One million in China face water shortage

BEIJING (AFP) - A severe drought in southwestern China is threatening the water supplies of one million people and crippling navigation on the depleted Yangtze River, state media reported on Monday.

Exotic animals seen where Antarctic ice used to be

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Spindly orange sea stars, fan-finned ice fish and herds of roving sea cucumbers are among the exotic creatures spied off the Antarctic coast in an area formerly covered by ice, scientists reported on Sunday.

Powerful cyclone hits flood-ravaged Mozambique

MAPUTO, Feb 22 (Reuters) - A powerful tropical cyclone with winds of up to 230 km per hour (144 mph) surged ashore in southern Mozambique on Thursday, ripping through buildings, knocking over power pylons and raising fears of new flooding.
Cyclone Favio, the strongest to hit the southern African country, was then heading towards the Zambezi River valley where it was likely to worsen floods that have already killed some 40 people and driven 120,000 from their homes.

Rare loon deaths in New Hampshire faze scientists

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Scientists are struggling to explain the rare death of 17 loons in New Hampshire, saying warm weather may have confused the threatened species of bird which typically heads to the ocean for winter.

Hot and snowy extremes in China's northeast

BEIJING (AFP) - Tens of millions of people in China's far northeast who were recently experiencing their warmest winter in 40 years are now enduring their heaviest snowfalls in a decade.

Rain storm death toll rises to 40 in India

LUCKNOW, India (AFP) - At least 40 people have died in northern India in a week of unseasonal heavy rains.

Rising sea levels present China with 'unimaginable challenges'

BEIJING (AFP) - Shanghai, Guangzhou and other large coastal cities in China could face "unimaginable challenges" if global warming continues and the oceans keep rising, state media said.

Vanishing glaciers offer clear evidence of climate change: scientists

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Climate change is likely to melt one of Peru's biggest glaciers within five years and is threatening ice packs on some of the world's most famous mountain ranges, scientists said.

Heaviest snow in nearly a century hits northern Indian resort town

SHIMLA, India (AFP) - The popular hill-town resort of Shimla in northern India has been hit by its heaviest snowfall in nearly a century.

Mozambique flood victims need help for months: WFP

MAPUTO (AFP) - Thousands of Mozambicans who have been forced to leave their homes by severe flooding will need food aid for months to come after their crops were destroyed, the World Food Programme has said.

Warmest January ever recorded worldwide in 2007: US scientists

NEW YORK (AFP) - World temperatures in January were the highest ever recorded for that month of the year, US government scientists said.

Tokyo sets snowless record

TOKYO (AFP) - Tokyo has set a record for its longest snowless winter amid growing worldwide concerns about global warming, according to meteorologists.

'Doomsday' vault design unveiled

The final design for a "doomsday" vault that will house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by the Norwegian government.

"We also modelled climate change in a drastic form 200 years into future, which included the melting of ice sheets at the North and South Poles, and Greenland, to make sure that this site was above the resulting water level."

Warming threatens double-trouble in Peru

Andean farmers walk as the Pastoruri glacier is seen in the background in Huaraz, Peru, Nov. 4, 2006. Peru's Andes mountains have lost at least 22 percent of their glacier area since 1970 and the meltdown is speeding up, according to Peru's National Resources Institute and scientists.(AP Photo/Karel Navarro)

Peru's "White Mountain Range" may soon have to change its name.

The ice atop Cordillera Blanca, the largest glacier chain in the tropics, is melting fast because of rising temperatures, and peaks are turning brown. The trend is highlighting fears of global warming and, scientists say, is endangering future water supplies to the arid coast where most Peruvians live.

Floods paralyse Indonesian capital

JAKARTA (AFP) - Floods were blocking roads and railways in Jakarta and thousands of people abandoned their homes in low-lying areas as torrential downpours virtually paralysed the Indonesian capital.

Philippine crops ravaged by surprise freeze

BAGUIO, Philippines (AFP) - A surprise cold snap including severe frosts has ravaged vegetable and flower crops in the tropical northern Philippines.

Seas rising faster than U.N. predicts: study

PARIS (Reuters) - Sea levels are rising faster than predicted amid global warming, a group of scientists said on Thursday in a challenge to the U.N.'s climate panel which is set to issue a report toning down the threat of rising oceans

Cool water surges could affect fish stocks: report

PARIS (Reuters) - Surges of cool waters from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean became stronger off Morocco in the 20th century, apparently because of global warming that could affect fish stocks, a study showed on Thursday.

Australia temperatures to soar in 65 years

SYDNEY, Australia - Average temperatures in Sydney will rise by about 9 degrees during the next 65 years, with devastating consequences including 1,300 more heat-related deaths per year, according to a government study released Wednesday.

Warming linked to stronger hurricanes

PARIS - Global warming has made stronger hurricanes, including those in the Atlantic such as Katrina, an authoritative panel on climate change has concluded for the first time, participants in the deliberations said Thursday.

Global Warming Wakes Groundhogs Earlier

With this year’s warm winter, which some experts pin on global warming, biologists say groundhogs and their hibernating brethren might rise closer and closer to Groundhog Day each year as Earth's climate changes

US thinktank offering cash to dispute UN climate panel: report

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI), which receives funding from oil giant ExxonMobil according to the Guardian, sent letters to scientists in the United States, Britain and elsewhere offering the payments in exchange for articles emphasising the shortcoming of the UN's report.

Warming to worsen droughts, floods, storms this century: UN panel

PARIS (AFP) - UN scientists have delivered their starkest warning yet about global warming, saying fossil fuel pollution would raise temperatures this century, worsen floods, droughts and hurricanes, melt polar sea ice and damage the climate system for a thousand years to come.

Global warming man-made, will continue

PARIS - Scientists from 113 countries issued a landmark report Friday saying they have little doubt global warming is caused by man, and predicting that hotter temperatures and rises in sea level will "continue for centuries" no matter how much humans control their pollution.

Tankers may ship water to parched cities of future

Fleets of supertankers could one day ply the world's oceans laden not with oil but fresh water.

Sounds far-fetched?

In Paris on Friday the world's top climate scientists issued the strongest warning yet that human activity was heating the planet. They forecast temperatures would rise by between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees Celsius this century.

14 dead as storms sweep through Fla

LADY LAKE, Fla. - At least 14 people were killed early Friday as thunderstorms and at least one tornado struck central Florida, flattening homes and a church, causing power outages and lifting a tractor trailer into the air, officials said.