2006 news archive (July

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Poll: Americans See Gloom, Doom in 2007 - NY Times USA: Seventy percent of Americans expect worsening global warming	31st December 2006
Sea level may rise more than 1m by 2100 - Mail & Guardian Ocean levels will rise faster than expected if greenhouse-gas emissions continue to rise, a leading German researcher warns.	31st December 2006
The opportunity costs of the Iraq War - Gristmill The total cost of the Iraq War includes not just the tangible price of personnel and materiel. There are also the opportunity costs -- the other things we could and should have been dealing with while our Munch-meets-Marx Brothers nightmare has been consuming all our attention and capital. Foremost among them? - Global warming	31st December 2006
A time to face up to the facts of living sustainably - The Age Australia: The immense challenges of anticipating and managing the risks of climate change call for a response that goes beyond politics. The community shares responsibility for changing a society that wastefully consumes and discards without thought for the consequences. Whatever the political outcomes of 2007, it must be hoped this proves to be the year that Australians lift their gaze beyond short-term concerns, those of hip pockets and personal comfort, to the bigger picture of what we all must do to give ourselves and our children a sustainable future.	31st December 2006
Innovative Satellite System Proves Worth With Better Weather Forecasts, Climate Data - Science Daily Preliminary findings from a revolutionary satellite system launched earlier this year show that the system can boost the accuracy of forecasts of hurricane behavior, significantly improve long-range weather forecasts, and monitor climate change with unprecedented accuracy.	31st December 2006
'Shun domestic flights,' Branson urges Britons - Guardian Unlimited Sir Richard Branson is urging British citizens to stop taking domestic flights to help reduce the damage aviation does to the environment. The Virgin boss, a recent high-profile convert to the dangers of global warming, risks his call being dismissed as self-serving because he runs two train franchises.	31st December 2006
China chokes on a coal-fired boom - The Times China: Toxic cloud of progress can be seen from space	31st December 2006
Washington Plans $25M Project To Bring Back Its Trolley Cars - New York Sun USA, Washington: The city is planning a $25 million project to bring back the trolley cars that last rumbled along its streets during the Kennedy administration. The revival will begin next year with a 2-mile line in southeastern Washington that, fittingly, will pass near the Washington Nationals' new downtown ballpark, which is to open in April 2008.	31st December 2006

Does ExxonMobil Pay the New York Times a Premium to Run Ads Next to Global Warming Stories? - Mother Jones USA: "I've noticed this is a pattern with ExxonMobil, which seems to always just happen to run a corporate responsibility ad next to NYT op-eds and stories that have to do with global warming. So is the NYT ad sales staff selling against this content? Does ExxonMobil have a standing request to place ads next to global warming content? Or is it all a coincidence?"	30th December 2006
Travel Habits Must Change to Make a Big Difference in Energy Consumption - NY Times While choosing energy-efficient lighting and appliances makes a difference, changing how we travel would make by far the biggest difference.	30th December 2006
Climate 2006: Rhetoric up, action down - BBC News "The gap between what the science tells us is necessary and what the politics is delivering is still significant." Once again we will hear demands from climatologists to keyboard players, from theoretical physicists to thespians, for more action. Perhaps we will get it. But the omens are not promising.	30th December 2006
Global warming could transform Amazon into savanna in 100 years - IHT Global warming could spell the end of the world's largest remaining tropical rain forest, transforming the Amazon into a grassy savanna before end of the century, researchers said Friday.	30th December 2006
Portugal posts one of the warmest years on record - Yahoo / AFP This year was the fifth warmest in Portugal since records started being kept in 1931, the national weather office said.	30th December 2006
Researchers use Yellowstone as CO2 lab - Helena Independent Record Researchers studying plants and trees near Yellowstone National Park's thermal vents hope to glean an indication of how rising carbon dioxide emissions could affect vegetation worldwide a century from now. They find elevated levels of CO2 reduce the protein in leaves and promote growth in weeds.	30th December 2006
Global warming threatens plateau - China Daily The environmental condition of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, seen as a barometer for the world's health, is worsening due in large part to global warming, according to a geological survey	30th December 2006
Small Bugs Point to Global Warming - RedOrbit Small bugs in some of the most remote areas of the United States are showing signs that the world is getting warmer, researchers said.	30th December 2006
The world at tipping point - The Herald "For the sake of not just polar bears and Adelie penguins, but our children and their children, we must hope that 2006 was the year when the world finally woke up to the inconvenient truth of climate change."	30th December 2006

An Inconvenient Truth Watch the whole film in nine parts
Climate: Irony in the USA - BBC Green Room The US stance on global warming is changing, argues Jonathan Lash in the Green Room. But, he says, the international community needs patience still.	29th December 2006
Review of the year: Global warming - The Independent 2006 will be remembered by climatologists as the year in which the potential scale of global warming came into focus. And the problem can be summarised in one word: feedback.	29th December 2006
The end of the West as we know it? - IHT "The question now facing us is whether global capitalism and Western democracy can follow the Stern report's recommendations, and make the limited economic adjustments necessary to keep global warming within bounds that will allow us to preserve our system in a recognizable form; or whether our system is so dependent on unlimited consumption that it is by its nature incapable of demanding even small sacrifices from its present elites and populations."	29th December 2006
A global crusade to save the Great White North - Globe & Mail SHEILA WATT-CLOUTIER: She's travelled widely, warning policians that greenhouse gases are threatening the Inuit way of life	29th December 2006
Climate change threatens Herschel Island - CBC News Canada: The Yukon's Herschel Island is being slowly washed away by rising sea levels caused by global warming, says the territory's historic sites manager.	29th December 2006
Buzz Of Bumblebees Heard In Britain In Depths Of Winter - Medical News Today UK: Driven by climate change, and by planting of exotic garden plants that flower through the winter, one species of bumblebee seems to have given up hibernating altogether.	29th December 2006
Moose population stressed by weather pattern changes - Cook County News Herald USA: Moose are mysteriously disappearing from northwestern Minnesota. Can the Northeast be far behind?	29th December 2006
Harper boots out environment adviser - Montreal Gazette Canada: Prime Minister Stephen Harper has dismissed a special environmental adviser the former Liberal government named to kick-start Canada's attempts at curbing greenhouse-gas emissions under the Kyoto accord.	29th December 2006

Clean technology 2006 year in review - Cnet Green tech grows up: Who wasn't interested in clean technology in 2006?	28th December 2006
Giant ice island born in Canadian Arctic - Winnipeg Free Press Canada: AN ancient ice shelf has cracked off northern Ellesmere Island, creating an enormous, 66-square-kilometre ice island and leaving a trail of icy blocks in its wake. "It really is incredible," says Warwick Vincent of Laval University, one of the few people to have laid eyes on the scene. "It's like a cruise missile has come down and hit the ice shelf."	28th December 2006
New global warming wagers have good odds - UPI UK: The year 2007 looks to be hot for the bookmakers at Totesport, who have come up with a series of "global warming wagers." Among other things, they are offering odds of 25-1 that a great white shark will be caught off shores of Britain in 2007, the Sky News reported Wednesday.	28th December 2006
OCEAN POISON : CARBON DIOXIDE - Workface The scientists have an united front on this : the major cause of Global Warming is man-made. It's due to the burning of Fossil Fuels, and the main waste gas from this, which is Carbon Dioxide. Climate Change is bad enough, but there is another threat from the excess Carbon Dioxide building up in the atmosphere : ocean poisoning.	28th December 2006
It May Not Be Too Late - GreenBiz If the world succeeds in avoiding ecological collapse, historians may one day look back on 2006 as the "tipping-point" moment.	28th December 2006
German Credibility at Stake on Climate Change - Planet Ark Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged to make fighting climate change a top priority when Germany takes over the European Union's rotating presidency next week.	28th December 2006
Norway Wants US Politicians to See Warming Arctic - Planet Ark Norway will invite US politicians to visit a group of fast-thawing Arctic islands in 2007, hoping to win converts for tougher action against global warming, its foreign minister says.	28th December 2006
Warm weather's a headache for icewine lovers - Globe & Mail Icewine makers in Eastern Canada are worried the cold weather needed to freeze their grapes and make the popular desert wine will come too late.	28th December 2006
Investment advice is blowing in the wind - Globe & Mail Evelyn Browning-Garriss is a weather whisperer who advises everyone from Texas cattle raisers to vineyards and Canadian banks about what the coming season will bring. "Expect a lot of weather records to be broken," she says.	28th December 2006

Green French TV Star Jolts Presidential Hopefuls - Planet Ark French television star Nicolas Hulot has jolted mainstream politicians by threatening to run for president unless they do more for the environment, but has he managed to push green issues to the top of the agenda?	27th December 2006
Middle-class warriors join green front line - The Times UK: Middle-class environmental campaigners are joining forces with hardcore protesters to take direct action using radical campaign tactics.	27th December 2006
2006 Year in review - RealClimate "A lighthearted look at the climate science goings-on over the last year."	27th December 2006
Barrier Reef fish starving to death, study says - news.com.au FISH species on the Great Barrier Reef are starving to death because climate change is killing off their food source, an environmental study has found.	27th December 2006
U.S. plans to list polar bears as species at risk Global warming is shrinking sea ice they need for hunting - SF Gate The Bush administration has decided to propose listing the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, putting the U.S. government on record as saying that global warming could drive one of the world's most recognizable animals out of existence.	27th December 2006
China fears disasters, grain cut from global warming - AlertNet Global warming threatens to intensify natural disasters and water shortages across China, driving down the country's food output, the Chinese government has warned, even as its seeks to tame energy consumption	27th December 2006
Barroso Says Germany Must Meet Lower CO2 Targets - Planet Ark The German government, which has been fighting a European Commission order to lower its future carbon dioxide (CO2) allocations to industry, must obey the ruling, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Sunday. See also: German Industry Can Cut Greenhouse Gas, Office Says - Planet Ark	27th December 2006
No Time for Ice Sculptures; They Melt as They’re Made - NY Times USA, New York: The average temperature this month has been 44 degrees, 6 degrees above normal for this time of year, the National Weather Service said. On Dec. 2, the mercury climbed to 70 degrees in Central Park, a record high for the day.	27th December 2006
Want alternative energy? Try pond scum - CNet Mounting concern about U.S. dependence on foreign oil and about global warming is causing a surge of interest and investment in biomass, hydrogen, solar power and other alternative energy sources.	27th December 2006
Meat and the Planet - NY Times Livestock are responsible for about 18 percent of the global warming effect, more than transportation’s contribution. The culprits are methane — the natural result of bovine digestion — and the nitrogen emitted by manure. Deforestation of grazing land adds to the effect	27th December 2006
Uranium price soars as countries give nuclear power the go-ahead - Guardian Unlimited The price of uranium has soared on the global market by nearly a quarter in the past three months, but a new report predicts it will rise a further 75% within the next two years	27th December 2006

Yo, Earth! - Anorak USA, EPA court-case: QUOTE: “When? I mean, when is the predicted cataclysm?” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on global warming. Figure of Speech: Straw Man fallacy, the sneaky issue-switch.	26th December 2006
As Atlantic warms, more fires predicted in West - MercuryNews Researchers predict a decades-long increase in widespread fires across the Western United States in the coming years, based on a new study that reviews the link between sea-surface temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean and the ferocity of wildfire seasons in the West.	26th December 2006
Village lands wash away - Alaska.com Alaska: Ocean and rivers creep inland, force residents to seek high ground	26th December 2006
Climate change at crisis level - MercuryNews EVERYONE -- PUBLIC AND PRIVATE -- MUST ACT TO AVOID CATASTROPHE	26th December 2006
African States Work to Share Nile Water - NY Times After three years of closed-door talks, nine nations are quietly edging toward a deal to jointly oversee the waters of the Nile, an agreement that has eluded lands along the great river since the days of the pharaohs. United Nations experts say populations in the river basin may double by mid-century. The U.N.'s climatologists, meanwhile, say computer scenarios show global warming decreasing water flows in the Nile by up to 40 percent.	26th December 2006
New wheat and sugar cane breeds to store greenhouse gases in soil - The Australian FARMERS may soon be able to capture and store millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases in their soil by using new genetic variants of existing crops. [...biotech...]	26th December 2006

Climate change on agenda for 2007 - Philippine Daily Inquirer Nothing beats a whiff of Apocalypse for focusing minds and, next year, climate change will be the big issue that will send an icy shiver down spines followed by a clamor for action. On February 1, the world's top scientists will issue their first installment of a massive three-part update on global warming.	25th December 2006
Lazy Cooks Get A Christmas Roasting - Annanova UK: Natural gas consumption increases by an average of 15% over the festive period and consumers reportedly spend £3.5m on energy through roasting turkeys.	25th December 2006
Global warming 'may impact' bluefin tuna - Sydney Morning Herald Shingo Kimura, a professor of marine environmental science at the University of Tokyo, warns that the tuna population, already hit hard by overfishing, could be dealt a further blow as seawater temperatures rise above the level comfortable for the fish's growth.	25th December 2006
Melting North Pole will leave Santa homeless - IOL In another 40 years or less, Santa won't have a home in the North Pole: and he won't be the only one, according to ground-breaking research.	25th December 2006
Invasion of beavers felt in far north Warming trend is eroding a way of life - Anchorage Daily News Alaska: "Before, there were no beavers there because there was no source of food for them," said Cochran, 57, executive director of the Alaska Native Science Commission. "Now there are trees in people's front yards. The treeline has moved so much farther north that the beavers are now moving into the area. That has so much to do with everything that's going on in the environment."	25th December 2006

Why Isn't Global Warming News? - World Changing If the news does not make the connection between the weather we are experiencing and climate change, then the public sees no cause and effect. "Is anyone game to start a campaign on our local news outlets demanding that they make the connection between the events we are experiencing and the larger pattern of which they are a part? To not do so is to "spin" people into both ignorance and passivity."	24th December 2006
Disappearing world: Global warming claims tropical island - The Independent For the first time, an inhabited island has disappeared beneath rising seas.	24th December 2006
Climate change sceptics issued with challenge - Guardian Unlimited Britain's leading climate scientist has challenged those who question the impact of the human population on global warming to defend their claims that car and factory emissions of carbon dioxide are not heating up the planet.	24th December 2006
Australia ponders climate future - BBC News Parts of Australia are in the grip of the worst drought in memory. The parched conditions have sparked an emotional debate about global warming	24th December 2006
GET READY FOR MORE FUTURE SHOCK - Toronto Star Our species has been all about progress – now we must downsize. Books on global warming are more popular than ever, and settling in for a long stay on the bestseller list. Unfortunately, in order to actually do something for our children, the solutions they point to require changes in behaviour that are massively unpopular.	24th December 2006
Global warming could bring 'killer' to JHB - IOL South Africa: New battlefronts are opening in the war against malaria. The main cause is climate change, which is seeing the disease spread to new areas. Because people in such places are less resistant, many more die of infections.	24th December 2006
Deck the halls with boughs of holly - before it dies out - Guardian Unlimited UK: One of the crowning glories of the festive season - holly trees groaning with clusters of crimson berries - is being destroyed by a combined assault from car exhausts and global warming.	24th December 2006
Red face for green tsar who jets to work - Scotland on Sunday WE MUST be "conscious of our global contribution". We must "act responsibly". Saving the planet "means making radical changes to how we live our lives". The green message from the Scottish Executive is clear, but practising what you preach is never that easy. Scotland on Sunday can reveal that the head of the Executive's department in charge of lowering the nation's greenhouse gas emissions is commuting to work by jet every week from his home in the south of England.	24th December 2006

Waking Slow - Sierra Club "We need to rise and shine if we hope to pass along a livable world to future generations. I know that still sounds like Chicken Little hysteria in some (increasingly lonely) corners, but so be it. For the record, I sincerely hope they -- the dogged skeptics and blind optimists -- are right and the rest of us are wrong, but things sure don't look good."	23rd December 2006
Peace on Earth also requires goodwill towards the planet - Sydney Morning Herald WHEN he released the report of the British Government-commissioned study into the economic effects of climate change in October, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said the scientific evidence of global warming was overwhelming and the results potentially disastrous. This was no empty rhetoric.	23rd December 2006
Carbon sequestration in obese humans - New Scientist "Emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the US from burning fossil fuels rose from 1415 million tonnes in 1994 to 1582 MT in 2002. Human fat is approximately 76% carbon by mass so, over the period considered (which includes the period of negotiation and signature of the Kyoto treaty) US citizens sequestered the equivalent of 2.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide about their person.	23rd December 2006
Global Warming-era parenthood - Los Angeles Times Apocalyptic fears have shadowed U.S. childhood before this. Who among us boomers doesn't remember all that Cold War ducking and covering? But global warming is profoundly scarier. For starters, to trigger a nuclear holocaust, somebody has to be the first to bomb. To trigger eco-Armageddon, all we need do is continue to ignore leading scientists' warnings.	23rd December 2006

Americans Chide Bush's Environmental Record - Angus Reid Adults in the United States are dissatisfied with the way their president has dealt with environmental issues, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports. 42% said 'poor', 11% said 'excellent'. [Apparently there was no category for 'diabolical']	22nd December 2006
Big Democratic energy bill not likely - Delaware Online USA: Democrats campaigned on promises of making sweeping changes to the nation's energy policy, but it's unlikely they'll deliver on most of those promises	22nd December 2006
Harnessing wind would aid America and Bush - Kansas City Star "Here is some advice I can give the president: The only way for you, Mr. President, to salvage your legacy is to get back in touch with your Texas roots and devote the rest of your term to really ending America’s oil addiction and making America the leader in renewable energies that combat climate change."	22nd December 2006
The world as one - Guardian Unlimited "When it comes to the environment, the consequences of an unconstrained market could be even more disastrous... In a speech this week, on the urgency of tackling climate change, EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson argued liberalisation could provide solutions, advancing freer trade in environmental services to make his case. But alongside other obvious effects of a successful trade round - more goods being shipped round the world and more demand for the produce of cleared rainforests - his hopes look like window dressing. More serious was Mr Mandelson's claim that the prosperity generated by trade could help tackle climate change, but that is not guaranteed, especially in a context where, as the commissioner conceded, world trade rules make it "highly problematic" to use trade policy to pressure states to cut emissions. Mr Mandelson sees this as a reason to avoid such action. Instead, it exposes just how inadequate the World Trade Organisation remains."	22nd December 2006
Tides affect speed of Antarctic ice slide - AlertNet Tides affect the speed at which an Antarctic ice sheet bigger than the Netherlands is sliding towards the sea, adding a surprise piece to a puzzle about ocean levels and global warming, a study showed on Wednesday.	22nd December 2006
Oceans Warming and Rising - IPS Ocean levels will rise faster than expected if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, a leading German researcher warns.	22nd December 2006
Extreme Autumn Temperatures Cause Unseasonable Flowering In The Netherlands - Science Daily Observers in the Netherlands reported that more than 240 wild plant species were flowering in December, along with more than 200 cultivated species. According to biologist Arnold van Vliet of Wageningen University, this unseasonable flowering is being caused by extremely high autumn temperatures.	22nd December 2006
Rockhopper penguin numbers decline - Guardian Unlimited The rockhopper penguin, one of the stars of current blockbuster Happy Feet, has seen its numbers dwindle, according to a new study. Falklands Conservation, a partner to the UK-based Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), said the drop might have been caused by climate change.	22nd December 2006
Climate Change Blamed For England's Hot, Wet Summer - Potato Grower UK: Potato growers in Yorkshire are blaming climate change for the hot, wet summer that produced what they called the worst potato harvest in living memory.	22nd December 2006

Are you ready to sacrifice for future generations? - Seattle Times Americans can adapt, one supposes, to an Alaska without polar bears, a New Hampshire without fall colors and a Florida without its bottom third. But most would probably like to save these things for their descendants. A recent Time/ABC poll found that 88 percent of Americans think global warming threatens future generations. "There's no way to replace the dead Bush years of inaction. But we may have a last chance to deal with global warming. Will today's Americans sacrifice for a posterity they will never see?"	21st December 2006
Making noise on global warming - Boston Globe THE REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. warned that "our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." There are few matters of international importance that could have more dire consequences than being silent about the dangers of global warming.	21st December 2006
Climate change making Christmas fare a real turkey - The Age Australia: Food price rises due to extreme weather events, however, are transforming the climate-change battleground and may leave Prime Minister John Howard vulnerable to those Aussie battlers who have been crucial to his electoral success. In the past year food prices have soared 10 per cent. Lamb and beef prices could leap by up to 25 per cent in the next few months, while bread becomes 10 per cent more expensive due to a 40 per cent surge in flour prices. Australian citrus growers declared recently that orange prices had risen from $80 a tonne to $200, with inevitable price hikes on orange juice.	21st December 2006
NASA Provides New Perspectives On The Earth's Changing Ice Sheets - Science Daily It's widely documented that climate change is causing the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to shrink. Air temperatures in many parts of the polar regions have increased and waters that surround parts of the ice sheets have warmed up. What most do not know is that until just six years ago, we had no real way of measuring whether the ice sheets were shrinking or growing, or at what rate.	21st December 2006
Washington Warming to Southern Plants - Washington Post USA: A warming climate in the Washington area is beginning to affect the area's trees, with cold-loving species finding the weather less welcoming and southern transplants thriving, according to findings released yesterday by the National Arbor Day Foundation.	21st December 2006
Canada's cutting-edge energy model - CS Monitor Canada: Prince Edward Island aims to generate 30 percent of its energy needs from its own renewable resources by 2016.	21st December 2006
Greens attack EU's 'weak' flight emissions trading plan - Guardian Unlimited Air travel will be included in the European Union's carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) from 2011 under plans announced by Brussels today. The European Commission urged other countries to work with it on a global version of its programme for fighting climate change.	21st December 2006
Climate Change vs Mother Nature: Scientists reveal that bears have stopped hibernating - The Independent Bears have stopped hibernating in the mountains of northern Spain, scientists revealed yesterday, in what may be one of the strongest signals yet of how much climate change is affecting the natural world.	21st December 2006
U.N. emissions-trading program gets rich nations off the hook - Press Democrat Foreign businesses have embraced an obscure U.N.-backed program as a favored approach to limiting global warming. But the early efforts have revealed some hidden problems.	21st December 2006
Coal-fired power plants show greatest increase in greenhouse gas emissions - Canoe Canada: Coal-fired power-generating stations were among Canada's biggest polluters last year as the country continued to produce nearly 280 million tonnes of annual greenhouse gas emissions.	21st December 2006
Indian islands have disappeared under rising seas - ABC News Two islands off the Indian subcontinent seem to have disappeared. Scientists believe it is more evidence of the impact of rising sea levels caused by global warming.	21st December 2006
Pee-cycling - New Scientist You recycle your household waste. You buy locally grown food, fit low-energy light bulbs and try not to use the car unnecessarily. Maybe you even irrigate the garden with your bath water. But you've still got an environmental monster in your house. Your toilet is wrecking the planet.	21st December 2006

Canada leader hints at unlikely political alliance - Reuters Canada: Hinting at a possible deal that could stave off an early election, Canada's Conservative prime minister said on Tuesday he has held constructive and cooperative talks with a left-wing opposition party, at first sight an unlikely political ally.	20th December 2006
New German community models car-free living - CS Monitor It's pickup time at the Vauban kindergarten here at the edge of the Black Forest, but there's not a single minivan waiting for the kids. Instead, a convoy of helmet-donning moms - bicycle trailers in tow - pedal up to the entrance.	20th December 2006
Airline charge 'big step forward' - BBC News Moves to set limits for airline carbon emissions are a "big step forward" in fighting pollution despite plans to expand airports, the UK government says.	20th December 2006
Worrying rise in greenhouse emissions forecast - The Age Australia will slightly overstep its greenhouse emissions target by 2012, but a worrying big rise is predicted within the following decade, a new report has found.	20th December 2006
Climate shifts small UK sea life - BBC News Britain's barnacles, limpets and seaweeds are moving north and east in response to climate change.	20th December 2006
The year the world woke up - Guardian Unlimited Climate change In 2006, the public, politicians and industry have all shown significant signs that tackling global warming is on the agenda after scientific studies showed the pace of change gathering speed.	20th December 2006
No Dramatic U-Turn Seen on US Climate Change Policy - Planet Ark Washington is likely to stay out of the UN Kyoto Protocol for curbing greenhouse gases beyond 2012 even with a shift in power to Democrats from Republicans, a former top US trade and economics official said.	20th December 2006
EU's Dimas Confirms Change in Aviation CO2 Plan - Planet Ark The European Commission's top environment official confirmed on Tuesday he had decided to soften a plan to include aviation in the European Union's emissions trading scheme.	20th December 2006
Profit and losses - Guardian Unlimited This year saw the first carbon millionaires. The European emissions trading scheme (ETS) made windfall fortunes of more than pounds 1bn for UK power companies alone, and other corporations that were given generous carbon credits by government profited handsomely. Although emissions were theoretically cut, there were accusations that the handout was unfair and favoured only the rich with the money not being put back into sustainable energy projects. Next year should see aviation join the carbon scheme and, if a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research is to be believed, airlines could make £2.7bn.	20th December 2006
Spain Set for Warmest Year on Record - Planet Ark This year is on track to be the warmest on record in Spain, a country which was already hot before global warming set in, the government said on Tuesday.	20th December 2006

Ministers know emissions trading is a red herring and won't work - Guardian Unlimited Inter-industry carbon shuffling and optimistic figures mask the true extent of envionmental damage caused by flying	19th December 2006
EU concern over climate progress - BBC News European environment ministers have warned that the pace of international negotiations on climate change need to be "accelerated considerably" in 2007	19th December 2006
Stern science: our shrinking global economy - cafebabel Europeans politicians are catching onto the voters’ awakening interest in the environment. Is ecology compatible with politics? [Short summary of the people making a difference on the EU stage including Nicolas Hulot whom you may not of heard of because most of his stuff is in french. However you can read his manifesto in english here. Hopefully he will have a big influence on the greening of french politics. (Thanks Christophe!)]	19th December 2006
ExxonMobil funds European global warming skeptics - PSL Web In an effort to distort the public discourse on global warming, especially in Europe, ExxonMobil, the world’s largest oil company has contributed millions to projects hostile to the Kyoto treaty. The projects question the scientific consensus about global warming.	19th December 2006
Gadgets drive up energy bills and emissions - Guardian Unlimited Consumer appetites for electrical gadgets will push up UK energy consumption by 82% over the next five years, a report warned today.	19th December 2006
Climate change tops NDP agenda - CBC News Canada: The NDP will continue to push for strong climate change legislation in the next session of Parliament, leader Jack Layton said Monday	19th December 2006
NOAA REPORTS 2006 MARKED BY SEVERE HEAT WAVES, WIDESPREAD DROUGHT, WILDFIRES - NOAA The average annual temperature for the contiguous U.S. will likely be the third warmest on record in 2006, according to scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. The year is noted for widespread drought and record wildfires, as well as heavy precipitation and flooding in some parts of the country. Following the warmest year on record for the globe in 2005, the annual global temperature for 2006 is expected to be sixth warmest since recordkeeping began in 1880	19th December 2006
EU environment chief seeks 30 pct emissions cut - AlertNet The European Union's environment chief said on Monday he will seek a 30 percent cut in EU greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 as the bloc tries to set an example for the world on how to fight global warming. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas will propose a target for binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 for the EU as part of a wide-ranging set of energy and environmental proposals to be unveiled in January.	19th December 2006
Fest organizers feelin' heat - Ottawa Sun Canada, Ottawa: With Winterlude a mere six weeks away, there are concerns unseasonably warm weather could throw a wrinkle into the NCC's festival plans.	19th December 2006
Australian Fires Kill Thousands of Native Animals - Planet Ark Australia: Hundreds of thousands of native Australian animals such as koalas and kangaroos have been killed in bushfires that have burnt across southeast Australia in the past two weeks, wildlife officials said on Monday	19th December 2006
Execs say carbon trading coming soon - The Age Australia: More than 50 per cent of business executives think regulated carbon emissions trading will be a reality in Australia in the next two to five years, and most would welcome it, a survey shows	19th December 2006
Monckton fights for Exxon's freedom of speech - DeSmogBlog Christopher Monckton, a well-known climate change "skeptic" and British aristocrat has fired off a response to U.S. Senators Snowe and Rockefeller for their letter this fall urging oil giant ExxonMobil to cease funding to US "think" tanks that are actively involved in the PR campaign to confuse the public about climate change. Check out what RealClimate thinks of Monckton and his 'cuckoo science'.	19th December 2006
Expanding Markets and Dying Oceans: Eating the Planet Like a Bag of Doritos for Jesus. - Atlantic Free Press "The capitalist's drive for endless abundance has allowed us to ascend the fast food chain, yet we blink uncomprehendingly at the catastrophic algorithms of global climate change. "	19th December 2006

EU trade chief to reject ‘green’ tax plan - FT The European Union’s trade commissioner will on Monday dismiss French proposals for a “green” tax on goods from countries that have not ratified the Kyoto treaty as not only a probable breach of trade rules but also “not good politics”.	18th December 2006
[It's hotter than it should be] Seasonal Disorder - The Independent UK: The countryside is looking rather peculiar this winter. It seems we have a number of unexpected guests for Christmas. Dragonflies, bumblebees and red admiral butterflies, which would normally be killed off by the frost, can still be seen in some parts of the country. Bigger beasts are here too. Swallows and house martins, which normally fly south to Africa at this time of year, are still lingering. These strange winter guests could presage something far more sinister and unwelcome for our planet. See also:Do they know it's Christmas? Boston feels the warmth - Los Angeles Times USA, Boston: Mail carriers cheerfully walked their routes, unburdened by hats or coats or boots made for blizzards. Joggers ran beside the (unfrozen) Charles River in shorts, and swimmers leapt into the sea at L Street Beach. Middle-aged guys cruised Commonwealth Avenue in top-down convertibles.	18th December 2006
Comrade Climate-change - The Economist Global warming is likely to make Russia richer rather than poorer. Which may help explain the reluctance of some Russian members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the body charged by the UN with establishing the facts on climate change, to accept that global warming is a problem that needs to be dealt with	18th December 2006
Carbon moves 'may boost airlines' - BBC News Airlines could reap billions of pounds in profits if emissions from planes are included in the European Trading Scheme (ETS), say two reports.	18th December 2006
ICC climate change petition rejected - Nunatsiaq News The effort to link climate change with human rights has suffered a setback. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights won’t consider a petition that alleges that the United States government is violating the human rights of Inuit by refusing to limit its greenhouse gas emissions.	18th December 2006
Green light for world's biggest windfarm - Guardian Unlimited UK: The government has given the go-ahead for the world's largest offshore windfarm to be built off the coast of south-east England.	18th December 2006
Tip of the iceberg of climate costs - Scoop Statistics New Zealand figures released today showing the financial impact of floods on some local governments are just the tip of the iceberg for the expected economic impacts of climate change the Green Party says.	18th December 2006
Green laws no slam-dunk in new Congress - Los Angeles Times USA: Environmentalists are busy these days crafting their holiday wish-list, giddy about the prospects for success in the new Democratic-controlled Congress. But industry groups are gearing up to fight, and their forces may include more than the usual Republican allies. "We're confident that there are plenty of Democrats who know and understand us," said Charles Drevna of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Assn.	18th December 2006
[..with implications] Fifth of Farm Animal Breeds May Face Extinction - Planet Ark About 20 percent of farm animal breeds have been brought to the brink of extinction as world agriculture narrows its focus to just the most productive livestock, the United Nation food body said. Two-Thirds of Congo Basin Forests Could Disappear - Planet Ark Two-thirds of the forests in the Congo River Basin could disappear within 50 years if logging and mineral exploitation continues at current rates, environmental group WWF said in a report.	18th December 2006

Winds of climate change becalmed - The Age It's not happening, is it? Is anything of substance being done to fight climate change? Six weeks ago British Treasury adviser Sir Nicholas Stern released his landmark report on the economics of global warming. Stern matters because he turned old thinking on its head. It was not action, but inaction, on climate change that would devastate the world's economies, he wrote. But in Britain this month, Chancellor Gordon Brown released his pre-budget report. The document would normally hold little interest, except that it was hyped in advance as a visionary statement of what Brown will do if and when he becomes prime minister next year. The report was brown all right. Green was hard to find.	17th December 2006
On a swift boat to a warmer world - Boston Globe USA: I watched in horror as Inhofe's witnesses spouted outrageous claims intended to deceive and distort. Two were scientists associated with industry-funded think tanks. They described global warming as a "mass delusion" among the scientific community, sowing confusion by misrepresenting the ice core data that connects carbon dioxide and temperature over glacial cycles, and claiming that "global warming stopped in 1998" -- an anomalously warm year. They even recommended burning as much fossil fuel as possible to prevent another ice age. Unfortunately, the format does not allow for direct debate. Some senators defended the integrity of the scientific community, including Barbara Boxer, who will become chair of the committee in January. But amid the collegiality and decorum that is the tradition in the Senate, no one stood up and called this hearing what it was: a gathering of liars and charlatans, sponsored by those industries who want to protect their profits. -Daniel P. Schrag,	17th December 2006
One world, one problem - Mercury News "In the past two or three years, however, something new and different has begun to happen: A consensus is emerging that one fight, and one fight only, looms at the center of our environmental efforts. That's the battle against global warming, which has begun to serve as the organizing principle for green America." - Bill McKibben	17th December 2006
Automakers nix global warming suit - Canoe USA, California: The six largest U.S. and Japanese automakers asked a U.S. federal judge to toss out a lawsuit by California that accuses them of harming human health and the environment by producing vehicles that contribute to global warming.	17th December 2006
10 years to live: Orang-utan faces extinction in the wild - The Independent The great ape's habitat is rapidly being destroyed - by the rush to produce an environmentally friendly fuel	17th December 2006
Dion’s election could signal tipping point for green issues - Chronicle Herald WILL THIS MONTH, December 2006, be noted by future historians as the moment that Canada finally became seriously committed to action on the environment — specifically on energy, air quality and global warming?	17th December 2006
Sydney 'first to run out of water' - news.com.au Australia: SYDNEY'S dwindling water supplies could be limited to drinking only within three years, a Canadian expert has warned.	17th December 2006
Charles urges action on climate - BBC News Climate change is the "biggest threat to mankind", the Prince of Wales has said in an article.	17th December 2006
Deep Thoughts - Sierra Club Notes from the Sierra Club on near-term action agenda on climate change.	17th December 2006

Overconfidence leads to bias in climate change estimations - PhysOrg.Com Just as overconfidence in a teenager may lead to unwise acts, overconfidence in projections of climate change may lead to inappropriate actions on the parts of governments, industries and individuals, according to an international team of climate researchers	16th December 2006
Polar bear populations on the decline - WWF The number of polar bear populations in decline has increased from one in 2001 to five in 2006, WWF warned today. There are only 19 polar bear populations in the world, so this decline represents more then a quarter of the species’ populations.	16th December 2006
Penguins Offer Evidence of Global Warming - Commmon Dreams Antarctica: The first Adelie penguin chicks of the season -- black fluffballs small enough to hold in the hand -- started hatching this month, and the simple fact that there are more of them in the south and fewer of them further north is a sign of global warming, scientists say.	16th December 2006
Aerospace firms complain over green spoof adverts - The Independent Enoughsenough hit a nerve with their very excellent campaign	16th December 2006

Gore tells scientists to be vocal - BBC News The former US Vice President Al Gore has told scientists to speak out more on the issue of climate change.	15th December 2006
Real environmental progress requires big change in government - David Suzuki Canada: Stéphane Dion may have passed the first test in his quest to rebuild the shattered Liberal party, but earning the hearts and minds of Canadians will require more than a deft political hand; it will require bold leadership. And that means slaying Canada’s biggest dragon – our environmental deficit.	15th December 2006
Sydney to go dark for greenhouse push - The Australian Australia: Sydney will turn off its lights next year in a world-first initiative aimed at reducing greenhouse gas pollution. See also blackoutlondon	15th December 2006
Why the chancellor will not become a green premier - Mark Lynas UK: If there were any lingering doubts, they should now be dispelled. Gordon Brown will not be a green prime minister. As the Chancellor stood in parliament on 6 December and rattled off a few piecemeal environmental sops, environmentalists’ hopes that he might actually have read and understood the Stern report were dashed on the rocks of reality. Climate change may be, in Sir Nicholas’s words, “the greatest market failure the world has ever seen”, but this is a failure that Brown seems determined to compound.	15th December 2006
This electric radicalism marries green politics with social justice - Guardian Unlimited UK: David Miliband's plan for carbon allowances raises a red/green standard that the blue/green Tories can never match	15th December 2006
Labour climate vision fails to take off - Guardian Unlimited UK: When Tony Blair appointed Douglas Alexander to be transport secretary last May, he rightly told him that "transport will be critical to our long-term goal of reducing carbon emissions". Yesterday's white paper on government aviation policy suggests that the cabinet's new boy hasn't forgotten. But he hasn't felt able to do much about it either.	15th December 2006
Taxing pollution touted to get industry to toe the green line - Contra Costa Times USA: Leading authorities on climate and energy policy called Thursday for putting a price on greenhouse-gas emissions to drive new efficiencies and technologies, and one top U.S. utility executive called for an outright tax on carbon.	15th December 2006
Climate change stoking bushfires - The Age Australia: Climate change is causing longer, more aggressive bushfire seasons and must be factored into the state's firefighting plans, Victoria's Emergency Services Commissioner said yesterday.	15th December 2006
Ambrose job called at risk - Calgary Sun Canada: Rona to get the elbow? The political ground is shifting - and looking greener - as the Conservatives digest the implications of Stephane Dion's Liberal leadership victory.	15th December 2006

Sea level rise 'under-estimated' - BBC News Current sea level rise projections could be under-estimating the impact of human-induced climate change on the world's oceans, scientists suggest.	14th December 2006
2006 was Earth's sixth warmest year on record - New Scientist 2006 was the Earth's sixth warmest year on record, averaging 0.4°C above the 1961 to 1990 average, according to the World Meteorological Organization. The records extend back to 1861. And the UK charted its warmest year ever – its records go back to 1659.	14th December 2006
Global warming leaves Guardian readers cold, study finds - Guardian Unlimited A damning study from Cambridge University today exposes Guardian readers as being worse than readers of the tabloids or the even the Telegraph [heavens above!] when it comes to insulating their homes. Pensioners are likely to do better. "There is clearly a public appetite for policy actions to address global warming, but our survey offers a clear indication that relying on self-motivated behavioural change, even (or perhaps especially) among the most earnest and best intentioned, is inadequate to the task and that stronger incentives and clear price signals will be needed to effect tangible change."	14th December 2006
Asia's greenhouse gas 'to treble' - BBC News Asia's greenhouse gas emissions will treble over the next 25 years, according to a report commissioned by the Asian Development Bank.	14th December 2006
Exxon lobby group named "year's most influential" in global climate change - DeSmogBlog The Weather Channel today announced their "2006 Hot List," which in their own words "will bring focus to the people and organization (sic) who in 2006 most influenced climate policy, science and public opinion." One would assume, based on their stated mission that their idea of a "hot list" would be chosen among the thousands of people, organizations and corporations effecting the climate change issue in a positive way. Not so, coming in at number 3 on the Weather Channel's 2006 "hot list" is none other than the Competitive Enterprise Institute. [...and at number four we have, wait for it.... George W. Bush!]	14th December 2006
Attenborough urges 'moral change' - BBC News Television naturalist Sir David Attenborough has called for a "moral change" among energy consumers to cut waste and reduce pollution.	14th December 2006
2006 sets British heat records - BBC News Several records for temperatures in Britain have been broken during 2006. See also: November rainfall hits new record	14th December 2006
Lapland can only dream of white Christmas - The Independent It should be a winter wonderland; instead, it's just piles of slush. British holidaymakers travelling to Lapland for a pre-Christmas holiday got a shock when they arrived in Santa's traditional home this week: no snow.	14th December 2006
Roads to ruin - Guardian Unlimited UK: A mile of new motorway costs £30m - more than twice that with private finance - and causes increased traffic and greenhouse gas emissions. Yet Labour is set on a monster road building programme. Richard Sadler reports	14th December 2006
Miliband tells Brown to go green or lose next election - The Independent UK: Labour could lose the next general election unless it raises its game on green issues, the Environment Secretary, David Miliband, will warn today.	14th December 2006
Airport expansions 'to go ahead' - BBC News The government is expected to press ahead with its airport expansion plans despite opposition from green groups.	14th December 2006
Study finds oysters can take heat and heavy metals, but not both - PhysOrg.Com Pollution is bad for the sea life and so is global warming, but aquatic organisms can be resilient. However, even organisms tough enough to survive one major onslaught may find that a double whammy is more than their molecular biology can take.	14th December 2006
US scientists reject interference - BBC News Some 10,000 US researchers have signed a statement protesting about political interference in the scientific process.	14th December 2006
NOAA Ledge Global Warming Protesters Sentenced in Maryland Court USA: Two activists who climbed onto a ledge 25 feet over the main entrance to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Silver Spring, Md. were sentenced today for their action. “Three years ago, at the age of 54, I made a conscious decision to devote as much time and energy as I could to this most crucial of issues, the future of our threatened ecosystem. On October 23rd I acted on behalf of my son, my nieces and nephews and children everywhere who need many more of us who are older and supposedly wiser to do the right thing, to speak out and take action on this fundamental issue.”	14th December 2006

The answer, my Hebridean friend, is blowing in the wind - The Times We cannot tilt against the best renewable source. "Pessimistic the predictions may be, but right now wind energy is the only renewable show in town. Personally, I prefer a 24 per cent achievement to the alternative, which is zero."	13th December 2006
Shallow fuels bring bad news - Nature Geologists have discovered underwater deposits of hydrates — icy deposits of frozen methane gas — at far shallower depths under the ocean floor than expected. The finding suggests that, in a globally warmed world, the hydrates could melt suddenly and release their gas into the atmosphere, thus warming the planet even more.	13th December 2006
Burning issues - Guardian Unlimited Are the American media exercising caution in their coverage of the global warming story or are they guilty of dodging the issue? "If the public relations specialists of the oil and coal industries are criminals against humanity, the US press has played the role of unwitting accomplice by consistently minimising the story, if not burying it from public view altogether".	13th December 2006
2006 Warmest Year in Netherlands in 300 Years - Planet Ark Netherlands: This year is on track to be the warmest in the Netherlands since temperatures were first measured in 1706, the Dutch meteorological institute KNMI said on Tuesday, linking the record with global warming.	13th December 2006
Climate change catching voter attention around world - Reuters Mainstream parties in Germany, Britain, France, Canada, the United States and Austria believe tackling climate change is a vote winner while established Green parties in Germany and Austria are experiencing a renaissance.	13th December 2006
China Wants to Slow Growth in Carbon Emissions - Planet Ark China wants to slow its growth in carbon emissions, a top energy policy maker said on Tuesday, as the world's number two producer of greenhouse gases threatens to overtake the United States by 2009.	13th December 2006
Green Revolution Sweeping the US Construction Industry - Common Dreams "Good for the environment and good for our business." That's the mantra of the so-called green building movement that's sweeping the nation. Among the adherents are financial institutions such as Citigroup, PNC and Bank of America; automakers such as Toyota, General Motors, Ford and Honda; and such retailers as Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Lowe's, Chipotle and Patagonia.	13th December 2006
Wall Street eyes heart of darkness: global warming - Reuters The topic of the conference was climate change and the rhetoric was sobering, haunted by scientific projections of a roasted world for our children and a looming environmental disaster of Biblical proportions. But this was no talk shop of environmental activists. It was a meeting of Wall Street investors, insurance executives, state treasurers and pension fund managers, who between them manage about $3.7 trillion in assets.	13th December 2006
Pope Calls Energy Alternatives a Source of Peace - New York Times In an annual message for peace, Pope Benedict strongly emphasized a theme rarely taken up in his nearly two years as pope: what he called the “ecology of peace,” the idea that protecting the environment and finding alternative energy sources could reduce conflict.	13th December 2006
Britain set to back major aviation expansion - Reuters Green campaigners said on Tuesday that Britain will back a major expansion of its booming aviation industry in a report this week that they say will do nothing to combat global warming.	13th December 2006
Shopping for a better world? - Houston Chronicle "The idea that you can change the world with what you buy is so appealing, especially here in the US where the government has been willing to give business free reign to externalize the costs of unsustainable practices. Sadly, it at best causes some improvements around the margins, and at worst actually counters its own stated goals."	13th December 2006
Satellites used to track world's water supply - CNET The Congo river has been losing about 21.6 millimeters in depth every year for the past three years, according to two gravity-sensitive satellites that circle Earth	13th December 2006
Britons 'want incentives' to make homes green - EDIE Most British householders would consider making their homes greener if they were given financial incentives to do so, a survey has found.	13th December 2006
Tories deny owing Kyoto money despite UN figures - canoe Canada: Environment Minister Rona Ambrose says Canada has paid all the money it owes in support of the Kyoto Protocol, but that's not what UN figures indicate.	13th December 2006

The Cost of an Overheated Planet - New York Times USA: policy and the pursuit of national security in the cold war. In the late 1950s, American military spending reached as high as 10 percent of the gross domestic product and averaged about 4 percent, far higher than in any previous peacetime era. A Soviet nuclear attack was a danger but hardly a certainty, just as the predicted catastrophes from global warming are threats but not certainties. “The issues are similar in that you pay now so things are less risky in the future — it’s an insurance policy,” said Richard Cooper, a Harvard economist. “And in the cold war, we taxed ourselves fairly highly to mitigate that threat.”	12th December 2006
IPCC author and climate change expert hits "skeptics" hard - DeSmogBlog Canada: In a Calgary Sun column today, noted atmospheric scientist and IPCC author, Dr. Andrew Weaver, slams the so-called climate change "skeptics." "The enduring debate -- such as it is, particularly in Alberta -- over the role humans play in global warming -- is so divorced from scientific literature as to be a discourse from a distant age or orbit," says Weaver.	12th December 2006
Gingerbread houses latest victim of global warming Sweet-toothed Swedes who have spent hours constructing edible Christmas gingerbread houses are seeing their creations collapse in the Scandinavian country's unusually damp winter, suppliers said. "The damp weather spells immediate devastation for gingerbread houses. The problem is the mild winter"	12th December 2006
Experts warn North Pole will be 'ice free' by 2040 - The Times Ice is melting so fast in the Arctic that the North Pole will be in the open sea in 30 years, according to a team of leading climatologists.	12th December 2006
NASA provides new perspectives on the earth's changing ice sheets - EurekAlert It's widely documented that climate change is causing the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to shrink. Air temperatures in many parts of the polar regions have increased and waters that surround parts of the ice sheets have warmed up. What most do not know is that until just six years ago, we had no real way of measuring whether the ice sheets were shrinking or growing, or at what rate.	12th December 2006
Glaciers Adding More To Global Sea Rise Than Ice Sheets, Study Says - PhysOrg.Com Despite growing public alarm over the shrinking Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, it is small glaciers and ice caps that have been contributing the most to rising sea levels in recent years, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study	12th December 2006
NFF hits out at make up of carbon emissions task force - Yahoo News Australia: The National Farmers Federation (NFF) is angry at the make-up of Prime Minister John Howard's new task force to investigate carbon emissions trading. President David Crombie says stacking the group with mining and energy interests has hurt any real attempts to address climate change.	12th December 2006
Forests can raise Earth's temperature - Cosmos The key to using trees to offset global warming is to expand tropical rainforests south of the equator, according to research announced in the U.S. on Monday.	12th December 2006

Tories: Step Up or Give Up - Aubrey Meyer Review of paper entitled "Don’t Give Up on Two Degrees" by UK Conservative MP Nick Hurd published by the Conservative “Quality of Life Group”.	11th December 2006
Blair hails firms for climate change action plan - Guardian Unlimited UK: Chief executives from Tesco, Starbucks, BSkyB and Marks & Spencer were invited to Downing Street today for a climate change summit with Tony Blair - "Climate change, we strongly believe, will be solved only by a combination of policy and government solutions, also by business solutions... but crucially by individual action." [hmm.. if that means 'individual action' to elect a govenment that will instigate govenment & business solutions...otherwise, it's buck passing, and fluorescent lightbulbs just won't cut it...]	11th December 2006
Miliband plans carbon trading 'credit cards' for everyone - Guardian Unlimited UK: Every citizen would be issued with a carbon "credit card" - to be swiped every time they bought petrol, paid an energy utility bill or booked an airline ticket - under a nationwide carbon rationing scheme that could come into operation within five years, according to a feasibility study commissioned by the environment secretary, David Miliband, and published today -See also: 'We nearly threw it away. We must be more radical'	11th December 2006
Birds Bask in Warmest French Autumn Since 1950 - Planet Ark Birds are delaying their annual winter migration to Africa from France because of the unseasonally warm weather (2.9 degrees Celsius (5.2 F) above seasonal norms)	11th December 2006
Labour has sped along the American highway but we would be happier taking Europe's gentler path - Guardian Brown's belief in the US economic model of growth at any price is flawed.	11th December 2006
A threat we're not ready for - The Age "The existence of climate change is no longer in dispute, even if the detail is still ambiguous. But the Government prevaricates as though there's all the time in the world. The problem is the world has almost run out of time. Unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced drastically, and quickly, climate change could be irreversible in as little as a decade. Many consequences will materialise this century, even if strong action is taken soon, because current greenhouse gas levels will take decades to ease."	11th December 2006
Means of distribution - Gristmill Herman Daly was one of the first economists to truly grapple with the consequences of industrial expansion -- eventually coming to see a steady state as the inevitable end-point of human population and economic growth. The limited nature of the earth's resources require that we eventually get to zero population growth and zero growth in industrial output. - "The stationary state would make fewer demands on our environmental resources, but much greater demands on our moral resources."	11th December 2006

Biofuel Skeptic Extraordinaire - Grist Any worthy idea can withstand and even be improved by naysayers; scolds and skeptics play the useful role of pointing out obvious flaws. The biofuels industry has no more persistent, articulate, and scathing critic than David Pimentel, professor emeritus of entomology at Cornell University.	10th December 2006
Six Ways That Changing Your Life Can Prevent Global Warming - AlterNet American society isn't doing much about global warming -- are we waiting for Al Gore? Here are six things we can do to prevent it.	10th December 2006
Business View: Brown knocks airlines off their 'green' course - The Independent UK: Chancellor's tax on travel is an act of sabotage on political colleagues	10th December 2006
Don't crank the heating up, darling - we need the carbon for our holiday - Guardian Unlimited Terry Slavin looks forward to the day when every single one of us will have to do our bit for the planet - by budgeting for our emissions	10th December 2006
Gore in bid to 'freeze' carbon emissions - The Age Former US Vice President Al Gore says he will start a grassroots political movement next month to seek a "freeze" on carbon emissions that scientists say are to blame for global warming.	10th December 2006
Global warming threatens Scotland's last wilderness - Guardian Unlimited Scotland: As snow disappears from the Cairngorms, rare birds and flowers - as well as the skiing industry - are at risk, reports science editor Robin McKie	10th December 2006
Antarctica works as living global warming laboratory - Reuters MCMURDO STATION, Antarctica - For scientists at this ice-encircled outpost, global warming is not a matter of debate. It is a simple fact and crucial research questions center on what its consequences will be.	10th December 2006

Beyond words - Guardian Unlimited UK: As words echo, they can start to ring hollow. It is only weeks since the Stern report on climate change was lauded by the prime minister as "a wake-up call to every country in the world". Gordon Brown, too, agreed with the call for "prompt and strong action". With David Cameron also scrambling to lead the unison choir singing out for something to be done, it appeared, for a moment, as if the political climate might be changing so that the real climate would not have to...	9th December 2006
The times, and the climate, are a-changin' - Toronto Star Thomas Berry - "As we look up at the starry sky at night, and as, in the morning, we see the landscape revealed as the sun dawns over the Earth — these experiences reveal ... a profound world that cannot be bought with money, cannot be manufactured ... cannot be listed on the stock market ... cannot be sent by email." Such experiences, for Berry, speak to our souls, and as we replace these experiences with computer games and virtual realities, as well as polluted landscapes, it diminishes our spirit.	9th December 2006
Risk perception and global warming - Huffington Post "We pride ourselves on being the only species that understands the concept of risk, yet we have a confounding habit of worrying about mere possibilities while ignoring probabilities, building barricades against perceived dangers while leaving ourselves exposed to real ones."	9th December 2006
Bright Green Efficiency - TomPaine.com It's long been axiomatic that energy efficiency is the awkward stepchild of renewables—that is, that it's sexier to install cutting-edge renewable-energy technologies like solar panels than to engage in more prosaic (and less visible) measures to get more value out of each BTU or barrel.	9th December 2006
Olympic skiers play it cool with Suzuki - David Suzuki Foundation Canada: Two of Canada’s leading winter athletes are fighting global warming by joining the David Suzuki Foundation to "play it cool".	9th December 2006
Australia braces for fiery weekend - CNN Australia: With temperatures nearing 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) bushfires threatened dozens of hamlets in Australia's southeast . Authorities closed schools and braced for a horror weekend of soaring temperatures and gusting winds.	9th December 2006
Court Appearance Tuesday for Two Activists Arrested on NOAA Ledge USA: On Tuesday the activists will find out if they will have to spend time in jail or pay a heavy fine for calling attention to the urgent crisis of global warming and the need for truth-telling about it by our government.	9