature increase of 1C,
and a 10cm sea level rise.


Scientists Firm Up Global Climate Forecasts 
 Apr 20th, 2002  LONDON (Reuters) - While some meteorologists have 
difficulty getting the five-day forecast right, climatologists have
firmed up their predictions of how much warmer the climate will be 
over the next 20 to 30 years. New research by two teams of scientists
using different climate models predicts the global mean temperature 
will be between 0.3 and 1.3 degrees Centigrade (about 0.5-2.3 
degrees Fahrenheit) warmer by 2020-2030 than it was in 1990-2000.
Later in the century, if greenhouse gas emissions are at the high end
of predictions, they could force up temperatures by 0.3 to seven 
degrees C (0.5-13 degrees F). 


GLOBAL TEMPERATURE FOR MARCH WARMEST ON RECORD
 4-16-02  Arctic air brought in by the jet stream in March kept 
temperatures relatively low throughout the United States, making 
it the first cooler-than-average month since March 2001.  
However, it was the warmest March for the globe since reliable 
records began in 1880, according to NOAA scientists. 
Ocean surface temperatures were also warmer than average in the 
eastern equatorial Pacific as the evolution of oceanic conditions 
continued to indicate a developing El Niño episode, and the global 
sea surface temperature was the second warmest on record.
The average global temperature for land and ocean surfaces combined 
(based on preliminary data) was 1.39 F (0.77 C) above the 1880-2001 
long-term mean, 0.16 F (0.09 C) higher than the previous record warm 
March, which occurred in 1998 during the latter stages of the last 
El Niño episode. Global temperatures have increased approximately 
1 F (0.6 C) since 1900, but the rate of warming during the past 25 
years is almost three times higher, according to NOAA's Climatic 
Data Center in Asheville, N.C.


Global Warming Accelerates China's Sea Level Rise
 Apr 14th, 2002  Large sections of Chinese coastal regions gradually 
disappear under rising sea levels because of global warming, severely 
impairing the country's social and economic progress. 
According to the latest observations from domestic tide stations, the 
sea level along China's coastline has maintained a rapidly rising speed 
over the past five decades.  The elevation even accelerated in recent 
years with an annual increase of 2.6 millimeters. 
Meteorologists predict that in the next 30 years, the sea level will 
continue to rise by one to 16 centimeters.  By 2050, it will be six to 
26 centimeters(10.2 in) higher.  The increase will probably reach 
30 to 70 centimeters(27.6 in) by the end of the 21st century. 
China's long coastline is the base for about 70 percent of the large 
cities, over a half of the domestic population and nearly 60 percent 
of the national economy.


Scientist predicts climate change of 10 degrees
 4-9-02  Jonathan Overpeck, a climate researcher at the University of
Arizona, says new computer simulations suggest that global warming 
this century will be about four times greater than what the 
planet experienced in the 1900s. 
Scientists gathered at the college, 40 miles east of Syracuse, for 
their first meeting since Antarctica's Larsen Ice Shelf disintegrated
in only 35 days ending March 7.  It probably had existed since the 
last Ice Age, about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. 
According to a new study by Overpeck and his team of scientists, 
the Earth's average temperature will rise about 10 degrees
before the year 2100. 
Unless the amount of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere declines 
sharply, he said, the consequences could extend worldwide. 
"I think it is going to be pretty hard to avoid the sixth mass 
extinction in Earth's history," Overpeck told The Post-Standard 
of Syracuse.  "Countries are going to be put out of business.  
Cultures are going to be put out of business." 


ANTARCTIC MELTING IDENTIFIED IN THE PAST 
 4-9-02  Researchers from the University of Oregon published a study 
that determined that a very large and unusually abrupt rise in sea 
levels 14,200 years ago was caused by the partial collapse of ice 
sheets in Antarctica.  The period exhibited conditions similar to 
today with increased temperatures, sea levels and atmospheric carbon 
dioxide.  Using shoreline fossil deposits scientists were able to 
develop a method of identifying each possible melting scenario from 
ice sheets that existed at that time. 
The OSU report states, "What is very clear, however, is the importance
of Antarctica's huge ice sheets remaining stable. The West Antarctic 
ice sheet is thought to be potentially unstable, and if it collapsed 
sea levels around the world would rise almost 20 feet.  
The melting of the larger and more stable East Antarctic ice sheet would
raise Earth's sea levels another 200 feet! 


Arctic Ice and Way of Life Melting Away for Eskimos
 Apr 1st, 02  YANRAKYNNOT, Russia -- The native elders have no explanation.
Scientists are perplexed as well. The icy realm of the Eskimo--the tundra 
and ice of Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland--has started to thaw. 
Strange portents are everywhere.  Thunder and lightning, once rare, have 
become commonplace.  An eerie warm wind now blows in from the south. 
Hunters who prided themselves on their ability to read the sky say they 
no longer can predict the sudden blizzards.  "The Earth," one hunter 
concluded, "is turning faster."  The elders, who keep thousands of years
of history and legend without ever writing it down, have long told 
children this story: If the ice that freezes thick over the sea each 
winter breaks up before summer, the entire village could perish. 
What the residents of the Arctic are reporting fits convincingly with 
powerful computer models, satellite images and recently declassified 
ice measurements taken by Russian submarines.  In the last century, 
parts of the Arctic have warmed by 10 degrees Fahrenheit--10 times
the global average.  Sea ice covers 15% less of the Arctic Ocean 
than it did 20 years ago, and that ice has thinned from an average of 10 
feet to less than 6.


Drought Leaves Rivers At All-Time Lows
 3-28-02  A USA TODAY analysis found that scores of the nation's 
rivers fell to historic low levels during the past four months.  
Using U.S. Geological Survey data that track the flow of rivers 
nationwide, the analysis identified 59 points on 57 rivers that 
reached record low levels in March.  The analysis showed that 40 of 
those points also had reached a record low in one of the months
of December, January or February.  Less water flowed down these 
rivers than at any comparable time in at least 30 years and, 
in many cases, as long as 80 years.  Using temperature 
and precipitation data, federal scientists calculate that severe or 
extreme drought has spread over 21% of the country. 


Global Warming is shrinking Ireland 
 Mar 27th, 2002  Northern Ireland (AP) — Ireland is shrinking, 
a scientist warned Monday at a conference on the deterioration 
of coastlines worldwide.  Andrew Cooper, director of the Coastal 
Research Group at the University of Ulster, said the sea was 
swallowing up about 750 acres of Ireland each year, and warned 
that the process would quicken.  He said global warming was likely
 to subject Ireland's shores, particularly along the northern and 
western Atlantic coasts, to more frequent and powerful storms, but 
the governments of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic were 
doing little to erect sensible coastline defenses.


More of Antarctica faces breakup with Climate Change
 Mar 27th, 2002  New Zealand - The Antarctic's huge ice shelves may 
break up as ice floes across the frozen continent slow or even stop 
and the global climate warms, a New Zealand climate researcher warned.
The collapse reported last week of the Larsen B Ice Shelf in Antarctica
was "a wakeup call to expect more collapses," said Tim Naish, a senior 
researcher at the government-owned Institute of Geological and Nuclear 
Sciences.  Such collapses would have "a dramatic effect on global 
climate" by disrupting ocean currents, he said.


Worldwide Drought by 2025
 27-Mar-02 (BBC)  More than 2.7 billion people will face severe water
shortages by the year 2025 if the world continues consuming water at 
the same rate, the United Nations warns.  
A new report says that another 2.5 billion people will live in areas 
where it will be difficult to find enough water to meet their needs. 
The crisis is being blamed on mismanagement of existing water 
resources, population growth and changing weather patterns. 
Less than 3% of the Earth's water is fresh and most of it is in the 
form of polar ice or too deep underground to reach.  The amount of 
fresh water that is accessible in lakes, rivers and reservoirs is 
less than a quarter of 1% of the total. 
The UN says the water crisis will limit the ability to grow crops, 
which poor people need to survive.  Agriculture consumes about 70% 
of the world’s available water, and small farmers are the first to 
lose their supply. 
 ...  it won't be that long.  Dan


Drought Emergency For New York
 3-27-02  NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg 
declared a drought emergency for the city and four upstate counties
Tuesday in response to the worst drought to hit the eastern United 
States in nearly 70 years. 
Restrictions on water use will affect more than 8 million residents
of New York and about 1 million in Westchester, Putnam, Ulster and 
Orange counties, which contain the reservoir systems that provide 
the city's water supply. 
The city's reservoirs are at 52 percent capacity.  Normal for 
this time of year would be 92.5 percent, officials said. 
Water restrictions are in place in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland,
New York, Maine and New Hampshire, and several other states are urging
 voluntary conservation. 
The U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors national water levels, said
last week that conditions were commensurate with those during the 
drought of 1930. 


Massive Antarctic ice shelf collapses
 March 24,2002  (AP) Scientists say that an enormous floating ice 
shelf in Antarctica that has existed since the last Ice Age 12,000 
years ago collapsed this month with staggering speed during one of 
the warmest summers on record there.
"We're seeing a very rapid and profound response by the ice sheet 
to a warming that's been around for just a few decades," said Ted 
Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University 
of Colorado.  The entire Larsen Ice Shelf now is about 40 percent 
of its original size.
"We knew what was left would collapse eventually, but the speed of 
it is staggering," said David Vaughan, a glaciologist at the British
Antarctic Survey.  "Hard to believe that 500 million billion tons of 
ice sheet has disintegrated in less than a month."
Scientists believe the shelf was at least 400 years old and may have 
been around as long as the last glaciation 12,000 years ago.  Over the 
last 5 years the shelf has lost 2,200 square miles of area and 5,200 
square miles have been lost since 1974.  Global warming is higher than 
average in the region with temperature increasing 4.5 degrees 
Fahrenheit since the 1940's.


Drought Emergency Throughout U.S.
 States from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific are experiencing 
severe drought conditions. This nationwide drought is more serious
than the usual dry spell. The entire state of Wyoming has been 
declared a drought disaster area, and large areas of the Southeast 
and the West are in danger of wildfires. In New York City, reservoir
levels are at 50 percent below normal. 
In some Southern states, there are areas that have had moisture 
deficits of more than 30 inches. 


Navy Report - Polar Ice Shrinking Fast
 3-12-02  The polar ice cap has been shrinking so fast that 
regular ships may be steaming through the Northwest Passage each 
summer by 2015, and along northern Russia even sooner, according 
to a new U.S. Navy report. 
Global warming will open the Arctic Ocean to unprecedented 
commercial activity.  The seasonal expansion of open water may 
draw commercial fishing fleets into the Chukchi and Beaufort seas
north of Alaska within a few decades.  The summer ice cover could
even disappear entirely by 2050 -- or be concentrated around 
northern Greenland and Ellesmere Island.
Though the 72-page report primarily addressed naval issues, it 
offered a vivid update on how recent warming has been consuming 
the polar cap.  Submarine data has found a 40 percent decrease 
in the volume of the Arctic ice. 


Global Warming Creates Grim Future for Forests
 Mar 6th, 2002  WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Global warming is 
becoming an increasing threat to forests in much of the world, 
paving the way for fires, droughts and pest infestations, officials
told an environmental conference on Tuesday. 
The World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development said the
latest evidence indicates that over half the world's boreal forest 
could disappear due to the effect of climate change as conditions 
shift.  Boreal, or northern, forests are a belt of mostly coniferous
trees running through much of Canada, the United States, Russia, 
Scandinavia and parts of Mongolia and China. 


January Warmest On Record 
 3-5-02 (NOAA)  November 2001-January 2002 warmest winter period ever
recorded in United States since 1895.  The second warmest 
November-January occurred in 1999-2000. The third warmest was the 
drought decade of 1933-1934. 
The combination of record warm land temperatures and near-record sea 
surface temperatures led to the warmest January on record for both 
land and ocean surfaces combined, which was 1.24 F (0.69 C) above 
average and 0.09 F (0.05 C) warmer than January 1998.


Last Three Months Warmest Ever Recorded 
 2-22-02 (Reuters) - The last three months were the warmest on 
U.S. record books, and January was the balmiest in the 123 years 
temperatures for the month have been recorded globally, government 
scientists said on Thursday.  A preliminary average of the nation's 
temperature measured from November 2001 to January 2002 was 4.3
degrees Fahrenheit above average temperatures gathered between 1895 
and 2001, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration(NOAA).  The same monthly period in 1999-2000 held the 
previous record.


Oceans Could Rise Higher Than Predicted
 2-21-02  Global sea level rise in the 21st century could be 
significantly higher than previously estimated, according to the most 
comprehensive glacier dataset ever compiled. 
The missing factor is the melting of the world's largest temperate 
glaciers in Alaska and Canada, say Mark Meier and Mark Dyurgerov at the 
University of Colorado at Boulder.  New data from the University of 
Alaska show this has been underplayed in earlier calculations, they say. 
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported in 2001 that the
expected rise in sea level by 2100 due to glacier melting alone was 
between 1 and 23 centimetres.  The estimate represents the consensus of 
many of the world's scientists. 
Meier and Dyurgerov's new range is much higher, at between 20 and 46 cm
(18 in.), and they say it could be even greater.  Combined with the 
IPCC's estimate for sea level rise caused by other processes, such as 
ocean warming, of 11 to 43 cm, the total 21st century rise could be as 
much as 89 cm(35 in.). 
"These estimates in sea-level rise may seem small, but a 30 cm rise in 
sea level will typically cause a retreat of shoreline of 30 metres
(~98 ft.).  This would have substantial social and economic impacts," 
Meier says. 
The new data from the University of Alaska shows that the long term 
contribution to sea level rise from the wastage of the Alaskan and 
Canadian glaciers is 0.12 millimetres per year, but that this has more 
than doubled to 0.32 mm in the last decade.  The present rate of 
wastage in some glaciers is greater that it has been for 5000 years,
says Meier. 
 ... I supplied the converted numbers for my US readers - Dan.


Collapse Of North Atlantic Fishing Predicted
 The entire North Atlantic is being so severely overfished that it may
completely collapse by 2010, reveals the first comprehensive survey of 
the entire ocean's fishery.
North Atlantic catches have fallen by half since 1950, despite a 
tripling of the effort put into catching them.  The total number of fish
in the ocean has fallen even further, they say, with just one sixth as 
many high-quality "table fish" like cod and tuna as there were in 1900.
Fish prices have risen six fold in real terms in 50 years.


Half Of Amazon Rain Forest Being 'Profoundly' Damaged
 Half of the Amazon rain forest is being damaged by the pollution caused 
by forest burning, a new study has revealed. 
Previous concerns about the world's largest rain forest have focused on 
the burning itself, which has now destroyed 14 percent of the forest's 
five million square kilometres. But the new research shows that half of
the remaining pristine forest is being degraded by the gases and 
particulates released by the burning. 
The pollution caused by burning will also impact on the Amazon forest's 
critical role in the global climate, affecting the production of water 
vapour in the tropics. 


Dire Warning For Planet Earth
 OSLO, Norway - At the Nobel Peace Prize Centennial Symposium here 
yesterday (12-7-01) celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Nobel 
prize, 100 Nobel laureates have issued a brief but dire warning of 
the 'profound dangers' facing the world. Their statement predicts 
that our security depends on immediate environmental and social reform.
 ...  entire text on SpotLight page.  Dan


North America Biodiversity Shrinking
 MONTREAL (Reuters) - Some 235 North American animal species such as the
Monarch butterfly and northern codfish are threatened by pollution, human
encroachment on their natural habitats and aggressive harvesting 
practices, says an environmental agency set up under the continental free
-trade pact. 
A broad study by the North American Commission for Environmental 
Cooperation, a Montreal-based agency created under the North American 
Free Trade Agreement comprising the United States, Canada and Mexico, 
says the continent faces a ''biodiversity crisis'' in which 
threatened species could disappear.  That harms evolution and depletes 
the natural environment humans depend on to survive.
The report notes that some experts believe humans are ''fishing down the 
food chain'' in over-harvested stocks such as salmon, cod, halibut and 
swordfish.  That means catching fish that are needed to rebuild depleted
species.
The current report raises alarm bells on a number of fronts, including 
the effect of modern transportation systems on the environment, the over
-use of water resources and rising threat of drought, and bio-invasion, 
the spread of nonnative species imported into North America.


Environmentalists blast plan for Florida Everglades
 WASHINGTON (December 30, 2001) - Claiming the Bu$h administration's 
draft of rules for the restoration of the Florida Everglades is "a 
recipe for inaction," environmental groups say the plan will endanger
the shrinking wetlands because it contains no deadlines.
With some environmental scientists warning that the Everglades 
would be destroyed by 2015 without immediate action, advocates 
of stronger environmental regulation criticized the draft, 
especially the lack of deadlines or timelines.  They feared pressure 
from agricultural and other interests would make state officials 
reticent to push ahead quickly.
Florida's $ugar farmers and urban water utilities have resisted 
conservation measures they believe would harm their interests.
Scientists estimate about half of the subtropical forests along the 
state's coasts has been forever lost because of agriculture and 
urban development.  Also lost: about 90 percent of the unique 
birds found in the Everglades endangered grassy wetlands. 


Antarctic Experts Warn Of Global Warming
 LONDON - There is a one in 20 chance of a dramatic rise in world 
sea levels over the next century due to global warning, according 
to a new risk assessment published on Friday.  The survey -- by 
the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Norwegian environmental 
safety organization, Det Norske Veritas -- said there was a five 
percent chance of the giant West Antarctic Ice Sheet disintegrating
due to climate change and raising sea levels by one meter (~yard)
in the next 100 years. ''You have to balance the likelihood against
the severity of the impacts, and in this case even a five percent 
chance of this happening is really damn serious,'' said scientist 
David Vaughan of BAS, responsible for British scientific research 
in Antarctica.  Scientists have already predicted a rise in sea 
levels of 50 cm (20 ins) over the next century due
to a combination of climate change and increased extraction of 
ground water, even with no contribution from melting Antarctic ice.
Not only would there be flooding on a potentially vast scale, but 
changes in ocean currents could also have untold consequences on 
weather patterns, he added. 


World Temperature Second Highest On Record
 GENEVA (Reuters) - This year has been the second warmest on record 
and the trend toward higher mean global temperatures looks set to 
continue, World Meteorological Organization officials said Tuesday. 
Compared with the 1961-1990 average used as the basis for comparison,
officials said the global temperature in 2001 rose a fraction of a 
degree Fahrenheit to 57.2 F. 
The 2001 average temperature was second only to 1998 when temperatures
rose under the impact of La Nina, the sister phenomenon to El Nino, 
both of which are caused by abnormal warming of surface water in the
Pacific Ocean. 
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of
international scientists, has warned that rising emissions of greenhouse
gases such as carbon dioxide as a result of human activities are at 
least partially responsible for the temperature trend. 


Another Island Group Sinking into the Pacific
 Dec 17th, 2001  While diplomats debate environmental protocols and 
scientists question whether the Pacific is rising, families on a 
forgotten atoll are homeless as an otherwise beautiful piece of the
Pacific puts on a dress rehearsal for global warming. 
The weekly Independent newspaper in Port Moresby says in its latest 
issue that Papua New Guinea is faced with no alternative but to move
the 1,500 people of the Carteret or Kilinailau Island as the sea 
relentlessly moves in on them.
The sinking islands there have seen gardens destroyed and a growing
threat of starvation for a people who have seldom needed imported 
food until now.


Scientists warn of severe climate change over next century
 WASHINGTON (December 12, 2001) - Scientists said Tuesday the earth's
gradual warming from pollutants in the atmosphere could someday 
trigger abrupt climate changes that people and ecosystems would have 
trouble adapting to.
A report by the National Research Council likened the climatic effect
of global warming to increasing pressure from a finger flipping on a 
light switch.  Over time, regional climates have changed by as much 
as 18 degrees Fahrenheit in just 10 years, researchers said.
Carbon dioxide produced from burning fossil fuels is the most 
prevalent of the so-called greenhouse gases, whose growing 
concentration in the atmosphere is thought to be warming the earth.  
Many scientists have said they believe the warming, if not stopped, 
will cause severe climate changes over the next century.


Nature reveals evidence of a warming world 
 Dec 3, 2001  Hard evidence of global warming is showing up not in 
climate scientists' charts and figures but in nature: on an ice-
covered river in Alaska and in the annual growth cycles of plants 
and animals. And the proof points to a shrinking cold weather season. 
For example:
In Mediterranean ecosystems, the leaves of deciduous trees unfold on 
average 16 days earlier and fall off 13 days later each season than 
they did 50 years ago. 
Satellite imaging of vegetation shows that the growing season across
Europe and western Asia during the past two decades has increased by 
18 days; it's 12 days longer in North America. 
Animal and insect life cycles also are affected by our changing climate,
reaching specific stages in their development more quickly. Butterflies 
now appear 11 days earlier than in 1952 in northeast Spain, while frog 
calling in New York is occurring 10 days sooner each spring between 1990
and 1999 than between 1900 and 1912. 
Whether it's melting ice, accelerated tree and insect growth, or a longer
growing season, mounting evidence of a changing climate has formed a 
natural link to global warming that's more real than ever.


Scientist warns of sixth great extinction of wildlife 
 Nov 29th, 2001  Humankind is presiding over an extinction of plant 
and animal species that matches the catastrophe of the dinosaurs 65m 
years ago, a British scientist warned last night. 
Lord May - until last year the government's chief scientist, and now 
president of the Royal Society - calculated that the extinction of 
birds and mammals was probably 100 to 1,000 times faster than the 
average through many millions of years of history. Studies of fossils
had pointed to five great extinctions in the past. 


Crop hotspots spell hunger, UN says 
 Nov 14th, 2001  Scientists say some agricultural harvests could fall
by about one-third as global temperatures increase.  They believe 
crops like rice and wheat will find it harder in a warmer world to flower
and to set seed. 
Two scientists who analysed the IPCC data said last July they thought the
likeliest increase, with a 50% probability, would lie between 2.4 
and 3.8 degrees Celsius. 


World's Freshwater Lakes Face Death
 11-12-1  TOKYO (Reuters) - Many of the world's freshwater lakes face 
death by pollution, resulting in catastrophe for the human populations
that depend on them, an environmental expert warned on Monday.  
``There is not a lake left on the planet that is not already being 
affected by human activities,'' said William Cosgrove, vice president
of the World Water Council, an international organization that deals 
with ecological problems involving water.  ``We're killing the lakes,
and that could be disaster to the human communities that depend on 
them.''  
 ... full article on SpotLight Page. 


Global warming affects evolution
 WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 — Researchers have identified for the first time 
a creature that is evolving in response to global warming.  
It’s a tiny mosquito that lives in the pitcher plant.
Researchers at the University of Oregon in Eugene found that the 
pitcher plant mosquito, a tiny, fragile species that seldom bothers 
people, is starting to delay when it breeds and develops.
The study suggests it is possible that other species may also be in 
the process of genetically adapting to longer growing seasons.  
Animals with the greatest genetic variability will be the most 
successful in the face of global climate changes.


Warmest British Autumn In Memory 
 The Observer - London 11-4-1  As Britons bask in the warmest autumn 
in living memory, conservationists are warning that winter as it has 
been known throughout history will soon vanish, as the distinction 
between the seasons becomes blurred. 
Frost and snow - once prevalent across Britain - are retreating to 
northern areas. Many species are so confused, their life-cycle has been 
thrown into disarray. Birds which should be nesting in the spring are 
nesting in autumn, and flowers that should bloom once are blooming twice.
The extended growing season - four weeks longer than a few decades ago 
- means farmers are producing bumper crops. 
Last month was the warmest October since records began in 1659, and 
climatologists reckon it was probably the warmest for at least 1,000 
years. This year as a whole, although cooler than the all-time record 
set in 1999, is still expected to be in the top 10 warmest ever recorded. 


Plants Could Be Harmed by Warmer Climate -Study 
 Oct 7th, 2001 (Reuters) - Several species of plants in the U.S. Midwest
could become extinct within 30 years if climate conditions continue to 
become drier and warmer as many experts predict, researchers said on 
Thursday.  The researches believe within 35 years, temperatures and soil
moisture content in Minnesota will be similar to what Kansas is 
experiencing today. Under extreme conditions, Minnesota's temperature 
and precipitation levels could mirror current data in Oklahoma.


Panel takes stock of Alaska's ocean health
 9/29/01 ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Environmental strains ripple on the oceans
that border Alaska. In rural stretches of the state, global warming has
thinned Arctic pack ice, making travel dangerous for Native hunters. 
Traces of industrial pollution from distant continents are showing up 
in the fat of Alaska's marine wildlife and in the breast milk of Native 
mothers who eat a traditional diet that includes seal and walrus meat. 


Human Resistance to Antibiotics Worries WHO
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Humans are building up dangerous levels of 
resistance to modern antibiotics that could leave them vulnerable to 
killer diseases, the U.N. World Health Organization said on Tuesday. 
Farmers who use antibiotics* to fatten up livestock and poultry 
are aggravating the problem because microbes on animals build up 
defenses against the drugs, then jump across the food chain and attack 
human immune systems, WHO said. 
 ... *this is why I stopped eating beef a year before the 'mad cow' 
issue surfaced.  Dan


Coral Reefs 'Face Total Destruction'
 Most of the coral reefs of the world's oceans will disappear within 
30 to 50 years, a marine biologist warned yesterday.  Rupert Ormond, 
director of the university marine biological station at Millport in 
Scotland, told the British Association science festival in Glasgow 
that global warming would raise ocean temperatures to levels 
that would bleach the great reefs of the Pacific and Indian oceans, 
the Caribbean and the Red Sea.


Global Warming Increasing Spread Of Infectious Diseases
 ( 9-5-01) NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Climate change associated with 
global warming is already increasing the spread of infectious diseases,
researchers at the New York University School of Medicine maintain. 
They predict that worldwide climate shifts will create growing threats
to public health if not reversed. 
``Warming will change the distribution of disease-carrying agents, 
which will in turn bring the specter of diseases wiped out decades ago 
to possible prominence,'' Dr. William N. Rom told Reuters Health. 
Rom and Dr. Dushana Yoganathan, writing in the August issue of the 
American Journal of Industrial Medicine, note that extreme weather 
events lead to increases in populations of microbes such as bacteria, 
while atmospheric ozone depletion has been linked to an increased 
susceptibility among hosts to these microbes. 
They point to increases in mosquito-borne infections like malaria and 
dengue fever, as well as certain rodent-borne viruses, as possible 
risks the world faces. 


Leakey Warns Of Mass Extinctions 
 CAPE TOWN, South Africa (ENS) - The world is losing between 50,000 
and 100,000 plant, insect and animal species a year, Kenyan 
conservationist Richard Leakey said Wednesday at a lecture.  This is 
much higher than a similar estimate Leakey gave in 1997.  "Human 
activities are causing between 10,000 and 40,000 species to become 
extinct each year," Leakey said then.  Leakey said preserving land 
and conserving its wildlife are an "absolute necessity" and people 
have to decide exactly how much land should be allocated to 
conservation.  Only the previous five periods in history of mass 
extinction - the last being the death of the dinosaurs - showed the 
same rate of loss.  "At that rate we are probably approaching a point
similar to mass extinction," he said. 
"It is the acceleration of species loss through human activities 
today that is significant and unless the present trend is reversed, 
the planet could lose approximately 55 percent of today's 
species over the next 50 to 100 years.  Such rapid catastrophic 
losses to biodiversity have happened before, and these catastrophes 
have always had far reaching consequences for the surviving species,"
Leakey warned.


Russian Ecologist Says Global Warming Can't Be Stopped
 (8-24-01)  The process of global warming cannot be stopped, people 
can only diminish climatic changes caused by civilization's negative 
effect, the leader of the Russian Ecological Union, Viktor Danilov-
Danilyan, told a press conference in Moscow on Thursday. 
He said "it is too late to speak of preventing antropogenic climatic 
changes." He noted, however, that it is necessary to reduce 
civilization's effect on climate-forming factors, above all, to stop 
the destruction of ecological systems and cut the release of 
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.  He said the climatic changes 
will hit hard all countries. According to the World Meteorological 
Organization, the air temperature on the Earth may increase by two 
to six degrees by the end of the century, which Danilov-Danilyan 
said may have catastrophic consequences. 


World Water Shortage May Cause Global Crisis
 A worldwide water shortage is likely to worsen severely over the 
next 25 years, affecting billions of people in an unprecedented 
global crisis involving the earth's most precious natural resource,
reports the UK's Independent.  This and other international news 
reports were summarized in the World Bank's Development News Digest.
 ...  more on SpotLight Page.


Researchers Forecast Rapid, Irreversible Climate Warming
 (7-26-1) There's a nine out of ten chance that global average temperatures 
will rise between three and nine degrees Fahrenheit over the coming century,
with a four to seven degree increase most likely, according to a new 
probability analysis by scientists in the United States and England.  
The most likely projected increase is five times greater than the one 
degree temperature rise observed over the past century.
 ...  full article on SpotLite page.  Dan


Global Warming Much Worse Than Predicted
 (7-12-01)  Global warming is happening now, caused by human actions,
and threatens the Earth with disaster, the world's leading atmospheric
scientists insisted yesterday as politicians struggled to repair the 
Kyoto treaty on climate change which the United States torpedoed in 
March.  A 2,000-page UN report on the science and potential impacts 
of climate change gave the most authoritative statement yet that 
the Earth is warming rapidly, that the main cause is industrial 
pollution, and that the consequences for human society are likely to 
be catastrophic.	
 ...  long story on Spotlite page... Dan


Global Warming Will Devastate Agriculture
 (7-11-01)  Global warming will turn frozen tundra into wheatfields, 
significantly reduce crops in Britain, France and other parts of 
Northern Europe, and will devastate agriculture across much 
of the developing world, a major scientific report claims today.
 ...  full article on SpotLite page ... Dan


Human Sperm In Dramatic Decline
7-3-01  Scientists from around the world are alarmed by a dramatic increase
in genetically damaged human sperm - a trend that is not only causing 
infertility in men, but also childhood cancers in the offspring of those 
who can reproduce.  It's now estimated that up to 85 per cent of the 
sperm produced by a healthy male is DNA-damaged, a leading authority 
on the subject revealed yesterday at an international conference being 
held in Montreal.
 ...  article on SpotLite page.  Dan


Scientists agree warming is real
 June 7 — Global warming is real and the United States should support 
the U.N.-led scientific effort to deal with the problem, a review 
commissioned by the White House concludes. Citing concerns about the 
science and economics of solutions, President Bu$h had said earlier he 
would no longer work with a U.N.-led treaty process. 
The scientists began their report by stating that “greenhouse gases are 
accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere as a result of human activities, 
causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise.
 ...  well, here's a bulletin ...


Glaciers all over the world are shrinking
 Most of the world's glaciers are shrinking, a new satellite survey
of over 2000 glaciers has revealed.  Concerns have been raised about
melting glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro in the Tanzanian Himalayas and
in the Glacier National Park in Montana (New Scientist, 13 May 2000,
p 28). Now infrared and visible photographs taken by a Japanese 
instrument on board NASA's Terra spacecraft show the shrinkage is 
happening on a global scale.
Images of mountain lakes at the base of melting glaciers show many 
had grown over the last 10 years, and showed up dark blue instead 
of light blue, indicating higher levels of sediments. This suggests
there has been increased erosion of the mountain by the glacier, 
indicating higher flow rates of the ice - and higher temperatures.


Warmer oceans drive climate change
 WASHINGTON, April 6 — Major climate changes seen in the Northern 
Hemisphere over the past half century have been driven by a 
progressive warming of tropical oceans, probably sparked by the 
human-caused buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, scientists
say.  Many scientists believe emissions of certain pollutants from 
industry, power plants and vehicles threaten to disrupt global climate 
and ecosystems by causing the Earth’s atmosphere to trap more of the 
sun’s energy, triggering global warming.
Studies examining the likely early effects of increased greenhouse 
gases in the atmosphere have pointed to a warming trend in the tropical
oceans, and observations have demonstrated such a trend beginning 
around 1950, the researchers said.
Northern Hemisphere surface temperatures have displayed a warming trend
over the past several decades the likes of which have not been seen in 
the past thousand years, they added, noting that the NAO(North Atlantic
Oscillation) change has greatly influenced this.
 ...  allow me to repeat myself, Global Warming is REAL.  The Earth
has been both warmer and colder in the past - this is Normal.  Manmade 
pollutants ARE having an effect - this is Not Normal.
The debate has shifted during the past decade from 'is it real'? to 
'whats the cause'? - and while the 'experts' debate and the 
politicians cover their eyes, we lose shorelines and coral reefs and 
watch as the weather patterns continue to Change ... Dan


Scientists warn of climate devastation
 GENEVA, Switzerland -- The full extent of the potentially 
devastating effects of global warming has been spelled
out in a U.N. report.  Climate change could wipe out 
tropical islands and Alpine skiing retreats, while melting 
ice caps could unleash changes that would continue for 
centuries, according to the report published Monday. 
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said poor 
countries would bear the brunt of the devastating changes.
But it warned that the rich would not be immune, with southern 
Europe subjected to harsher droughts and higher temperatures and 
U.S. coastal regions vulnerable to rising sea levels and 
more severe storms. 
The final message said the effects of man-made climate change 
will lead to more "freak" weather conditions like 
cyclones, floods and droughts and massive displacement of 
populations in the worst-affected areas.  There was also the 
potential for enormous loss of both human and animal life due
to the greater risk from diseases like malaria as the mosquito
widenes its reach and the habitat of entire animal species is 
wiped out. 
 ...  sometimes I really hate to be right ...  Dan


Rethink on ice shelf melting
NEW scientific evidence reveals that the Antarctic ice shelf is at 
more risk of melting than previously calculated. 
Rising summer temperatures rather than overall mean annual 
temperatures are exposed as the biggest threat to the polar ice. 
Scientists warn that the vast ice shelves are "just a few degrees" 
away from a potentially catastrophic meltdown. 
If the ice melts, the rush of billions of gallons of water into the 
oceans will lead to rising sea levels, affect global weather systems
and, ultimately, adversely impact on wildlife and mankind. 
 ...  entire article on the SpotLight page.  Dan


The world in 2015: it's looking bleak
 A sweeping projection of what the world will look like in 
2015 has concluded that the availability of water and food,
changes in population, and the spread of information and 
disease will become increasingly important to international
security.  The report concludes that the population of the 
world will grow from the current 6.1 billion to 7.2 billion
by 2015, with 95 per cent of that growth occurring in the 
developing world, and nearly all of it in urban areas. 
... more on the SpotLight page.  Dan


Global Warming Wreaking Havoc Around The World
 The movie horror-fantasy of the sea engulfing east coast cities 
could become reality this century if nothing is done to halt 
global warming, scientists believe.  Take, as they project, 
temperatures increasing by between 1.5C and 6C (2.7F and 11F!!),
causing the sea to expand and rise by as much as 60cm (2ft);
add stronger storms and greater precipitation causing more extreme 
downpours and cities such as New York and Boston might be in jeopardy. 
 ...  Detailed article on Spotlight page.  Dan 


Scientists Claim Nothing Will Stop Climate Change
 11-13-00 (UK Sunday Times)  Scientists have warned thousands of 
government officials and politicians gathering for international 
climate talks in the Hague that the rise in global temperatures 
is irreversible, and that the best they can hope for is to slow 
it down by a fraction of a degree.  The rise in temperatures has
led to increasingly unpredictable weather.  Last Christmas Eve a
storm hit northern France, killing scores of people and ripping 
up more than 400,000 trees.  Recently towns and cities across 
Britain have been hit by flooding. 
 ... Entire article on SpotLight page.  Dan


Study: Global warming worse than thought; man to blame
 WASHINGTON (October 25, 2000) - Man-made pollutants have 
"contributed substantially" to global warming and the earth 
is likely to get much warmer than previously believed, a United 
Nations-sponsored panel of hundreds of scientists finds. 
And the scientists, in revised estimates, conclude that if 
greenhouse emissions are not curtailed the earth's average 
surface temperatures could be expected to increase from 2.7 to 
nearly 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century, 
substantially more than estimated in its report five years ago. 
Among the findings that suggest climate change already is under 
way, according to the summary: 
- Warming over the last 100 years "is likely to be the largest of 
any century during the past 1,000 years" when fully analyzed. The 
1990s are likely to be the warmest decade with 1998 the warmest 
year of the 20th century. 
- There has been "a widespread retreat of mountain glaciers in 
nonpolar regions" and a decline in sea ice and snow-covered areas
during the past 50 years. 
- Sea level rise has been 10 times greater in the last 100 years 
than the average rate over the last 3,000 years. The oceans have 
become warmer over the last 50 years. 
 ...  sigh ... is this where I say Told Ya So?  ... Dan


Report warns of water degradation, shortages 
 EAST LANSING, Mich. (October 21, 2000) - Freshwater systems around 
the world are so damaged that their ability to support human, animal
and plant life is seriously diminished, according to a report 
released Saturday.  The report is part of a comprehensive study by 
the institute on how human activity is changing the world's 
ecosystems. 
 ... entire article on SpotLight page.  Dan 


Extreme Weather On The Rise
 BOULDER -- Expect hotter days, warmer nights, heavier rain and 
snowfall events, and more floods over the next century, says a 
new study published September 22 in the journal Science.  The 
article reviews observations, impacts, and results from some 
20 global climate models currently in use worldwide. 
...  longer article on the SpotLight Page.  Dan