A new report has been published which challenges certain basic assumptions about climate change. The report has been written by an independent lay researcher, and is backed by over 20 signatories from diverse backgrounds. The report presents significant ground-based and space-based data which indicates that ongoing illegal and unacknowledged aerosol spraying from aircraft could be affecting our climate. Copies of the report have been sent to Greenpeace, the Civil Aviation Authority, The Royal Air Force and DEFRA, challenging them to investigate the data themselves.

An independent lay researcher, with a background in Software Engineering, from Derbyshire, UK, has published a new report which documents ongoing illegal aerosol spraying activities which could be affecting our climate, our health or both. This activity can be seen in multiple, repeated instances of persistent aircraft trails across our skies.

Andrew Johnson said that, like most other people, he assumed, for many years, that the trails were just ordinary vapour trails (called 'contrails').

"In 2004, I began to notice that these trails did not behave like contrails at all. Then, on 10th June 2005, I witnessed a grid of aircraft trails right outside my window, just before sunset," Andrew has included copies of 2 photographs of this 'grid' in the report. "I sent the picture to the local paper and they published it. I also had it published on a popular website in the USA and I received quite a number of e-mail responses to the picture. Most of the responses described my picture as being of a grid of 'chemtrails' and quite a few people sent me similar pictures they had taken." Andrew then decided to write an article about this 'grid' picture and what the background to it seemed to be. The article was published, online, in September 2005 on the website of Phenomena Magazine.

A virus in the Great Lakes region of the U.S. threatens 19 species of fish, including muskellunge, walleye and small-mouthed bass, and may harm New York state's $2 billion-a-year sports-fishing economy.

Fears of drought, fires and power cuts

The government stressed yesterday that it is fully prepared to tackle likely water shortages, forest fires, floods and power cuts during what promises to be a "tough summer."

During a meeting with Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, five cabinet ministers outlined the measures they have taken to avert possible problems.

Climate change will be considered a joke in five years time, meteorologist Augie Auer told the annual meeting of Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers in Ashburton this week.

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Marine scientists trying to lure two injured whales out of a river prepared Friday for Plan B: Herding the animals by boat while banging pipes underwater.

Imagine the Sunflower State without its sunflowers. That's one of the dire predictions contained in a new report on global warming released by the National Wildlife Federation, which says the Kansas state flower could move north to other states in a few decades.

Increasingly warm temperatures also could mean the end of the state tree, the eastern cottonwood, according to "The Gardener's Guide to Global Warming."

"Everything being equal, these plants won't thrive and will shift north," said Patty Glick, the report's author and senior global warming specialist for the National Wildlife Federation.

While conditions could change, Glick and other say projected increasing temperatures also could wipe out cool-weather grasses, such as Kentucky bluegrass, and many fescues that cover lawns in the region.

The oceans are losing the capacity to soak up rising man-made carbon emissions, which is increasing the rate of global warming by up to 30 per cent, scientists said yesterday.

Researchers have found that the Southern Ocean is absorbing an ever-decreasing proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The excess carbon, which cannot be absorbed by the oceans, will remain in the atmosphere and accelerate global warming, they said.

The reduced ability to absorb carbon is thought to be a result of high winds acting on ocean currents bringing deeper waters that already contain high levels of carbon to the surface.

The higher winds are themselves believed to have been caused by climate change due to a combination of changes in the ozone layer and carbon emissions.

Like a molten thread of white heat, lightning cuts across the grey skies above midtown Manhattan to find the top of the Empire State Building.

The storm yesterday afternoon was part of the latest blast of bad weather to hit New York.

The murky skies and lightning, seen from across the East River in this dramatic picture, were accompaniedby 72mph winds and a deluge which saw an inch of rain fall in nearby Central Park.

Do you think Seattle is the rainiest city in the United States? Well, think again.

Mobile, Alabama, actually topped a new list of soggiest cities, with more than 5 feet of rainfall annually, according to a study conducted by San Francisco-based WeatherBill, Inc.

The Southeast dominated the most rainy list, while the Pacific Northwest never enters the list until Olympia, Washington pops up at number 24.

The 10 rainiest cities in the U.S. by amount of annual rainfall include:

An artificial lake in El Salvador brimming with sewage and industrial waste is mystifying scientists by attracting thousands of migratory and sea birds.

Built in 1974 to drive El Salvador's biggest hydroelectric project, the 33,360-acre (13,500- hectare) Cerron Grande reservoir collects some 3,800 metric tons of excrement each year from the sewage pipes, as well as factory run-off and traces of heavy metals like chromium and lead, the government estimates.