 | | Article Details: The U.S. has done the least among the world's eight largest economies to address global warming, a study released Thursday found. The G-8 Climate Scorecards 2008, released Thursday ahead of next week's gathering of the Group of Eight, also found that none of the eight countries are making improvements large enough to prevent temperature increases that scientists think would cause catastrophic climate changes. | |
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| | Article Details: It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year. The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. | |
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 | | Article Details: Last year global levels of atmospheric CO2, the primary driver of global climate change, increased by 0.6 pct, or 19 billion tons. In addition methane rose by 27 million tons after nearly a decade with little or no increase. The burning of coal, oil, and gas, is the primary source of increasing CO2 emissions. Oceans, vegetation, and soils soak up half of these emissions. The rest stays in the air for centuries. | |
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 | | Article Details: The task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures may be far more difficult than previous research suggested, say scientists who have just published studies indicating that it would require the world to cease carbon emissions altogether within a matter of decades. | |
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 | | Article Details: The extraordinary winter conditions over the past year: snow in Johannesburg and Baghdad, Arctic sea ice returning with a vengeance, blizzards in China, and a sharp drop in the globe’s average temperature, have stimulated more debate on global warming. However, a host of climate experts say it is mostly good old-fashioned weather, along with a cold kick from the tropical Pacific Ocean, which is in its La Niña phase for a few more months. | |
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 | | Article Details: The author points out the inconsistencies between political rhetoric and the actual statements of the IPCC on global warming. While Senator Bernie Sanders states that "melting Greenland ice would cause a 23-foot rise in sea levels worldwide," the IPCC on the other hand, “projects that the melting of Greenland will cause a rise in sea levels of between half an inch and 4.5 inches by 2100.” | |
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 | | Article Details: For those that don't want to wade through pages and pages of the IPCC's 4th Assessment Report, this article in the UCCS website summarizes the key points. One of those points is that it is “very likely” that emissions of heat-trapping gases from human activities have caused “most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century.” | |
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 | | Article Details: Palaeoclimate data show that the Earth’s climate is remarkably sensitive to global forcings. Positive feedbacks predominate. This allows the entire planet to be whipsawed between climate states. One feedback, the ‘albedo flip’ property of ice/water, provides a powerful trigger mechanism. A climate forcing that ‘flips’ the albedo of a sufficient
portion of an ice sheet can spark a cataclysm. | |
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 | | Article Details: Global warming would be much worse if the world had not put a halt to the destruction of the ozone hole above Antarctica, say researchers. The 1987 Montreal protocol, which restricts the use of CFCs and other ozone-depleting chemicals, will cut warming by five or six times more than the Kyoto protocol. | |
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| | Article Details: Much of Al Gore’s evidence lacks credibility. The presentation of the science is superficial, erroneous and misleading. CO2 is almost exhausted as an agent for greenhouse global warming. Water vapour is the primary greenhouse gas. The ocean and atmosphere circulations transfer excess heat from the tropics to the polar regions and so regulate surface temperatures over middle and high latitudes. And more... | |
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| | Article Details: The authors, Chi-Jen Yang and Michael Oppenheimer, argue that using the symbolism of the Manhattan Project to take on global warming might make sense as a rallying point, but good politics is not equivalent to wise policy. Such a metaphoric alternative to the Kyoto Protocol is likely to deflect policymakers in counterproductive directions. Adopting a Kyoto-style approach is a more effective way to develop climate-friendly technologies.
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 | | Article Details: A review of the research literature concerning the environmental consequences of increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide leads to the conclusion that increases during the 20th and early 21st centuries have produced no deleterious effects upon Earth's weather and climate. Increased carbon dioxide has, however, markedly increased plant growth. Predictions of harmful climatic effects due to future increases in hydrocarbon use and minor greenhouse gases like CO2 do not conform to current expe | |
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 | | Article Details: There is no way to prove that Katrina either was, or was not, affected by global warming. For a single event, regardless of how extreme, such attribution is fundamentally impossible. However, we can indeed draw some important conclusions about the links between hurricane activity and global warming in a statistical sense. | |
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 | | Article Details: Almost 30 years after it was first reported that pollutants were destroying the Earth's protective ozone layer, there is clear evidence that the global CFC ban has had an impact. For the first time, it has been shown that the rate of ozone depletion in the upper stratosphere is slowing down. The time lag between the CFC ban and the start of ozone recovery is due to the slowness of the cycle involved. CFCs last between 45 to 100 years in the atmosphere. | |
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