BBCTue, 07 Nov 2006 12:00 UTC
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.
The poorest countries will be most vulnerable to these effects, it adds.
Deborah Zabarenko
ReutersMon, 06 Nov 2006 12:00 UTC
WASHINGTON - Old toothbrushes, beach toys and used condoms are part of a vast vortex of plastic trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, threatening sea creatures that get tangled in it, eat it or ride on it, a new report says.
Because plastic doesn't break down the way organic material does, ocean currents and tides have carried it thousands of miles (kms) to an area between Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast, according to the study by the international environmental group Greenpeace.
This swirling vortex, which can grow to be about the size of Texas, is not far from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, designated as a protected U.S. national monument in June by President George W. Bush.
CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands - Large species of coral that form underwater reefs and create rich habitat for marine life are disappearing from around the U.S. Virgin Islands, Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean, a leading researcher said Tuesday.
The larger species are being replaced by smaller varieties, which don't grow high enough to protect the fish, lobster and other sea life that rely on the underwater reefs, said Peter Edmunds, a biology professor at California State University, Northridge.
In Ethiopia's arid Afar region eruptions and earthquakes have created an open-air laboratory
The nomads were terrified. For a week the ground had shuddered violently. Cracks opened up in the soil swallowing goats and camels. Sulphur-laced smoke rose out of the dark slits. After retreating to the hills, the nomads saw chunks of obsidian rock burst through the Earth's crust "like huge black birds" and fly 30 metres into the air.A mushroom cloud of ash dimmed the sun for three days. At night the new crater breathed flashes of fire.
"They had experienced earthquakes before but never anything like this," said Atalay Ayele, a seismologist at Addis Ababa University, who interviewed the Afar tribespeople soon after the volcanic eruption 13 months ago in this remote corner of north-eastern Ethiopia. "They said that Allah must have been angry with them."
The world's target for stopping global warming should be based on the point at which the melting of the great Greenland ice sheet becomes irreversible, says the Government's chief scientific adviser, Sir David King.
The loss of Greenland's ice would be a global catastrophe, raising sea levels by more than 20ft, swamping vast regions of low-lying land from East Anglia to Bangladesh.
The international community must limit the atmospheric level of the principal greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (C02), to below the point where the Greenland ice begins to melt in a runaway manner, Sir David said. This figure is not yet precisely known - but much scientific effort is being expended on finding it out.
LONDON - Ignoring climate change could lead to economic upheaval on the scale of the 1930s Depression, underlining the need for urgent action to combat global warming, a British report on the costs of climate change said.
The report by chief British government economist Nicholas Stern, a 27-page summary of which was obtained by Reuters, says the benefits of determined worldwide steps to tackle climate change would greatly outweigh the costs.
UPI
UPIFri, 27 Oct 2006 12:00 UTC
U.S. scientists say species are becoming extinct thousands of times faster than they have historically, and that is posing problems for humanity.
An earthquake swarm - a steady drumbeat of moderate, related seismic events - over hours or days, often can be observed near a volcano such as Mount St. Helens in Washington state or in a geothermal region such as Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. New research led by a University of Washington seismologist shows, however, that such swarms can occur anywhere that is seismically active, not just near volcanoes or geothermal regions.
"In our research we saw swarms everywhere and we could see the broad characteristics of how they behaved," said John Vidale, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences and director of the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network.
Australia's worst drought in recorded history will cut its wheat crop to its lowest level in 12 years and cut economic growth by around 0.7 percent, an official forecast said Friday.
Research from Met Office (UK) scientists shows that an additional quarter of the earth's land surface could be affected by drought by the end of this century.
Comment: It's the "tipping point" alright, but for entirely different reasons than the global warmists are telling you:
Fire and Ice: The Day After Tomorrow