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Eco-news archive: January-February 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 |
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