entire Web this site Home > eco-news > eco-news archive: Jan-Feb 2006 Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy and Sustainable Living Eco-news archive: Jan-Feb 2006 Climate scientists issue dire warning (Feb 28, 2006) The Earth's temperature could rise under the impact of global warming to levels far higher than previously predicted, according to the United Nations' team of climate experts. A draft of the next influential Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report will tell politicians that scientists are now unable to place a reliable upper limit on how quickly the atmosphere will warm as carbon dioxide levels increase. Read more. Source: Guardian Earth 'on fast track' to warming (Feb 20, 2006) Greenhouse gases are being released 30 times faster than the rate of emissions that triggered a period of extreme global warming in the Earth's past. That is the conclusion of scientists who presented results at a conference in St Louis, in the US. Emissions that caused a global warming episode 55 million years ago were released over 10,000 years. Read more. Source: BBC Greenland ice swells ocean rise (Feb 17, 2006) Greenland's glaciers are sliding towards the sea much faster than previously believed, scientists have told a conference in St Louis, US. It was thought the entire Greenland ice sheet could melt in about 1,000 years, but the latest evidence suggests that could happen much sooner. It implies that sea levels will rise a great deal faster as well. Read more. Source: BBC Increased CO2 may cause plant life to raise rivers (Feb 16, 2006) Plants around the world are using water much more efficiently, thanks to increased amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The effect is so pronounced, says a new study, that it is massively increasing river flows and raising the risks of flooding. “We think it has added about 2000 cubic kilometres to annual global runoff, which is a pretty big deal,” says Nicola Gedney of the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, UK, who led the study. Read more. Source: New scientist Marine life treasure trove found (Feb 14, 2006) An underwater mountain with some of the richest diversity of marine life in the Caribbean has been found by scientists. During a two-week dive researchers discovered scores more species of fish than previously known in the region and vast beds of "seaweed cities". But the team says the biodiversity hotspot is in danger: oil tankers in the area threaten the fragile reefs. Read more. Source: BBC Pioneers look forward to solar future (Feb 12, 2006) "It feels very good," says Lynn Stevenson. "We like it; it's like we're in control and managing something." I am standing with Lynn and husband Chris in the shed outside their newly-built house in Robertson, New South Wales, 150 km (100 miles) from the hustle and bustle of Sydney. The "something" they are in control of sits on the roof above our heads; a swathe of solar panels, book-ended by two small wind turbines on six- metre (yard) poles. Read more. Source: BBC Seeking a cure for US oil addiction (Feb 9, 2006) The image of the US as a gas-guzzling, energy consuming nation is at odds with a number of green initiatives in the country at large. In the boardrooms of great corporations, among city mayors and state governors, even among evangelical Christians – the most loyal supporters of President George W Bush – climate change and energy conservation are on the agenda. The influential journal Business Week, recently stated: "Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is no longer just 'a green thing'. It makes business and foreign policy sense as well." Read more. Source: BBC Scientists hail discovery of hundreds of new species in remote New Guinea (Feb 7, 2006) An astonishing mist-shrouded "lost world" of previously unknown and rare animals and plants high in the mountain rainforests of New Guinea has been uncovered by an international team of scientists. Among the new species of birds, frogs, butterflies and palms discovered in the expedition through this pristine environment, untouched by man, was the spectacular Berlepsch's six-wired bird of paradise. Read more. Source: Independent New Orleans 'risks extinction' (Feb 3, 2006) In the chaos that followed the worst natural disaster in American history, a forensic investigation has been taking place to find out what went wrong and why. The BBC's Horizon programme has spoken to the scientists who are now confronting the real possibility that New Orleans may be the first of many cities worldwide to face extinction. Read more. Source: BBC Curbing climate change 'unlikely' (Jan 30, 2006) Rising concentrations of greenhouse gases may have more serious impacts than previously believed, a major new scientific report has said. The report, published by the UK government, says there is only a small chance of greenhouse gas emissions being kept below "dangerous" levels. It fears the Greenland ice sheet is likely to melt, leading sea levels to rise by seven metres over 1,000 years. Read more. Source: BBC Sea level rise 'is accelerating' (Jan 27, 2006) Global sea levels could rise by about 30cm during this century if current trends continue, a study warns. Australian researchers found that sea levels rose by 19.5cm between 1870 and 2004, with accelerated rates in the final 50 years of that period. The research, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, used data from tide gauges around the world. The findings fit within predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Read more. Source: BBC 2005 was warmest year on record: NASA (Jan 25, 2006) Last year was the warmest recorded on Earth's surface, and it was unusually hot in the Arctic, U.S. space agency NASA said on Tuesday. All five of the hottest years since modern record-keeping began in the 1890s occurred within the last decade, according to analysis by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In descending order, the years with the highest global average annual temperatures were 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2004, NASA said in a statement. Read more. Source: Reuters Genes record orangutans' decline (Jan 23, 2006) The dramatic collapse of orangutan populations has been linked to human activity, new genetic evidence shows. Researchers report that a population crash occurred during the past 200 years, coinciding with deforestation in the same area. The study focuses on orangutans found in the forests of Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in Malaysia. Read more. Source: BBC Warmer seas will wipe out plankton, source of ocean life (Jan 19, 2006) The microscopic plants that underpin all life in the oceans are likely to be destroyed by global warming, a study has found. Scientists have discovered a way that the vital plankton of the oceans can be starved of nutrients as a result of the seas getting warmer. They believe the findings have catastrophic implications for the entire marine habitat, which ultimately relies on plankton at the base of the food chain. Read more. Source: Independent World's biggest fish 'shrinking' (Jan 19, 2006) Whale sharks spotted off the coast of Australia are getting smaller, researchers have said. In a decade the average size has shrunk from seven metres to five metres. Whale sharks, the world's largest fish, are caught for food in some east Asian countries and Australian researchers suspect this is causing a decline. The fish is listed as "vulnerable", and one of the authors of the new study has described the new finding as "a very worrying sign". Read more. Source: BBC Environment in crisis: 'We are past the point of no return' (Jan 16, 2006) Thirty years ago, the scientist James Lovelock worked out that the Earth possessed a planetary-scale control system which kept the environment fit for life. He called it Gaia, and the theory has become widely accepted. Now, he believes mankind's abuse of the environment is making that mechanism work against us. His astonishing conclusion – that climate change is already insoluble, and life on Earth will never be the same again. Read more. Source: Independent Plants revealed as methane source (Jan 12, 2006) Scientists in Germany have discovered that ordinary plants produce significant amounts of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas which helps trap the sun's energy in the atmosphere. The findings, reported in the journal Nature, have been described as "startling", and may force a rethink of the role played by forests in holding back the pace of global warming. Read more. Source: BBC Booming nations 'threaten Earth' (Jan 12, 2006) Earth lacks the water, energy and agricultural land to allow China and India to attain Western living standards, a US think-tank has warned. The Worldwatch Institute said the booming economies of China and India are "planetary powers that are shaping the global biosphere". Its "State of the World 2006" said the two countries' high economic growth hid a reality of severe pollution. It said the planet's resources could not keep pace with such growth. Read more. Source: BBC Climate change is killing off amphibians (Jan 12, 2006) Global warming has triggered the decline of hundreds of species of frogs and toads by helping a deadly skin infection to spread across the world. Scientists believe they have found the first clear proof that global warming has caused outbreaks of an infectious disease that is wiping out entire populations of amphibians. Read more. Source: Independent Extreme weather in Asia: The Big Freeze (Jan 11, 2006) In the climate-change disaster movie The Day after Tomorrow, a snowstorm in Delhi is one of the freak weather conditions that are depicted as portents of doom. It hasn't got quite that bad in real life yet, but this week there was frost in the Indian capital for the first time in decades. Children ran into the streets in excitement at their first-ever sighting of this midwinter phenomenon. Asia is reeling under the harshest winter for years. Read more. Source: Independent 'Critical danger' warning on fish (Jan 4, 2006) Deep sea fish species in the northern Atlantic are on the brink of extinction, new research suggests. Canadian scientists studied five deep water species including hake and eel. Writing in the journal Nature, they say that some populations have plummeted by 98% in a generation, meeting the definition of 'critically endangered'. Scientists and conservation bodies are pressing for a global moratorium on deep-sea fishing which they regard as particularly destructive. Read more. Source: BBC BACK TO TOP

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