Monday, October 23, 2006

Bogs may have helped global warming

Blue Glacier on Mount Olympus used to gauge global warming

Was surprise snowstorm caused by global warming?

Climate change to hit Australian wine industry

Friday, October 20, 2006

Global warming study predicts wild ride

WASHINGTON - The world — especially the Western United States, the Mediterranean region and Brazil — will likely suffer more extended droughts, heavy rainfalls and longer heat waves over the next century because of global warming, a new study forecasts.

But the prediction of a future of nasty extreme weather also includes fewer freezes and a longer growing season.

In a preview of a major international multiyear report on climate change that comes out next year, a study out of the National Center for Atmospheric Research details what nine of the world's top computer models predict for the lurching of climate at its most extreme.

"It's going to be a wild ride, especially for specific regions," said study lead author Claudia Tebaldi, a scientist at the federally funded academic research center.

Tebaldi pointed to the Western U.S., Mediterranean nations and Brazil as "hot spots" that will get extremes at their worst, according to the computer models.

Scientists: Ozone hole size sets record

AP Photo: This image provided by NASA was compiled by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA's Aura...

WASHINGTON - This year's Antarctic ozone hole is the biggest ever, government scientists said Thursday. The so-called hole is a region where there is severe depletion of the layer of ozone — a form of oxygen — in the upper atmosphere that protects life on Earth by blocking the sun's ultraviolet rays.

Scientists say human-produced gases such as bromine and chlorine damage the layer, causing the hole. That's why many compounds such as spray-can propellants have been banned in recent years.

"From Sept. 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles," said Paul Newman, atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. That's larger than the area of North America.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Antarctic ice collapse tied to greenhouse gases

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Warming, melting Arctic forces native Alaskan village to move

SHISHMAREF, United States (AFP) - The Inupiaq of Shishmaref have lived in this island village for generations, but with the waters rising all around and ever fierce storms blasting the settlement, they are being forced to move far away from the seas they have always depended upon.

The Alaskan village's plight is a stark example of the dramatic effects of global warming as it challenges an entire community's way of life.

Winds sweep across the island from the broad, endless waters of the Chukchi sea, north of the Bering Strait and just 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Russia.

Battering waves have destroyed boats, fish reserves and storage buildings once well away from the water's threat, said an official overseeing the village's move. A house collapsed and about 20 households had to move away from the shore.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Alaskan storm cracks iceberg in Antarctica: study