PARIS - Scientists from around the world gathered Monday in Paris to finalize a long-awaited, authoritative report on climate change, expected to give a grim warning of rising temperatures and sea levels worldwide.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is to unveil its latest assessment of the environmental threat posed by global warming on Friday.
As the panel meets, the planet is the warmest it has been in thousands of years - if not more - and international concern over what to do about it is at an all-time high.
Earth Changes
NEW YORK - One month into one of the mildest winters on record in the Northeast, an arctic blast sent temperatures into the danger zone Friday, and New York gave its police legal authority to remove homeless people from the streets to keep them from freezing to death.
NORTH SHORE -- Another duck die-off hit the waters of Clear Lake this weekend, claiming 1,145 waterfowl as of 4 p.m. Experts are tentatively saying avian cholera is the culprit this time, pending lab confirmation.
Avian cholera affects birds so quickly that they have been known to sometimes literally drop out of the sky or die while swimming, according to the National Wildlife Health Center. Approximately 40 percent of the affected birds die; those who don't become carriers.
Avian cholera affects birds so quickly that they have been known to sometimes literally drop out of the sky or die while swimming, according to the National Wildlife Health Center. Approximately 40 percent of the affected birds die; those who don't become carriers.
In a rare instance of icy-cold January weather, much of the Northeast awoke Tuesday morning to find itself buried under nearly 1.5 inches of snowfall.
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CLIMATE change is real and set to cause dramatic temperature rises in the coming century, according to a leaked draft of a major United Nations report.
The study, by a panel of 2,500 scientists who advise the UN, is the most complete overview of climate-change science and will be published next month by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) after a final review.
The IPCC's reports are regarded by many environmentalists as cautious, because the findings have to be agreed by member states including oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia.
The draft, which was leaked by scientific sources, says it is "very likely" - more than a 90 per cent chance - that human activities, led by burning fossil fuels, are to blame for warming since 1950. The previous report in 2001 said the link was "likely".
It projects temperatures will rise by 2-4.5C (3.6-8.1F) above pre-industrial levels, with a "best estimate" of a 3C (5.4F) rise, assuming carbon-dioxide levels are stabilising at about 45 per cent above current levels. The European Union says any temperature rise above 2C will cause "dangerous" changes.
How many of you have seen the movie "The Day After Tomorrow?" If you haven't, the thesis of the movie is that Global warming causes large areas of the Arctic to melt, so that the northern Atlantic ocean is diluted by large amounts of fresh water which changes the density of the water layers causing a disruption of the Thermohaline current.. This then leads to a rapid and unnatural cooling of the northern hemisphere which triggers a series of anomalies, eventually leading to a massive "global superstorm" system consisting of three gigantic hurricane-like superstorms, which suck up heat and drop the super-cold upper atmospheric air down onto the planet resulting in an "instant Ice age."
When a small pebble drops into a serene pool of water, it causes a ripple in the water in every direction, even disturbing distant still waters. NASA researchers have found a similar process at work in the atmosphere: tiny particles in the air called aerosols can cause a rippling effect on the climate thousands of miles away from their source region.
The researchers found that dust particles from the desert regions in northern Africa can produce climate changes as far away as the northern Pacific Ocean. Large quantities of dust from North Africa are injected into the atmosphere by dust storms and rising air. Airborne dust absorbs sunlight and heats the atmosphere. The heating effect ripples through the atmosphere, affecting surface and air temperatures as the dust travels.
The researchers found that dust particles from the desert regions in northern Africa can produce climate changes as far away as the northern Pacific Ocean. Large quantities of dust from North Africa are injected into the atmosphere by dust storms and rising air. Airborne dust absorbs sunlight and heats the atmosphere. The heating effect ripples through the atmosphere, affecting surface and air temperatures as the dust travels.
It's been a good week for environmentalists. Al Gore is headed for Hollywood's red carpet thanks to an Oscar nomination for "An Inconvenient Truth", a big-screen adaptation of his slide-show lecture on climate change. And even U.S. President George W. Bush, long known as a friend to the oil industry, has been waxing green. In his State of the Union speech yesterday, he urged Americans to cut their gasoline use by 20 percent over the next decade and called for tighter vehicle fuel efficiency standards.
NEW DELHI - A forthcoming U.N. report on climate change will provide the most credible evidence yet of a human link to global warming and hopefully shock the world into taking more action, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said on Thursday.
The IPCC report, due for release on Feb. 2 in Paris, draws on research by 2,500 scientists from more than 130 countries and has taken six years to compile.
The IPCC report, due for release on Feb. 2 in Paris, draws on research by 2,500 scientists from more than 130 countries and has taken six years to compile.
After weeks of rain and unprecedented high temperatures, cold and snow has finally hit back in central Russia, sending bears finally to their winter slumber and endangering other hibernating species like hedgehogs.
"As soon as snow covered the earth, the brown bear that stayed awake all this time returned to his lair and fell asleep," the Moscow zoo's spokesman said Thursday as quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.
"As soon as snow covered the earth, the brown bear that stayed awake all this time returned to his lair and fell asleep," the Moscow zoo's spokesman said Thursday as quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.
