Global Climate Change Archive - Observed Changes

A collection of older (2004) news items related to OBSERVED environmental changes that have been linked to global climate change. All links take you outside of the PRISM site. Use your back button to return.

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• Dec. 30, 2004 - Global Warming: The Heat Is On - Times of India
  Freakish winter weather in the United Arab Emirates, grass growing in Antarctica, and heat waves in Europe seem to be associated with the steady rise in temperatures worldwide.
  
  
• December 7, 2004 - Hunting Climate Change - BBC
  NASA's research has shown there has been a dramatic thinning of some ice regions in Antarctica, especially in the Amundsen Sea.
  
  
• December 6, 2004 - Global Warming Fast Facts - National Geographic
  National Geographic lists facts and provides photos to document warming across the world.
  
  
• November 22, 2004 - Global Warming Blamed for Decline in Krill - IOL
  A big decline in krill population has been found in the Southern Ocean. It appears that the decline of sea ice because of warmer temperatures may be the culprit.
  
  
• Nov. 4, 2004 - Antarctic Sea Ice Retreats, Posing Threat to Krill, Wildlife - Bloomberg
  Loss of sea ice in Antarctica, probably due to rising ocean temperatures, may be what has caused the 80% drop in krill populations in the southwest Atlantic over the past 30 years. Changes in the krill population endanger other species, such as penguins, dependent on them for food.
  
  
• Oct. 20, 2004 - Foreign Fungi Are Invading Scotland - Scotsman News
  Six species of fungi previously seen only further south have moved into Scotland as the winters have become increasingly mild. The arrival of new species, particularly parasitic ones such as some of these mushrooms, may be the beginning of widespread changes to Scotland's delicate ecological balance according to experts.
  
  
• Oct. 19, 2004 - Jumbo Squid Move North - Washington Times
  A jumbo flying squid, which typically has only been seen off Baja California and farther south, has been caught offshore near Sitka, Alaska. Several people have reported seeing others. This is indicative of ocean warming along the west coast. (Similar story from Seattle Times with different photo).
  
  
• Oct. 19, 2004 - Butterflies Fly Higher As Earth Heats Up - Dawn
  Czechoslovakian scientists have recorded a dramatic uphill shift of species in their country. Several species of butterflies have been found migrating to higher and cooler areas of the region's mountains, a change that appears to be due to climate change, not urbanization.
  
  
• Oct. 11, 2004 - Greenhouse Gas Jump Spurs Warming Fears - Swiss Info
  The past two years, CO2 levels have risen faster than usual. The figures were confirmed at several different sites around the world. This trend may be an anomaly but worries many scientists and environmentalists.
  
  
• Oct. 1, 2004 - Siachen Ice Slowly Melting - Asia Times
  The Siachen glacier on the border between Pakistan and India is melting and thus may end a 20 year battle over which country's military controls the glacier.
  
  
• Sept. 21, 2004 - Glaciers Surge When Ice Shelf Breaks Up - Goddard Space Center
  Two recent reports have confirmed that ice shelves do retard the flow of glaciers. A study of glaciers that empty into Weddell Sea, where the Larson B ice shelf broke off in 2002, indicates that these glaciers have speeded up considerably (as much as 8 times faster).
  
  
• Sept. 20, 2004 - Mussels Near North Pole Hint At Warmer Earth - ESPN Outdoors
  Blue mussels have been found growing just 800 miles from the North Pole in the past year. These bivalves typically favor warmer waters.
  
  
• Sept. 13, 2004 - Penguin Decline Due To Global Warming? - National Geographic
  Penguin populations are declining around South Africa's Prince Edward Islands. It has been speculated that it may be in part due to reduced availability of food due to temperature-induced shifts in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). (More about the ACC from the Antarctic Sun.)
  
  
• Sept. 4, 2004 - Climate Change Takes Toll on Figi's Coral - New Zealand Herald
  Fiji's coral reefs have deteriorated significantly over the past twenty years according to a marine biologist who has been studying the reefs since 1980.
  
  
• Sept. 3, 2004 - Global Warming Thaws Arctic, Divides Governments - Yahoo!
  An international panel has established that the Arctic climate is warming rapidly now and even more rapid changes are expected and that human activities are partly responsible for this warming. But there is no agreement among countries which border the Arctic region on how it should be addressed.
  
  
• Sept. 1, 2004 - Global Warming - National Geographic
  The September issue of National Geographic features an article on Global Warming. This website provides multimedia support for that article, including a forum,photographs, activities and information about GeoSigns, EcoSigns, and Time Signs of global Climate Change.
  
  
• August 28, 2004 - Major Temperature Rise Recorded in Arctic - ABC
  The Arctic Ocean has shown a major rise in temperature this year according to scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Science.
  
  
• August 24, 2004 - Unicellular Organisms Contribute More Nitrogen To Oceans Than Reported - Newswise (Georgia Institute of Technology)
  Large, nutrient-poor expanses of the open ocean are getting a substantial nitrogen influx from phytoplankton which chemically alter nitrogen into a form usable for biological productivity according to a new NSF-sponsored study done this summer. This could have, as a side effect, a beneficial impact on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
  
  
• August 23, 2004 - As Some Glaciers Shrink, Others Endure - CNN
  It is not clear whether glacier melt is a worldwide phenomena or not. In some parts of the world, such as the Alps, shrinkage is quite evident, but some in Norway and Alaska seem to be stable or growing.
  
  
• August 18, 2004 - Deteriorating Coral Reefs Adapting To Global Warming... - VOA
  Two recent studies published in Nature have indicated that coral reefs, which were being damaged because warmer water was destroying the protective algae, are now beginning to adapt to the warmer waters, by interacting with a different type of algae.
  
  
• August 16, 2004 - West Is Feeling The Heat - Sacramento Bee
  Lyell Glacier in Yosemite Park is shrinking rapidly and other research indicates changes in vegetation and early snowpack melt across the western United States. Research is intensifying to determine what infrastructure changes will need to be made to counter the effects of global warming.
  
  
• August 6, 2004 - New El Niño May Be Developing In Pacific - USA Today
  Higher sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific may signal the beginning of a new El Niño according to scientists who will be watching the pattern carefully over the next few months.
  
  
• August 2, 2004 - Peru's Snowy Peaks Under Threat - CNN
  Experts warn that glaciers in the Andes are shrinking rapidly and by 2015 all Peruvian glaciers below 18,000 feet may disappear. Impact on agriculture and flooding are predicted to become serious problems if the melting trend continues.
  
  
• August 1, 2004 - Scientists Alarmed At Increase In Melt Rate Of Ice - Scotsman
  Scientists were shocked to learn that the edges of Greenland's ice cap are melting at 10 times the rate seen four years ago. Icebergs are also calving more often from the glaciers there. It is suspected that global warming is the cause of the unprecedented change.
  
  
• July 30, 2004 - Changing With The Climate - Radio Netherlands
  The people in the Netherlands now are seeing the influx of many non-native plants. This has an impact on the native species of plants and animals The reason for the change is a general rise in the average temperature due to global warming and increased urbanization.
  
  
• July 28, 2004 - Maldives: Paradise Soon To Be Lost - BBC
  The group of Asian islands, known as the Maldives, may vanish in this century as sea level appears to be rising up to 0.9 cm a year and most of the islands are 1 meter or less above sea level.
  
  
• July 28, 2004 - Greenland Ice-Melt Speeding Up - BBC
  A scientist with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland reports that the edges of the Greenland ice sheet are melting 10 times more rapidly than had been indicated by previous research.
  
  
• July 19, 2004 - World's Oceans Becoming More Acidic - Science A GoGo
  The increased absorption of carbon dioxide is making the ocean's more acidic, threatening the survival of many marine species, including phytoplankton which are a key organism in much of the marine food web. (See NSF release at Newswise.)
  
  
• July 15, 2004 - Higher Temperatures Hurting Rice Yields - VOA
  Rising nighttime temperatures seem to be causing a decline in rice yields. This has serious implications since much of world's population depends on rice as a food source.
  
  
• July 15, 2004 - Freak Weather Fells Italian Mountains - SwissInfo
  Freak weather, which may be an offshoot of global warming, has caused the erosion and collapse of some of the most famous peaks in the Italian Dolomites.
  
  
• July 14, 2004 - Ocean Found To Absorb Half of All Man-Made Carbon Dioxide - National Geographic
  About half of the carbon dioxide produced since the industrial revolution has been absorbed by the ocean according to two different studies. But this has exacted a cost on marine wildlife.
  
  
• July 12, 2004 - Sunspot Activity Hits 1,000 Year High - NZZ Online
  The sun is burning as brightly as it ever has in the past 1,150 years and this may be compounding the effects of greenhouse gases and be accelerating global warming. This assertion is based on the study of ice gathered from Greenland in 1991.
  
  
• July 6, 2004 - Early Yosemite Snowmelt May Show Climate Change - Detroit News
  This March the snow began to melt in Yosemite, earlier than it has for the past 90 years. Scientists suspect this is another sign that climate change is eroding the Sierra Nevada snowpack.
  
  
• July 5, 2004 - When Sun's Too Strong, Plankton Make Clouds - SpaceDaily
  Plankton, tiny plants at the bottom of the marine food web, may be able to influence the weather, and the long-term climate. New research by NASA confirms the idea that plankton indirectly create clouds that block harmful UV rays, by secreting a chemical compound that reacts with oxygen.
  
  
• July 5, 2004 - Jackets Come Off In The Land of The Rising Sun - Guardian Unlimited
  Japanese executives have agreed to keep the air conditioning off during much of the summer, after it was announced that Japan was not meeting its Kyoto targets.
  
  
• July 2, 2004 - Fast Urbanization Drives Up Temperature In China - China Daily
  Urbanization of Southeast China has caused a temperature increase of 0.05° C per decade on the average according to scientists from School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States.
  
  
• May 31, 2004 - Science Backs Theories Of Global Warming - Olympian
  Climate monitoring stations show that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing and that global temperatures have been rising in consequence. The National Academy of Science, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union all agree that climate change poses a serious threat to the earth and needs to be addressed.
  
  
• May 25, 2004 - Fears Raised Over Fast Arctic Thaw - ABC/Reuters
  The report of an eight-nation study indicates that global warming is hitting the Arctic more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Climate change there is characterized as "dramatic." (Similar story at CBC North. Similar story at Independent.co.uk.
  
  
• May 23, 2004 - Rising Tide Worries Pacific Islanders - Chicago Sun-Times
  Pacific Islanders are seeing their islands slowly being covered with water as sea levels rise. The UN Secretary General says "we may be seeing some of the devastation that lies ahead" if "greenhouse gas" emissions are not controlled globally.
  
  
• May 11, 2004 - Earth Gets Wetter To Fight Global Warming - The Australian
  Climate scientists from Australia believe the earth's climate is self-regulating and cite evidence that the world is getting wetter as it warms, which will enhance carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere.
  
  
• May 5, 2004 - New Interpretation of Satellite Measurements Confirms Global Warming - Newswise (University of Washington)
  A new and more accurate system for analyzing satellite data indicates that the troposphere has been warming faster than the surface for more than two decades.
  
  
• April 30, 2004 - Contrails May Be Culprit In Warming Trend - Science A GoGo
  Clouds formed from aircraft exhausts may be major contributors to the warming trend seen between 1975 and 1999 according to data recently published in the Journal of Climate Research.
  
  
• April 26, 2004 - New Ice Sheet Research Indicates Possible Global Climate Change - Newswise (U of Missouri-Columbia)
  Analysis of satellite data from 1978-2002 indicates that the upper elevations of the Greenland ice sheet are thinning especially in the southeast and that this trend has been going on for several decades.
  
  
• April 26, 2004 - Arctic Ozone Loss More Sensitive... - Science Daily
  NASA scientists have quantified a previously unknown link between Arctic ozone loss and changes in stratospheric temperatures.The sensitivity of ozone to temperature was significantly higher than had been predicted by atmospheric chemistry models.
  
  
• April 8, 2004 - Loggerhead Sea Turtles Nesting Earlier ... - Science Daily
  Sea turtles around Florida are laying their eggs about 10 days earlier than they did 15 years ago, a change attributed to warmer ocean temperatures.
  
  
• Mar. 21, 2004 - Glaciers Advance - STUFF NZ
  Two New Zealand glaciers have shown an advance of several meters during the past season, probably due to higher than average amounts of ice and snow over the past two winters.
  
  
• Mar. 15, 2004 - "White Giant" Glacier Breaks Off - C News
  Giant blocks have fallen from a wall of Argentina's Perito Mereno glacier, a sight not seen for 16 years.
  
  
• Mar. 11, 2004 - Scientists Find More Keys to The North Pacific Ocean's Climate - Science Daily
  Data show that sea surface temperatures and sea level pressure in the North Pacific have undergone unusual changes over the past five years.
  
  
• Mar. 2, 2004 - British Antarctic Survey Ozone - British Antarctic Survey
  Latest ozone data from British Stations in Antarctica. Updated monthly.
  
  
• Feb. 17, 2004 - Carbon Dioxide Emissions At Record High - Helsingin Sanomat
  Statistics Finland reports that carbon dioxide emissions were at an all-time high in Finland last year - a 13% increase, probably due to an increased use of coal.
  
  
• Feb. 14, 2004 - Meltdown - Guardian Unlimited
  Global warming in Alaska appears to be progressing much faster than anyone anticipated. Residents report unusual weather and anomalies in bird migrations and polar bear hibernation patterns. Permafrost melt is causing numerous problems for the state.
  
  
• Feb. 9, 2004 - Scientists Discover Ozone-Destroying Molecule - NASA - JPL
  Analysis of data from a NASA aircraft flying over the Arctic has allowed observation of a molecule (chlorine monoxide dimer) that has been postulated to be important in the destruction of stratospheric ozone. Measurements of this molecule will help scientists better quantify ozone loss in this region.
  
  
• Feb. 8, 2004 - Alaskan Sea Otters' Disappearance A Mystery - Yahoo!
  The number of sea otters dropped drastically between 1992 and 2000 in Alaskan waters. Wildlife officials worry that their reduced numbers will affect other parts of the food chain adversely. The decline may be due to global warming, increased ocean pollution or problems elsewhere in the food chain.
  
  
• Jan. 27, 2004 - Glaciers and Sea Ice Endangered By Rising Temperatures - ENN
  In both 2002 and 2003, the Northern Hemisphere showed record low sea ice cover. A major glacier in Greenland is thinning four times faster than in the past. Similar losses of ice cover are being reported around the world.
  
  
• Jan. 15, 2004 - Global Warming Affecting Salmon - BBC
  The wild salmon season in Scotland was affected by a serious drop-off in the number of fish. Scientists believe this population decline is a result of global warming.
  
  
• Jan. 5, 2004 - Soot and Snow: A Hot Combination - Science a GoGo
  Black soot on snow alters the snow reflectivity according to new NASA climate simulations. Soot deposits, particularly in the Arctic region may be playing an important role in climatic changes recently seen, such as thinning sea ice and melting glaciers and permafrost.